2:45 pm October 9th.  Williams, Arizona. 

I am in the parking lot of the Canyon Country Inn holding a brake knob in one hand and supporting my scooter against 30 mile per hour winds with the other. I was able to get the bike secured and began struggling with the remaining formed sheet metal in an attempt to release the brake.  As if to mock me, it only got tighter.

Having exhausted the fight, my flee instinct took over and I went to my room to try to find help.  After multiple search attempts (seriously Shayne, we are going to fix your Google maps meta data) I found Grand Canyon Motorsports.  I called and the phone was answered by Shayne Newbold.  It was less than ten minutes before he pulled into the parking lot.

What followed was the most astounding three hours of my journey.  Shayne spent about 30 minutes, most of it on his back, trying to fix the problem.   Ultimately, he resorted to releasing the cable at the wheel and told me to follow him back to his shop.  There, for the next hour and a half, Shayne, his best friend Dan Coman and their friend Wayne Jordan demonstrated some of the best engineering and problem solving that I have seen in years.

Wayne, Dan, and Shayne

Some background.  Shayne and Dan have been lifelong friends.  They have worked and built businesses together.  They are neighbors and live off the grid.  Together they designed and built their homes from scratch and engineered their power systems.  Wayne is the Operations Manager at the Elk Ridge Ski resort.  His background in mechanics is astounding.  They are, in every sense, self-reliant and resourceful in a way you rarely see.  These three extraordinary mechanics not only fixed my scooter, but left me with a more robust solution than Honda’s.

Through it all, we talked, laughed and shared our stories.  I got to see the softness in Shayne’s eyes whenever he spoke about his wife of 19 years, Rose.  How these three men worked together in a way that most of us only aspire to.  And here, I made three friends.

Politically, we could not be further apart.  But as you are about to hear, many of our hopes could not be more alike.

(Shayne is the first to speak)

Williams Angels

Finally, let me add that Shayne and his team refused any payment for the work that they did for me.

Hi Folks,
Julie is alive and well in Williams, AZ but is fighting technological problems with her laptop. She’ll be writing again soon, but wanted folks to know she’s OK.

Self discovery is a funny thing.  What starts out as a small observation, upon reflection, revels larger patterns.  It turns out that we are a pretty predictable lot.  I’ll try to explain.

My motorcycle riding friends warned me about this leg of my journey.  Long, straight runs that go on forever.  For most riders, there can be no worse fate that facing a day of curveless roads and flat terrain. 

Not for me.  I had the most amazing ride of my trip so far.  Yes, it was flat and straight.  But I was blessed with a ride free from traffic and wind through a landscape that came alive in orange hues and craggy geometries.  That feeling of being so small and still part of something so big.  Perfection.

It turns out that this was not a isolated reaction.  I have a history of getting lost in the frictionless straight lines of my pursuits.  When it came to years of windsurfing, I never felt drawn to the wave jumping gymnastic maneuvers of my peers.  Nope.  The rush of pulling back on the sail and flying across water was all I needed.  Later, it appeared again in my love of kayaking.  Short river kayaks and the challenges of maneuvering through turbulent river runs left me flat.  But put me in my 17″ ocean kayak with a long stretch of open water ahead, and it is as good as church for me.

But I digress.  This straight road led me to Needles, California.  It was here, in a restaurant parking lot that I met Michele Alvarado and Anita Holmes.

Anita is a Native American from the Fort Mohave tribe.  Michele is a descendant of the same tribe and both women work for the Fort Mohave Police Department.  They are active in their community and have raised 8 children, 7 grandchildren and one great grandson between them.  What follows is a remarkable example of the heroic struggles happening across our country and the even more remarkable people who are willing to share their story.

[Click the play button below to hear the audio]

Anita Holmes

For the record, I left this interview without ever asking who Michele and Anita were going to vote for.