Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/703695
96 nAugust 2016n www.thunderpress.net THUNDER PRESS Where Am I? e "Where Am I?" game is for all THUNDER PRESS readers, what ever part of the country you hail from. Off ered each month is a set of clues within a riddle, and from those clues your job is to guess where our wandering reporter (and riddlemeister) Susan might be. Lo cations chosen are always in the Western U.S. or Canada. How does it work? e clues can be solved either by personal familiarity with the location, with the aid of a map, or by using the Inter net. When a clue is particularly important, and/or somewhat vague, we o en italicize that trickier portion to make sure your attention is drawn there. Where/when/what do I win? Very important: Do not e-mail your guess until the 8th of the month, so every one in our circulation area has a chance to get a copy of the paper. en on the 8th e-mail Susan at susan@tohonor.org and if you're the fi h correct e-mail you win. (Note: If there's no phone number in your e-mail where I can call you, your e-mail will not arrive fi h. Some law of physics or something…) Winners are profi led and pictured in the following issue. Good luck. Last month's mystery location: Joe Mamma's in Eagle, Idaho WHERE AM I? WINNER MIKE PEER Just a small- town guy The telephone conversation between 47-year-old Mike Peer of North Bend, Washington, began like any other interview. "Tell me about yourself," I suggested. He said he might need some prodding, and I agreed to be that sharp object. We covered a few things, but the fl ow of conversation wasn't particularly brisk. He knew what I hoped to learn: info like his age, where he grew up, motor- cycles he's owned, marital status, etc., and while I did manage to obtain some of those pieces, it felt a bit like bread- crumbs in the forest. So we agreed that he could tell me about himself in any way he'd like. The following few para- graphs, sent to me via e-mail, tell the story better than I ever could. For this, I'm grateful, Mike. When did you begin riding, and what was the conveyance? Like myself, my dad, Dennis, came to motorcycling in his 30s. He and my mother, Bonnie, toured exten- sively on a Honda Goldwing and my dad bought a used Honda CB125 so my mother could pick up the skills she'd need in case she ever have to handle the 'Wing. That would have been around 1984–'85 in North Bend, Washington. My fi rst riding experi- ence was on that bike. My dad let me ride it around a dirt lot and I promptly lowsided in a corner. I rode it to school and around town while attending Mount Si in North Bend. It was pretty gutless but I thought it was cool. I don't remember being licensed at the time. After that, I didn't get on a bike again until my early 30s. I'd been trav- eling almost nonstop for a decade as a member of the National Guard, install- ing communications networks on Air Force bases both stateside and over- seas (Korea, Japan, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, etc.). So often away, I didn't even have an apartment, let alone a motorcycle. So when did you get back in the saddle, and on what? When I fi nally started spending more time stateside, I began think- ing of getting a bike again. The bike I consider my fi rst was a used '96 Honda Magna purchased about 2003. It was quick, plenty of low-end torque and an overall great ride. I wish I hadn't sold it when I bought my fi rst Harley, but there was only room in the trailer for one bike. At the time I was traveling around the western states installing communications equipment in air traffi c control towers for the FAA. I'd be in places like Billings, Montana; Denver, Colorado; or Spokane, Washington, for six months to a year. It was a great opportunity to ride and get to know the country. My fi rst Harley was a retired 2006 police model Road King that I bought in 2007. Then a few years later a police Electra Glide that I only had for a year before I fell in love with a brand new 2010 Street Glide I purchased from, what was then Downtown H-D (called Lawless H-D now). I really made that bike my own, 2-into-1 pipe, cams, and blacked-out chrome. I put almost 60,000 miles on before I made the mistake of test riding the new RUSHMORE Road Glide. I just couldn't get past the difference in han- dling and had to have it. So I bought a 2015 Road Glide from Eastside H-D. I haven't made any changes to the bike, just ride the piss out of it, 25,000 in a year and a half, including a trip to the 75th anniversary of the Black Hills Rally in Sturgis. That was my sixth and possible last time at Sturgis, at least for a while. Just too many people. How do you stable your bike? A shop, garage? And what do you use to get to work when Western Washington skies let loose precip- itation? I do have a large attached garage and I do some of my own mainte- nance. The biggest project I've done was to tear down the Street Glide one winter in order to powdercoat all the chrome fl at black. That was way more work and time than I thought it would be. When the weather's too ugly to ride I commute in a retired 2006 police Crown Victoria (what can I say? I like trying to get a good deal at auctions) or I have an older F250 long bed for hauling stuff. I have to remind myself to drive the truck once in awhile so it doesn't die of neglect. Not to be personal or anything, but how is it that you've never mar- ried? I sometimes blame my wanderlust for never settling down and getting married. But the truth is that I'm a bit of an introvert, not the best at meeting One year from this month folks will gather As they did in 1918 to see A solar eclipse from the observatory And in the total eclipse path (again) it will be The county has the same name as this city After the senator, a Union soldier lost on a Virginia Bluff The Powder fl ows through, joining the Snake thereafter Wallowa'ing in the shadow of the Elkhorn Blue, this place has all the right stuff. See "Where am I?," page 110, column 3