How Many Waffles Houses Are There?

Photo by Donna Kennedy

Eddie put on long distance motorcycle rallies.  It was his passion.  But these fun, challenging, sometimes frustrating events can have fatal outcomes.  His worst day in rallying was when he had to announce to the Butt Lite II riders that one of their own had been killed in an accident.  He never got over it and took me to visit Pauline Ralston's grave many years later.

I knew when I took over the reins of TeamStrange that I might have to deal with a similar situation but of course you always hope for the best and stay positive.  Until Saturday afternoon when I got the call that one of our Minnesota 1000 riders had been in a serious accident.

As if that wasn't bad enough, it was someone I considered a friend - Curt Gran.

I believe I first met Curt at Butt Lite IIII in Niobrara.  He famously botched a Waffle House bonus and in the process became a long distance riding legend.  He failed reading comprehension on that rally and was under the impression that he could get points for visiting as many Waffle Houses as possible between Atlanta and Niobrara on the last leg of the rally.  He was wrong.  He proudly presented something like 28 (37?, 68?) (the number got bigger with each telling) receipts at the scoring table only to find that only one of them counted and he had wasted a huge amount of time stopping at every Waffle House he saw.  From that moment on he became "Waffle Boy".

We bonded since I was also a Waffle House bonus of sorts.  That was the rally when "Lurleen" made her debut to the LD world.  Eddie's make believe stalker, who had several children by several baby daddies and worked the overnight shift at the Jimmy Carter Boulevard Waffle House in Norcross, Georgia was the last bonus of the rally.  All the riders had to do was find her (me) and take a picture.  Not as easy as it sounds, sadly, for a few of the riders.

At one of his many Waffle House stops, Curt bought a pin with the famous logo on it.  After his scoring debacle, he gave me the pin.  I still have it.

At the BMW MOA rally in Tennessee in 2009, Curt introduced Eddie & me to his girlfriend, Cindy.

You know when you meet a couple and you can tell that it is the real thing?  Well, that was Curt and Cindy.  No question in my mind that they were very happy and very good for each other.  They got married 8 months ago.

A few hours after the initial phone call, we found out Curt had passed away from his injuries.  I was numb.  All I could think about was Cindy.  I know what is ahead for her and I wouldn't wish that experience on my worst enemy.

I won't pretend to know how she feels.  No one knows how she feels.  This level of grief is the most raw and personal tragedy anyone can experience.  But I do know this...

She needs us.  She needs to know how important Curt was to us.  She needs to know how lucky she was to have loved him.  She needs to know that she will always have friends who understand why Curt was so passionate about this sport.  She needs to know that he will never be forgotten amongst the people who shared his passion for LD riding.

She needs phone calls, emails, cards, letters and visits.

This will help her get through her worst nightmare.

This, I know.

And I know that it makes me smile to think of Curt and Eddie sitting in a Waffle House somewhere telling stories, laughing and eating hash-browns that are scattered, smothered, covered, chunked and whatever else they do to those things.

"Far away is far away only if you don't go."