The Boys of the Torch

Oh man! I was honored by @enchantedspirit to be a Keeper of the Torch. I didn’t keep it long (28 minutes to be exact) but the honor isn’t diminished by the length of time. I was the 94th Keeper in a chain that is so far unbroken. Number 95 was @soyrosa and she has since passed it on to @bafi.

^Source

What is the Torch and what is a Keeper? I’m glad you asked.

@geekgirl started it as an experiment to show the viability of the blockchain and the blockchain users. The idea is simple. Send the ‘torch’ and the steem that is with it along fairly quickly and encourage the person you sent it to to do the same.

So far the fund that travels with the torch is over 500 Steem. It is suggested that you add on at least one Steem to the total. My quick mathematical genius showed that the average ‘gift’ to experiment is over 5 steem per keeper.

Will there be a time when the amount is just too much temptation and somebody runs off with the funds? I guess we’ll just have to wait until the end to find out.

But it reminded me of a thing in my past.

Introducing the Boys

I don’t want to make this into a huge backstory, but the long distance motorcycle riders of North America have a couple of loose knit organizations they belong to. I’m talking about the people that go long, and often.

One of these organizations is the ST owners club. If you go long and often you have probably at least tried a Honda ST at some point. The organization behind this most specialty of bikes grew to include all Sport Tourer riders and a bunch of the distance guys were a big part of it.

Including Terry Hammond. Farmer Hammond (ACL of forum and riding fame) was a born leader of people. He genuinely loved his fellow humans, particularly if they shared his passion of long distance riding. He and I became pretty good friends from 2000 miles apart. He was pretty good friends with a lot of people in the business. Until he died from a heart attack at 54.

My ST on a rare rest stop

His death became the impetus for starting a new tradition in the community. There were 3 that went before him that were very impressive parts of the distance community. Two founders of STOC that started it as a newsletter on the DOD web before public internet was really available. One of those two died in a crash, the other of cancer. All 4 were honored at the national gathering in 2011. They were credentialed attendees.

I don’t know exactly where the idea was born. I know there were beers and a late night memorial, but somebody had the idea to take the boys for a ride. So they took their credentials, bought a hard bound journal book to record the journey and sent them on their way.

I got to carry the boys for a ways in late 2011. I handed them off to a guy that took them to Central America and the Darien Gap. By then the idea had changed some, and the journal was now also for recording thoughts of strangers when you told them the story of the boys and showed their credentials, introducing them.

Both generations of the Honda ST

The boys have now been to every continent save Antarctica. I know that they’ve been in every state and province in North America. The boys still get around. Sadly, there are more now than the original 4.

It’s a unique way to honor our friends. If I don’t live too long I’ll be one of the boys at some point. That is the story that the torch reminded me of, and I had to write it down.

Passing the torch felt like honoring all my friends on the steem blockchain whether I’ve met them or not. I hope I meet you all, but at least I got to ride with you for a time. Thank you for that!

All words in this post are mine. One photo is properly sourced, the rest are from my personal collection

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