Re: Terry 'ACL' Remembered
My favorite ACL rememberence is three fold:
the friendship he extended
a night sitting and drinking beer
a simple ride near Green Bank Observatory
((a little long))
I met Terry through the Concours Owners Group forum. He sent me an email about his signature and mine.
I had attended the 2006 Concours Owners Group National Rally in South Dakota. While there I was in 2 different accidents, one sort of bad and the other minor. During the Rally there was a Bike Show and one of the additional things being voted on was for the "Hard Luck Award". Due to some stumping by a fellow rider that I had never met before, I ended up with the most votes and was awarded the Hard Luck Award at the banquet. At the time of the banquet, Jim Hill who was the Area Directory for the Northwest, commented that being in the Midwest and around Indian country, that I had earned my name for my actions as "Two Wrecks". I thought it was sort of neat and when I got home I posted a little about my ride and time at the Rally on the Concours Owners Forum and added the name "Two Wrecks" to my signature.
The Friendship He Extended
About 1 week or 2 weeks or maybe a month or so, I started seeing another person post on the Concours site with "Two Wrecks" in his signature. I thought neat, interesting that there was someone else like that. I did not think there was anything wrong or bad about 2 people having similar things in the signature. Somehow or other I ended up with an email from Terry. He was addressing the fact that we both had the similar signature and, as Terry, he was being very nice and gentlemanly saying he did not want to intrude if I was using it. He said he had been using it on the ST Forum and had started using it on the Concours forum. He was very forthright and honest and friendly and accommodating. What struck me as unusual was Terry was contacting me to talk it over and also seemed to be extending a hand in friendship. This was unusual at the time since some of the traffic that had been going on the forum at the time was sort of hostile between members. It really seemed we had both started something at the same time.
The emails Terry and I exchanged were exceedingly friendly, cordial and enjoyable. We covered how we had our accidents, how we were making long trips, how we enjoyed motorcycling. I enjoyed emails about the farming especially due to my past childhood growing up and working on my grandfathers farm in Iowa and the time as a young adult I spent as a farm hand in farms in Virginia. I enjoyed hearing about his mission work and his family. As we emailed back and forth and talked to each other on the phone, Terry sort of joked about us being lost twin brothers. This sort of stuck and we played it up in emails and phone calls to each other and we kept it going.
A Night Sitting and Drinking Beer and a Simple Ride
In 2007 Terry and I had the fortune to meet at the Concours Owners Group Rally in West Virginia. The final evening was very rememberable sitting in the greatroom at the Lodge and talking with Terry, Ron Clark who is from Bermuda and Gary Murph. The next day Terry, Ron and I left going south together. We stopped right near the Green Bank Observatory for lunch. After lunch I gave Terry a chance to be a little nostalgic. Terry had previously owned a Concours. We traded bikes, he road my 99 Concours and I rode his BMW.
I remember calling him one day out of the blue. He was getting ready to leave the hotel and check out. He was away from home doing his work for the mission. Our short call turned into a 2 and half hour call.
Another time I called him he was at the north end of the Blue Ridge Parkway getting ready to head south. He was on his extended motorcycle vacation with the group he rides with. They were all ready to head south. It was a short conversation, especially for Terry. He told me that everyone was mounting up and was sort of waiting on him. I told him 3 times that I should let him go since he said that it looked like everyone else was ready to go but he insisted he wanted to catch up a little each time I said he should go.
There are not many people who leave an impression in someone's life. Terry was one who had for me.
