Not all motorcycle trips have a happy ending.

Some trips are more memorable than others. Some trips you’d rather forget, and there’s that other category of trips that end before they begin. This is that trip.

My plan was to ride the southern half of the Continental Divide on my new-to-me 2018 KLR 650 that I purchased used early in the pandemic. Because of Covid-19, my travel plans got delayed one year after another until September 2023 when everything lined up for me to be able to finally venture more than three hours past my house with my new 2020 trailer. My buddy Dom joined in on his son’s CRF as well.

DRIVING LOGISTICS

The plan was simple: we were going to install knobby tires on our bikes and trailer them in my cargo trailer from the Ottawa area to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. That town has a pretty catchy name and is in a location that suited my plan. It’s about a 33-hour drive southwest so we would stop overnight in Walmart parking lots en route. I would sleep in my converted cargo trailer and Dom, with the rear seats folded down, would sleep in the wagon part of my station wagon. Dom was eager.

The plan got even better as I found out I would be road racing at Shannonville in an Endurance race all day Friday so, as Shannonville was three hours off our 33-hour drive, I suggested to Dom that he ride his 2009 CRF230 to Shannonville for the end of the race day and we would depart from there. He was game.

WARM WEATHER

We left the Cracker Barrel parking lot in Nashville, TN after our second morning of sleeping on the road. The day was clear and bright with almost no traffic on the I-65 on this Sunday morning. We showered in my converted cargo trailer and were feeling clean and refreshed, eager to get to Barber Motorsports Park for our first interesting stop on “Pat’s Continental Divide Itinerary.”

We were driving along peacefully, doing the speed limit in the driving lane, when we heard and felt a BAM! I checked the sideview mirrors and saw pieces flying off the back of my trailer. I had no idea what had happened as there was absolutely no traffic on the interstate. I signalled and gently slowed down onto the paved shoulder with the 4-way flashers on.

Dom and I got out and couldn’t believe the back of the trailer. It was…