His favorite stories are about a special
campground near I-80 he found in Iowa, where the owner lets him set up camp next to towering corn stalks. He laughs when he tells the tall tale (believe me, hearing him tell the story once isn't enough) about a filthy pond, surrounded by cattails near Denison, Iowa, where he and a buddy jumped in wearing only their skivvies on one of his unbelievably hot summer rides. Finished with their swim, the boys soon learned that some sludge and filth doesn't easily wash away. What a sight they must have been. Some years back he wrote me about a
place near Ross, North Dakota, where he was totally mesmerized by the sound of hundreds of train cars moving in and out, lulling him to sleep as he lay in his tent. “There would be one train, then a few min- utes later, here would come another from the other direction,” he wrote me. Over the years he's mentioned Ross in a number of our letters. Another of Chuck's favorite camping
places is on US Route 250 near Durbin, West Virginia, just a short ride from the
Virginia border.
“It's a very quiet and
secluded camp, with a wide stream right next to my tent. You hear water babbling over the rocks all night, but in the day the rocks are spaced so that you can walk across and never get wet. Crawdads and minnies scatter when you get close,” he wrote. How cool is that! When the BMW came into Chuck's life,
living seemed to get simpler, his needs more defined. The clutter disappeared. A favorite ride was the ride to a roadside shanty near Naubinway in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, simply to fill his saddlebags with smoked trout and maybe a brew or two to enjoy before the ride home. There was a new peace that surrounded Chuck. Some of
this maturity may have
come from simply catching up with his older brother,, s from the natural process of aging and some no doubt from his MD, learning to live with the limitations of his disability. Years and miles raced by, and there was one goal
some that Chuck wanted to accomplish. Ken's 99,999.
Over the many miles, he'd changed bikes so often this milestone was one that had some- how eluded him. It was something I achieved three times on the 750 that had once been his, watching the odometer turn over.
On this RT he had the right bike. On his
beloved Beemer the miles eased by, the numbers climbing higher and higher – but it was not to be. A faulty odometer required a fix, and with it came a new set of zeroes. The day did come when his bike hit a com- bined six figures, but from it there were no pictures, no visual proof, not that Chuck needed it. What he wanted was the thrill of watching the long row of 9s become 100000.0.
Chuck poses with his pair of BMWs, a 2007 K 1200 LT and a 2004 R 1150 RT. 74 BMW OWNERS NEWS February 2016
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