Nick,
I'm terribly sorry for your loss. Mark was a great guy and I have been fortunate to ride, eat, camp and laugh with him many times over the years. There are two stories that stick in my mind the most.
First one was at YooperSTOC when it was still at Danny K's (2011 I think). John Sisk and I were the only two awake and sitting by the fire. It had to be almost 0200 in the morning and things were pretty quiet. Across the red glow of embers left in the fire ring we see this large figure emerging from the darkness. It was Mark walking/stumbling up the hill in our direction. He was walking with his head low to the ground with his seven foot arms outstretched like outriggers. He tripped over one of the logs around the fire pit and his 6'8" frame was heading directly into the bed of coals. John and I immediately jumped up and reached for Mark. Somehow, Mark gathered his composure before he landed in the fire pit. He looked up at us, his hair mussed and smiled with the biggest of smiles and said "what's up guys". He never had a thought about landing in the coals. He had had a little too much to drink and fell asleep in a lawn chair in front of Danny's garage........something like four hours earlier. John and I figured he had eventually made his way to his tent.......guess not. John and I laughed at that story for years. That was also the year that he brought Mr. Happy with him. Let's just say that Mr. Happy felt a little violated by the time he returned home. Anyone that was at that event will remember. That was up there with the two most fun events I've ever attended......and I remember most of it
Second one was at OzarkSTOC in Theodosia, MO. The day that most of us arrived to the event, Tom and Mark had been out riding. Several of us showed up and set up camp while they were out riding. While we were standing around visiting we see Tom and Mark ride up to the campsite. Tom parks his bike and Mark rides up behind. Mark stops, stands up and swings his leg over his ST 1100 and throws it to the ground while waving and shouting to us "hey guys". Of course, we stood there with our mouths wide open not believing what we had just witnessed. Little did we know that Mark had gone wide in a turn earlier in the day when following Tom and his bike was already trashed on one side. We couldn't see that side of the bike when he rode up to the campsite. Instead of parking normally and telling us about his crash Mark decided to do it with style.
Mark had a laugh larger than his Roadcrafter. He was always one of the members that RSVP'd to your event that you were happy to see on the list because you knew you were about to have a great time. I will never forget the time at ArkanSTOC when someone showed Dinkie's photoshopped pic of Keith's baby picture to him. I swear you can still hear his outburst of laughter echoing through those Ozark hills.
Mark, wherever you are, I hope you, Karl, Bruce and Papa are having fun riding on those eternal highways. We've lost too many family members lately. I will lift up a glass in your honor tonight.
Godspeed my friend,
Bug
