My fascination with long distance riding began certainly with talking with Dale “Warchild” Wilson mostly during the summer of 2004. I had known him some years and thought he had the coolest bikes around with all sort of “gadgets”.

His latest bike was a Yamaha FJR1300 and it reminded me of an updated version of the Kawasaki Concourse, but with a LOT more horsepower and updates.

He convinced me, but I was bummed I couldn’t just go pick one up from the dealer. I’d have to order and wait for one–possibly 6 months later. After about 37 phone calls to dealers in the Pacific Northwest I found one at Westside Motorsports and went up on September 1, 2004 to haul it down in my pickup.

It took me all of about 10 days before I had racked up the first 600 miles and first oil change. On September 11 I did my first Saddle Sore, a Bun Burner Gold the following Spring, an in-state Saddle Sore/Bun Burner, several rallies, and other rides.

Which I guess brings me to the reason I posted this blog entry. I actually bought a matte cutter some months ago for a picture project at home and the bonus was that I could spruce up my growing wall of IBA certifications and use my spiffy new Olympus E-500 DSLR.

Now, I think I need an Iron Butt Rally Certificate….or maybe even a top 10 trophy to add to the collection ;)