Type of Bike: 2005 Gold Wing (currently 185,000 miles)
Will share room and/or hostels.
May continue North after Hyder with a group.
Can't believe ten years already! My Dad is 97 and still rides his bike daily so I guess I need to keep doing this for the next 35 or so years!
As you probably know, I'm profoundly deaf since birth but didn't know sign language until I was 20 so my English and speaking skills are clear enough to get along with other bikers. Four years ago, I took the plunge and had a cochlear implant put in. It is simply amazing!
I guess the only way you can understand this is you were born totally blind and then all of a sudden, you had eye surgery and you can see 20/20. The only problem you have is to figure out what you see is what .. depth perception, texture, hue, intensity, brightness, etc. So, if you are familiar with audiograms, I am a flat liner at 115 dB and now with the CI, I am at 5 dB!!!!
It really is amazing! One day, I was at a stoplight on my bike and a semi truck stopped next to me and the driver called out to me and asked me if this was the road to Palatka, Florida and I UNDERSTOOD HIM without even looking up and reading his lips!!! So, this is a fund raiser for SKIHI and their mission to give parents of deaf babies direction, encouragement, and hope.
Here is a picture of me way back in 2003 when I drove this '02 Silver Wing to the Arctic Circle (that thing made four trips to Alaska, including Key West/Maine/New Brunswick/Arctic Circle/San Diego/Tecate Mexico/back0 -- then on my current ride. and also of my Dad in southern California.
