Headed up to Tulsa Oklahoma from Texas this weekend. Two words you don’t want to hear are “rider down.”

Alas, when I went into town to check the internet last week I found that Ralph, known as JumpJet on ADVrider had been killed up in Tulsa when a car turned left across the path of his motorcycle. Although I didn’t know Ralph as well as some, I had worked on his house when I spent the summer in Tulsa a couple years ago, and helped him move when he got divorced. He was a great guy and I am glad to have known him. Since I now have a flexible schedule, there was no reason not to head up to Tulsa and honor Ralph’s memory at the memorial in his hometown outside Tulsa.

Tomski invited me to stay with him in the North Tulsa Oasis A.K.A. his house. Actually it is he and his wife’s house as he got married since I visited him last summer. Here is Tomski and his lovely new wife Stephanie:

I left Texas on Friday afternoon and got to Tulsa in the evening. The next day lots of ADVriders showed up at the memorial:

Afterwords everyone gathered for lunch:

I was about to leave for Texas and got a call. The masterlink let go on Tomski’s bike and he needed me to drive his truck back out to pick him up:

So I’ll be heading back down to Texas tomorrow instead. And I will have a sticker to take down to South America and put on my bike: