One door opens, another one closes... R.I.P Judd

Allison and I left on our trip June 15th. We purposely didn't schedule ourselves to be anywhere or have destinations in mind. There were certain people we knew we wanted to stop and see along the way though. We drove straight from Birmingham to Austin, TX our first day to visit Lopez and his lady Madison. They took good care of us, we ate good, rode to arcade's, and swam in some cool rivers. So TX is huge, and we had no intentions to rush anything, so we made it to Marfa, TX, where the camping was all hippy overpriced and the vibe was odd. Instead, we drove 20 miles north and found a camp site more our style in Fort Davis, TX. From here on out, every state almost until home was under fire ban, so know flames at night to entertain us. Ate at a cool general store for breakfast and hit the road, destination Tucson, AZ. We were suggested by a couple different friends to stay at The Congress Hotel. Since this was the 18th (our wedding anniversary) we opted for that and splurged on a room. Hard to paint a picture of this place, but its very period to its construction, which was early 1900's. They keep that vibe with early frame rail beds, no TV's in the room ect. They have a real switchboard downstairs they use for calls. The claim to fame is bad boy bank robber, John Dillinger was captured here, and his face covers the place. Really cool spot to stay if you are in Tucson. From here, we rolled the rest of the way into California, my old good buddy Kal and his lady Hannah opened up their home to us in Eagle Rock just outside downtown L.A. This was truly the cherry on top for us. Having a few options for places to crash, but not sure on where we wanted to be centralized during our time in CA, Kal's place was basically setup with a guest house type situation. Garage, garden, easy access to everything around town. We unloaded the bike and just rode everywhere. Kal took off the entire week / weekend while we were there so we had a nice week and some change in California. Kurpius and Rakel flew in Thursday as well as Doug from SF. We all ended up doing the Born Free weekend obviously and had a great time riding the canyon hills back and forth. Our last day in L.A, Fauser took Allison, myself, Kurpius, and Rakel to ride Angela's Crest. Tight little two lane road that twist and climbs, with tons of pull off's for views of foggy downtown L.A and watermelon size pine cones. This last day is when my bike started to suffer from days of riding, and my rear exhaust kept popping off at the head.. At one point it happened while riding back down the crest so I just killed the bike and coasted in silence until Fauser turned around to come find us. We pulled off to a small gravel median and I proceeded to loosen, adjust, tighten, which had become natural at this point.. So I am on my knees, helmet on, baking in the sun, tightening my hot exhaust pipe when a car stops and said "you guys good? need a hand?" I started to look up above my bike hoping my scowl would shew off the guy who more than likely just wants to talk about how "he used to have one of them". But instead, I like eyes with fucking Jay Leno!.. We had a quick chat, and he speed off up the crest in whatever new convertible sports car he was in. Yup, Jay Leno was the only person to stop and check on us that day, pretty rad. We ended our California experience in Rosemead, CA, where the lovely Mitch Romero had prepared a huge spread of slow cooker pot roast and all of our CA friends gathered to shoot water balloons and eat like kings. We woke up and headed to Costa Mesa to spend some time with Nick Simich, had breakfast, kicked around at his shop, then he tour guided us around to Balboa Island, and some nice beach front so we could see the Ocean before leaving it for good. Chris Mumma and Highschool tagged along, moments earlier he sealed a deal on having his CB750 rebuilt completely since he fried the motor earlier that week. So he will be romping around the country harder than ever on his freshly rebuilt mile muncher. We then pressed on, out through Barsto and through Death Valley into Las Vegas. The heat was insane, the hotel cheap, and the people watching was fucked.. We didn't win it big but we did gamble a little to get the juices flowing. Next morning we had one of the most epic sight seeing days, driving through Zion, through Glen Canyon, and through Monument Valley. If your gonna drive through the desert, that's a good way to do it. We landed in Mexican Hat, which I hold dear to my heart since visiting on a previous super trip with the guys. We camped and woke up to make Denver, CO that day. This drive was brutal, my little V6, hauling a bike and luggage up Vail pass while it was unusually hot that day, my truck was not happy. I was fighting overheating and bad transmission slippage. But.. Eric from FL suggested that route, and as he mentioned, it was freaking gorgeous. Good ole Andy and Dara welcomed us into their home and took good care of us. We ate some killer food, saw some good antique stores, and checked out Andy's place "The High Lonesome" I even got to catch up with Chineasy! Forrest and Brett showed up from Denver and Sam from KC was on his way back so he stopped by as well. We went and visited with Dave at Speed Metal, who coincidentally was just back from Born Free and moving back to Wyoming that weekend. Pretty hectic weekend for him. We had the pleasure of seeing him, Andy, and Casey James play a show that night, which is exactly how i ended my Denver experience last time. It was also our last day in Denver when we were informed our sweet Judd boy back home was not doing to well. The jist of it is, Judd is my best buddy and since January we have been fighting some prostate issues with this poor guy. We have had a good working balance of meds that keep him peeing and pooping and since, he has been the same lively, high spirited boy. We cut our trip short and drove the 1100 miles straight back home to Birmingham to be with him and make sure nothing terrible had happened. This was the most unfortunate way to end such an amazing and much needed vacation, having to make stops to talk to the vet, making huge decisions at truck stops on what needs to be done and do we approve ect... He basically had urine backed up long enough to start seriously affecting his Kidneys, which border line set in juandice... Judd was able to become stable again and his levels and all returned back to normal. Unfortunately, his prostate had become so large that he completely stopped peeing and could barely poop because of the pressure being put on his other parts. Allison and I just wanted him home so bad as we had been away from him for over 3 weeks with our trip and his vet stay that rolled into us returning home. Once he came back, I spent every second of every day since, making sure he got as many rides in the truck, visit to see the boys at the shop, and plenty of love and good food at home. Yesterday, my wife and I made the hardest decision I have ever had to go through with. His condition had become un manageable and was clearly weighing on his moral and physical condition... With eyes swollen from crying a million tears, we said goodbye to our sweet lab. He was goofy, loyal, and so sweet to anyone he got to meet. He was my best friend.. The way things happen in whatever order they decide is always so strange and fascinating to me... Stef was caring and enough to stay the night with him after seeing he had become uninterested in treats or food, and she made a difficult call for us by taking him to the emergency vet until we could come home handle all those decisions. Which, without that expensive trip to the dog doctor, he surely would have gone from kidney failure, suffering, before we even got back. Being in good care that weekend allowed us to have a lot of time with Judd, Jerimiah was able to come take some really nice family photos in case we had to make any big decision, which unfortunately was the case. We love you forever Judd - Mom & Dad