Thanks for the nice sentiments guys! It all helps at the moment....
Within the long distance riding community, he was definitely a celebrity and just a all round nice guy who would go out of his way for anyone. Within the Iron Butt rally in which he was participating, he was the only Aussie in the rally that hadn't rode in the USA before, and he was going extremely well on the points system.
He landed in the States about 3 weeks ago, and for a 'warm up' rode from Seaside, Oregon diagonally down to Charleston in South Carolina in 48 hours. He had two days rest, then competed in the real reason he traveled to the US for, the Iron Butt Rally, where riders have to do a minimum of 1000 miles a day for 11 consecutive days while chasing a variety of bonus points. And the rider with post points (not who crosses the finish line first) is the overall winner.
Unfortunately, he was 101 miles from the finish line in Spokane, WA when he hit a deer and passed away the next day after being life flighted to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho before he passed away. I was, as always, looking forward to catching up with everyone at Connections, and will have to put that on hold to a future event, maybe a MF. But for now, work has obviously taken a back seat while I look after my wife, mother in law and their other children. Thanks for the messages and emails though boys!
Jim
