Wednesday, November 1, 2017

CONTENTS



(The Content Titles and Dates are posted below - see above for the referenced "Motorcycle Adventure" publications DOWN AND OUT..., THE GASOLINE TRAMP, MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURER and LOST MAN)
Above image "Looking for the LOST MAN" by Saul Bishop

1        GRAND TOUR, GREAT AROUND THE WORLD MOTORCYCLE RIDE, OR ADVENTURE RALLY? (November 2, 2015)

2        COLOMBIA AND THE RALLY CONTINUES SOUTH TOWARDS ECUADOR (January 7, 2016)

3        ECUADOR TEACHES RALLY RIDERS SOME LESSONS (January 20, 2016)

4        PERU, CHICKEN HEAD SOUP, UNDIES ON THE ROAD (January 25, 2016)

5        CHILE, SAND, HOLY BOOTS AND PHYSICAL WELL BEING (February 3, 2016)

6        PLANNING SECRETS REVEALED, WEIGHT LOSS AND VIAGRA (February 20, 2016)

7        ARGENTINA DENIED ENTRY, AMERICANIZED, BIDET MOUTH, OZZY OSBOURNE DOPPELGANGER IN BUENOS AIRES (February 24, 2016)

8        ADVENTURE MOTORCYCLE RALLY RESEARCH (January 26, 2017)

9        AFRICA – STAGE THREE BEGINS FOR SOFT BUTT TEAM (February 5, 2017)

10    NAMIBIA – THE PHALLIC HUNT TAGGING THE THIRD STAGE (February 7, 2017)

11    BOTSWANA – SOFT BUTTS TRAVERSE “A MAN’S LAND” WITH LYING INTERNET (February 12, 2017)

12     SWAZILAND – FRIENDLY PEOPLE, GETTING RIGHT WITH GOD, FAKE INFORMATION (February 26, 2017)

13    LESOTHO – NOT KANSAS, INTERNET ADDICTION, AFRICAN TEATS, JAMES BONDING (March 14, 2017)

14    SOUTH AFRICA – EARTH’S END, MOTORBIKE SEX, ADVENTURE DOG (April 17, 2017)

15    AFRICA SOFT BUTT MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURE RIDE – MAY, 2017 REFLECTIONS (May 16, 2017)

16    SECRETS OF PLANNING FOR STAGE FOUR – EUROPE, 2017 (May 17, 2017)

17    EUROPE – ADVENTURE TERROR, MOTORCYCLE HISTORY, INFINITE ADVENTURE WOMAN (June 4, 2017)

18    ADVENTURE RIDING BUNNY – JUNE, 2017 REFLECTIONS (June 22, 2017)

19    SECRET PLAN FOR STAGE FIVE – DR. CRAZIER ASIA (July 1, 2017)

20    ASIA THE DR. CRAZIER WAY – ADVENTURE MOTORCYCLE BY TRUCK AND MAIL (July 24, 2017)

21    CHARLEY BOORMAN, OZZY SONG – DR. FRAZIER HUNTS THE LOST MAN: COLOMBIA, MEXICO, USA AND BAD NEWS (October 1, 2017)

22    EPILOGUE - REFLECTIONS AND LESSONS LEARNED

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

EPILOGUE - REFLECTIONS AND LESSONS LEARNED



The recounting of the failures of one man, to cast off his honor and integrity and leave a partial trail of misinformation on three continents, found an interested but small audience for a book to be published to recoup some of the lost costs by the guide and businessmen.  A decision was made to let the previous posts following below reflect that failure and those falsehoods stand here, for free, serving the greater good for educational purposes and future 'RTW adventure motorcycle travelers.

As was concluded, "Applying cost/benefit analysis to honoring your word or handshake agreement and treating integrity as part of the analysis guarantees you will not be a person of integrity. You will have thrown your personal integrity under the bus of life."

Another reflection was, "The stupidity displayed repeatedly by intelligent, educated people, seldom ceases to amaze. Accepting the fact that use of intelligence is not a permanent status, people seem to use their intelligence only a few minutes each day."

One of Dr. G's reflections was: 
"After six motorcycle rides around the world and over a million miles on motorcycles passing through numerous motorcycle and human communities, I've had the opportunity to see the best and the worst of the old and new class systems of societies and concluded that character is most important, not only motorcyclists with character but people with character, and that a man or woman who lacks this moral compass is an empty or lost soul.  Several times I felt like I was not only observing a person lacking a moral compass, but I was seeing a modern day Harry Dunne, hoping I was not being seen as his pal Lloyd Christmas."  
 
However, some clarification about Livermore's actions were suggested:
 
While Livermore claimed he did not want the ‘round the world ride to be about money, in the end several people and businesses were stung by his not meeting agreed upon financial obligations, his falling back on his claim of not having signed contracts, or as one observer from South Africa said, "You Yanks would call it The Weasel or Welsher Behavior." 

Livermore not trying to meet the joint goal agreed upon initially was likened to an ignorant not having listened to the sage advice Yoda gave to Luke Skywalker in THE RETURN OF THE JEDI movie when he pronounced, ..."do or do not, there is no try."
 
An etymology for Richard C. Livermore to Nevermore was thereafter proposed that incorporated some humor: "Dick," short for Richard (or as one follower suggested short for a dick****), middle name "See," being short for C (Charles), and "Nevermore," as in "I want to see him never more," or "I never want to see more of Dick," and then simply morphed from Richard C. Livermore to simply "Nevermore."

One reason Livermore submitted for not meeting his final financial obligations was his having rated of his self-aborted adventure: “the experience as below expectation.” While Livermore never specifically addressed his expectation(s), he did initially task the journey to be designed to be as soft and easy as possible, taking the easiest routes, and that he would be paying for first class airline tickets and upscale accommodations.  It was Livermore who would approve daily routes and driving distances (sometimes only 10-20 miles, all on pavement), destinations (he did not want to try to reach Ushuaia in southern Argentina because some of the route was off-pavement, on gravel roads), and cancelled the proposed Florida-Cuba-South America route because he claimed to be worried about not being able to ship or fly the motorcycles out of Cuba to South America, but this claim had no referenced basis other than his personal trepidation.

Dr. G later wrote in reply to Livermore’s “blustering, obfuscating and lying” excuses not to meet his unpaid REMITTANCE REQUEST:

If he had been looking for the hayride and hoedown at the accommodations he chose, that ‘bunny adventure’ was his fault, not mine.  I repeatedly told him, ‘Todo, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,’ when he expressed his fear of wild animals on our route (we saw none in South Africa other than dogs, a few monkeys and birds), but I could read and smell his fear when he wanted to take easy routes and gated hotels well away from the adventurous routes. If his expectations were to be sitting around the campfire inside the gated and walled Hilton Hotel compound singing Kumbaya, I can easily see how his ‘expectations’ were not met.”

More blustering, obfuscating and lying was Livermore’s claim of “There were a number of incidents such as entry into Argentina where you should have known the requirements or at least researched prior to the trip.” 
 
Entry into Argentina was attempted February 1, 2016, when it was discovered Livermore had not secured the required Reciprocity Fees. In April, 2017, Livermore was trying to support his claim about lack of research and entry requirements.  Dr. G wrote in a CONFIDENTIAL FACT CHECK to Livermore and copied to Dr. G’s attorney:

Dr. G stated:

Let's get this Livermore lie cleared up. 

On March 29, 2015 I sent the following e-mail to the client (Livermore), clearly showing I had done the research and knew the requirements re: Reciprocity Fee and specifically Argentina:

'Since 2012 Argentina has been requiring US Passport holders to pay a
Reciprocity Fee when entering Argentina by land or air.  It is not a visa, it's a fee of $160, good for a (10) year.  It cannot be paid at the border, has to be ordered online, paid with a credit card, and the receipt printed with it's bar code.  The receipt is presented at the Argentine border.  This does not apply to the vehicle, but to the person….


[End of May 29, 2015 e-mail section to client]

“Frankly Richard, upon arrival at the Argentine border I was surprised that with all your digital devices you could not connect with the Internet to make the purchase, that I had assumed you had already done.  Rather than rag your ass about not having done so earlier or the night before, I dealt with the problem by being nice to my Immigration Officer (IO) versus the way you dealt with yours, ending up like a lost man, being told to ‘Go away!’ and ‘Not my problem!’  by your IO until you wimped over to me at my window and my IO accepted you having jumped the line in front of others and your problem with mine, eventually leaving her post to accompany us across the street to use the government Internet access.” 

“The night before (when you dropped your motorcycle in front of your room at the motel and your broke the windscreen), during dinner, I reminded you then for the need for the Reciprocity Fee at the Argentine Border, to which you responded, "Yep."  Maybe it was "Okey dokey." Either way, the "Yep," or "Okey dokey" implied you'd taken care of the payment on your credit card or were going to that evening - the Reciprocity Fee not to be on my credit card or my responsibility.”

“So, clearly, you are not being honest in your claim of April 26, as support for not paying the REMITTANCE REQUEST under our agreement, saying that I had not known the requirements or researched such prior to the trip.  Note that I wrote you in March of 2015, a year in advance, as well as at dinner the night before we arrived at the border."

This was another clear reflection of Livermore's failure to heed professional advice and follow instructions, or "Hwa is thet mei thet hors wettrien the him self nule drinken.’ In Indiana farm boy English talk, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."

After Dr. G was abandoned in Capetown (blog update posted May 17, 2017) he had time to reflect on numerous aspects of the short comings of his riding partner and wannabe adventure motorcyclists in general.  Some of those reflections are alluded to in edited articles published by CITY BIKE Magazine, where Dr. G is The Chief of the World Adventure Affairs Desk.  The published articles can be found at www.citybike.com on the home page under COLUMNS, or in the archived issues at  https://www.citybike.com/category/back-issues/ and include:

SOFT BUTT ADVENTURE RIDE (May, 2017)

NO EXISTENTIAL ADVENTURE RIDER (June, 2017)

ADVENTURE RIDING BUNNY (July, 2017)

XANAX ADVENTURE RIDER (August, 2017)

MR. ADV DUMB AND DR. ADV DUMBER (September, 2017)

ADVENTURE MOJO ECLIPSE (October, 2017)

PROVOCATE ME! (November, 2017)

LOCO ADVENTURES IN SPANISH (December, 2017)

STARBUCKS ADVENTURE ESSENTIALS (May, 2018)

SKUNK ASS BREATH (July, 2018)

The conclusion of considerable thought was there was little economic recovery by the publishing of a book that focused on the failures of a motorcycle owner to become something he was not nor could he achieve.  As one publisher said after being presented with the proposed content and thread, "We can't sell this!" which was interpreted and opined to writer/author Dr. G as, 'No one wants to pay money to read about some hopeless yokel loser who was far from having the qualities of a Phileas Fogg or Carl Stearns Clancy.  Look at the other books out there.  The good ones are about winners.'  But that was only an opinion.

Dr. G agreed with the advisors and others stung by a customer reneging on promises and payments, set aside plans to massage this blog into a book, preferring to leave it here and free.

A reflection was, "For a motorcyclist of honor, 'honor is everything. What is left when his honor is lost?' Who said that, Richard M. Nixon? No, it was Publilius Syrus, a Roman of very noble standing."
 
Another reflection was, "I was, however, impressed with what, in my opinion, was the degree of naivete, expressed by his belief that his foreign status as an American tourist might solve some problems.  This high degree of naivete was compounded by his lack of application of common sense in the niche of adventuring by motorcycles, but that's again just my opinion."

However, a much larger and more in depth project presented itself as the result of consultations and analysis of successful adventurists, men and women, leading to a film script and published adaptation, a novel titled THE LOST MAN, first published in 2017, with a second book to be released in 2020 for general consumption titled LOST MAN.

Dr. G's KLR650, pictured above, pursuing the "Why?" of the desolation roads feared by a LOST MAN 

UPDATE 2020

NEVERMORE...FOREVERMORE

(Except below from 2019 "BIG DOGS - The Party Over or Forevermore? Rally" article published in January/February 2020 issue of the BMW RIDERS ASSOCIATION On The Level magazine)

"The decision was made to cap the number of accepted applicants, expel and reject those had soiled themselves in the past, and put honor among men as a priority for participants.  Like  a fraternity, only like-minded men of quality were invited. Thus, an expelled Livermore became a Nevermore which eventually morphed into the fraternal shout of 'Big Dog Adventure Forevermore.'"

 

Initially submitted in 2017, and updated/edited in 2018, 2019 and 2020 by Saul Bishop 
 

Sunday, October 1, 2017

CHARLEY BOORMAN, OZZY SONG – DR. FRAZIER HUNTS THE LOST MAN: COLOMBIA, MEXICO, USA AND BAD NEWS



Dr. G had been a hard-to-hit-moving-target for an interview since he landed in Los Angeles.  This photo finally captured him arriving at his home base after having logged another 3,000 miles in the USA since July 2, the official End of his sixth motorcycle ride around the world. 


Retracing Dr. G’s adventures over the last 3,000 miles found him taking time out to research some seemingly esoteric items like how bill collectors from Colombia deal with con men and debtors (“We have someone give them a visit!”) and trying to locate a long missing BMW R100 GS in Mexico.


A three day stop at the 27th running of the big dogs, known as The Big Dog Adventure Ride www.horizonsunlimited.com/bigdog  found Dr. G off loading his travel gear and joining the event.  The fraternity of like-minded adventure aficionados shared high Colorado Rocky Mountain motorcycling, monster two-inch thick T-bone steaks and seminars from the road around the globe.  Dr. G gave a rolling symposium titled THE LOST MAN: MOTORCYCLE TRAVELING THE GLOBE WITH A 21st CENTURY UGLY AMERICAN, with solicitations from the audience for contributions towards an eventual novel and screen play collection of ugly American character tales.



Reflections and an in depth roadside analysis of the psychological make-up were made by two of the Big Dog entrants who spent time during their three days of high mountain adventure when stopped at Colorado’s LOST MAN Trailhead pictured above.
  
During the Big Dog Adventure Ride one entrant managed to allow his BMW F800 GS motorcycle fall on his leg causing a compound fracture. While earning  the award of "Best Ride Out Of Back Country With A Broken Tibia" for having righted his fallen F800 GS and piloted it off the gnarly mountain trail, he maintained his adventurous spirit.  However, he did lament about not being able to ride to Wyoming some days later and be inside the 100% solar eclipse zone.


His lament piqued Dr. G’s adventurous spirit, especially when told that if a motorcyclist had lost or drained his adventurous mojo he could re-charge his mojo batteries by standing naked (except for motorcycle boots) in the 100% zone for the 2-3 minute exposure.



Steve, known as Big Dog Banker Busted Leg, further encouraged Dr. G to do the mojo-eclipse-rejuvenation by saying something like, “Dr. G, you’ve raced motorcycles up Pikes Peak, survived riding a BMW and Honda to the annual Harley-Davidson gathering at Sturgis, ridden six times around the world, attended two Burning Man events and even stepped in the Ganges River water at Kubella.  You really shouldn’t pass viewing the solar eclipse with the other 200,000,000, especially since you’re in need to a major mojo recharge.”




Captured in the above photograph was Dr. G in Wyoming, just minutes before he went au natural except for his motorcycle boots during the eclipse of the sun in the 100% zone. A recounting of his mojo-rejuvenation can be found in the September issue of CITY BIKE magazine www.citybike.com  under “Back Issues,” titled Adventure Mojo Eclipse.  For the squeamish, they might want to avert their eyes when looking at the sketch, it’s another of X rated Dr. G.

Having previously been recognized in Argentina as Ozzy Osbourne’s doppelganger (see February 24, 2016 post at http://rtwmotorcycleadventurerally.blogspot.com/2016/02/) and later in Thailand, where he was dubbed “Ozzy Song,” song being the Thai word for two or the # 2, Dr. G wanted to avoid facial recognition programs and paparazzi on some of his last miles.


Dr. G was photogenic enough to allow this photo to be taken in Thailand. He said, “I don’t think I have any resemblance to Ozzy Osborne.  OK, George Clooney, maybe.”
  
Dr. G went deeper undercover, changing motorcycles, riding helmets and even luggage on his motorcycle. 

The above photo was Dr. G in deep cover, so deep that CITY BIKE magazine offered a free T-Shirt contest in their July 2017 edition to the first reader correctly identifying the rider wearing the CITY BIKE T-Shirt and displaying a recent issue of CITY BIKE above the fake baby tiger and wearing a mask.  Dr. G was correctly identified in the next issue.  However, that was not the end of the story.  Another reader later submitted their guess as the mystery rider being Charley Boorman.

When Dr. G was told he had been mistaken for “that dashing English adventurer, of long ways down, round and back,” his only comment was, “Clooney, I was going for the George Clooney look.”
 

Dr. G finally responded to the question of what he had learned before, during and after the completion of his sixth motorcycle ride around the world.  He said much of those teachings or awaking may be in a new publication (promised is an excerpt from one new book about how a Spanish speaking hotel housekeeper caught an American guest engaged in, as the French would say, a ‘manage a moi’ after the guest forgot to close and lock his hotel room door with a Do Not Disturb sign hanging on the outside handle) so the publisher did not want him giving the road tales and advanced reflections away for free in the interview for this post. However, he added, “a few may not make it to print, call them unpublished teachings, tips, or Motorcycle Travel Epiphanies, such as:”



“There’s truth to the adage that you can take the boy, or man, off the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the boy, or man.”

"A hick wearing a first class motorcycle riding suit is still a hick."

"Money can not buy integrity, strength or class." 

"Having money can make one an elitist, let them do their pretentious male swagger, trying to look and act cool, but they can still be a coward."



“When a motorcycle traveler loses his or her moral center, there is a real need for serious psychological counseling. Forget that old saying about never seeing a motorcycle parked outside the offices of a psychiatrist.”



“A man or woman's word or a handshake deal should be their bond and reflect their honor.  Once they throw away that honor under a bus for a few dollars they can be said to not be worth the skin in which they live.”

"Don't make the mistake of getting too close to people who I thought were friends, they can betray me and my trust, I can get burned." 

"Our relationship had taught me a terrible thing about human nature - that to trust an other was as if I'd surrendered my own will, hoping or believing that the other would keep my safety and best interests at heart as I did his."

On racism: “A jingoistic and xenophobic racist should stay in his/her home country and state.” 

And on racists: “A person of color is born that way, can’t change. A racist learns to be that way, can change, but rarely does.”
 

“I still do not take myself so seriously I cannot laugh, even if it is when looking in a mirror when shaving.  Keep the humor coming, it’s what keeps my blood flowing.”


"In a sense, negative experiences have darkened my world and caused the loss of trust in people who likely don’t deserve it.”

"I've learned to understand fear and how it can override pride.  I would rather regret adventures I did than the adventures that I feared to do."  

"Failure and risk avoidance are bitter pills to swallow, although some persons of weakness prefer the bitter taste to the loss of their pride, characteristics I especially came to dislike in a person who professed strength."

"Being a loser or failure can be attributed to one's hubris."  

"There appears to be another truth to the theory that owning or collecting motorcycles can be traced directly to some sufferers of the Napoleon Syndrome, also known as the Short Man Syndrome and Short Penis Complex.”

"A man who disguises his true nature can end up disguising it from himself.  Then it's time for him to get back on the couch and drugs after a re-visit to his psychiatrist."


"When you discover during a lengthy road trip that your riding pal is pretty far down the rabbit hole of paranoia and psychosis and been seeing a psychiatrist, you might want to download some of Carl Jung's theories to rethink how to adjust to some out-of-the-box, WTFOT quirks possible on the journey.
 

Next for Dr. G after successfully competing in The Great Around The World Motorcycle Adventure Rally?  “A couple of new books, two film projects, numerous magazine feeds and a podcast or two. And, as always, some more two wheel adventures somewhere on the planet, maybe bending to demands by other participants to keep soldiering on, to not wuss out as in to not do so never more. I’m also looking at global journalism issues like the one described below.  Good journalists do not want to let dirty secrets to continue to go on being dirty secrets. I can almost hear the sound of foot falls behind writers and journalists like myself who expose some of the sad truths about bad people and events in our world today:"

BAD NEWS wins First Moore Prize for Non-Fiction – NEWS RELEASE

The Christopher G. Moore Foundation is pleased to announce that BAD NEWS by Anjan Sundaram is the winner of inaugural Moore Prize 2017, an award that recognizes works of non-fiction that advance our understanding of human rights issues. The author will receive an award certificate along with a £1,000 cash prize.

BAD NEWS exposes the dangers that journalists face in trying to report news in a dictatorship. The book shows how a climate of fear can gradually permeate everyone’s lives, destroying any attempts to tell the truth. Setting up a class to encourage local journalists, Sundaram describes how all his students end up being either giving in and writing pro-government propaganda or refusing and ending up in prison. The author ventured outside safety of the capital, at great risk to himself, to discover scenes of devastation, huts with their roofs removed because they were considered primitive, sick children and old people untreated for malaria.

At a time when governments are attacking freedom of expression and investigative journalism, we are witnessing a retreat in human rights exposure and funding. Our hope is that books like BAD NEWS will encourage others to keep the light of truth shined on the dark corners where those in power operate with impunity.

We hope that you agree that such works of literature deserve wider recognition and discussion. Publicizing the prize will bring these books into the human rights conversation. For more information about the prize, please visit our website: www.cgmoorefoundation.com/prize