1 Year, 2 KLRs, and a whole lot of open road...: February 18th

Managed to grab a few minutes of shut eye here and there; not easy trying to sleep sitting upright with a videogame screen flickering in front of you. Glad we made it through the night despite the lack of proper sleep. I’m proud that neither of us gave in and took the easy road and check into a motel. We stuck to our guns and made it work. I’ve often wondered if Amanda would break and demand that we check into a motel when we encounter situations like these. I’ve also wondered how I would respond if confronted by Amanda’s demand. Do I try to talk her into toughing it out and risk a full-blown argument? Or do I give in to her demands if she breaks? If she breaks…that is the question. Not once had I heard a peep, a whimper, an inkling about giving up when most women, if not all, would cringe at the thought of sleeping in a truck stop of all places just for the sheer joy of whether we could do it or not. Now that’s one tough cookie; not your average run-of-the-mill chick. I’ll never forget how grateful it is to have Amanda by my side and just having a ball of a good time when most couples who go out on an adventure of this magnitude would have ripped each other’s face off by now.

Night is done; day has begun. There was a layer of frost on our bike covers when we took it off.

We arrived at the gym with no trouble thanks to the handy gps which makes finding our way extremely convenient in urban areas. We walked through the front door not sure whether or not they had an open door policy. We were greeted by a receptionist and told her our spiel and that we’re big mma fans. It was during our conversation that something caught my eye on her desk—open classes. I immediately inquired about the pricing and when the next class is going to start. “$20 a class, next one starts in half an hour.” Where do we sign?

Albuquerque, New Mexico. Home of Jackson/Winkeljohn MMA gym and a stable of first class mma fighters.

We were given a tour of the facility and as we entered the training area, we noticed a few familiar faces. “Look! There’s Clay “The Carpenter” Guida! Is that Carlos “The Natural Born Killer” Condit? Yep. Woah! Jon “Bones” Jones!” But where’s our Canadian fighter Georges St. Pierre? Turns out he was in Sydney, Australia promoting UFC 110. Maybe we’ll drop by at his hometown gym in Montreal during the last leg of our journey. The tour concluded with a liability waiver to be signed if I wanted to participate in the class. Oh well, adventure’s all about taking risks right?

Amanda decided not to take part because she wanted to take pictures while I took the class. While I was getting changed, Amanda went out to the bikes to get the camera and ended up striking a conversation with Jon Jones. He told her that he’s never been on a bike before and Amanda’s response was “Hop on the back!” Can you believe that? 6’4” Jon Jones riding pillion on Amanda’s KLR! Priceless. They went out for cheeseburgers while I on the other hand was getting my ass kicked.