THE “Four Corners Club of America” is so modest a club that it abhors fanfare; it is allergic to everything big. You want to be a member of the club, all you need is to write a letter to them expressing your desire.
No frills.
No hollers.
No nothing.
The club is enormously low-key and yet, it is stupendously wealthy in prestige; to be part of it is a badge of hegemonic honor, of perpetual pride and of a lifetime of distinguished dignity.
“To begin, what I may modestly call, your quest for immortality, you need to document your moves every step of the way,” said Louie Sison, the legal luminary who acquired his rare club membership in 2000 together with his brother-in-law, Raul Cepeda.
Louie, 58 then, and Raul, 68, bought a Polaroid camera to be used for a photo of them taken before takeoff. They next gassed up full tank at the local gas station and ate in a restaurant in the same town where the journey would begin.
“You need documentation so that you have to get all the receipts for mailing to the Four Corners Club of America after the journey,” Louie said.
The club is composed of bike buffs that have rounded the US of America onboard their motorcycles.
To accomplish that, Louie and Raul used each a 6-cylinder, 1,500-cc Honda Gold Wings, becoming the first Filipinos—and Asians for that matter—to achieve the now-fabled feat.
It was a four-barreled assault.
One, they started in Blaine, Washington State, which is 1 hour and 10 minutes away from Seattle at 120-100kph by motorcycle. Blaine is the Northwestern most part of the US.
Two, from Blaine, they biked to San Ysidro, California, which is the US-Mexico border, and the Southwestern most part of the US.
Three, from San Ysidro, they trekked to Key West, Florida, which is the Southeastern most part of the US.
And four, from Key West, they ended their voyage in Madawaska, Maine, which is the Northeastern most part of the US.
That’s roughly a total of 7,600 miles, passing through 35 states. Whew!
“Just thinking about how Louie and Raul had devised a plan to do that is already a paramount challenge,” said Freddie Mendoza, from whom I got the sensational news about the duo’s demanding date. “For them to have finally done it, indeed, was awesome.”
What made the freeway odyssey more spectacular was, when Louie and Raul had to stop by New Orleans on their way from California to Florida to pick up someone to make it a threesome halfway through the journey. Who could that be?
Triccie, the equally daring wife of Louie.
“She couldn’t resist the challenge and so, she hopped in and joined the mission,” said Louie, who remembered that watching a de la Hoya fight in New Orleans with Triccie and Raul “was a big, big break from our terribly exhausting nine-day voyage en route to Florida.”
But daunting and risk-filled as it was, Louie and Triccie plodded on, even as one dangerous spill marred their trip.
“We just couldn’t quit,” Louie said. “The word quit is not in my dictionary.”
They drove 12 hours a day, starting at 7 a.m. everyday and ending at 7p.m.—stopping only every 1 hour and 15 minutes for light food and to load up full tank each time.
“We need to do full tank all the time as there are long stretches where there are no gas stations,” Louie said. “We do not eat complete meals as full tummies might induce sleep.”
From Blaine to San Ysidro (some 1,500 miles) was done in two nights and two days at almost 150kph. After the 3,000-mile, nine-day killer journey from San Ysidro to Key West was over, the four-day trip from Florida to Maine was “sort of a breeze.”
Completing the voyage in 16 days, they were way ahead of the maximum 21 days needed to qualify membership to the club.
“We were so ecstatic when it was over that we wanted to bike some more,” Louie said.
So, what they did was to bike home from Madawaska to Seattle. Another torture of sorts as it covered 3,400 more miles. When they added the total distance from Blaine and back, it summed up to more than 11,000 miles.
“And to think that from Manila to San Francisco is only about 10,000 miles,” Louie said. “Oh, God, to survive the elements, we had to endure heat, rain and cold; at times, extreme heat and extreme cold and even high winds and heavy rains in Michigan. Still, when it was over, we wanted to do more.”
Their first words the very minute they got home in Seattle?
“Congrats, buddy,” said each to one another. “We did it!”
There was hugging and high-fiving. Beer afterwards.
Their reward?
“A simple patch from the club top brass with the word, ‘Finisher,’ embroidered on it,” Louie said.
No frills.
Just inner satisfaction. Fulfillment. Immortality.
THAT’S IT Merry Christmas to both the good and the bad. The bad is included because in every bad, there’s a bit of good in it/him/her. Cheers!