Rocking Chair Stories

      Says hello with fists....that was the name my good friend Michael and I gave to the crack head that broke my nose the day after Christmas in 2009.  But this story isn't about that, this story is about the gentleman we met because of my broken nose. 

      Occasionally, an incredibly ridiculous situation like this leads to an amazing situation that you will remember forever.  As I stood there in the parking lot of the Hotel Blue in Albuquerque, New Mexico, nose pouring blood and the flashing lights of the local police fading away into the cold winter night, a white Cadillac Escalade rolls into the parking lot and stops in front of our motorcycles.  Out steps an older, grey haired gentleman full of curiosity as to what we were doing on our bikes on this cold night and why exactly my nose was broken.  We explained to him the situation involving a local junkie who was trying to rob us (with no success I might add), discussed boxing techniques that would have come in handy 20 minutes prior and told him about our plan to ride to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  He found all of this rather unbelievable and decided he should to take us out for food and drinks to hear more.  Happy to have found a friendly face in this crime riddled town, we agreed.  

    It turns out that this gentleman was a traveling salesman and had been staying in this hotel every week for years.  He said he had never heard of anything like this happening around that hotel, so I was happy to have provided a first for him.  From the hotel we meandered our way to a local bar/grill where we immediately started consuming damn near lethal amounts of Jack Daniels (this is back when I still drank), consumed record breaking amounts of burgers and fries and occasionaly swabbed blood that was intermittently dripping from my sniffer.  Sitting around the table we discussed our plans to ride into Mexico, places we were hoping to see and situations we hoped to avoid.  He talked a bit about his experiences with traveling in Mexico, provided constructive advice and even gave us his Spanish/English dictionary.   This gentleman instilled in us that we would have a great trip regardless of what happened, even reminded us that we were currently having a good time despite the fact that we had just gotten jumped and my eyes were quickly turning a real nice shade of black and blue.  The one thing in particular that he said that really stuck with me was this :  "Don't worry about anything, you're out there making rocking chair stories."  

      Rocking chair stories, what a nice way to put it.  I suppose I already new that we were out there doing something we would share with others for a long time to come, but when he said it that way it really hit home.  Though I don't remember his name or the name of the place we ate, I do remember his kind words and wisdom.  He has become one of my rocking chair stories.