• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

The "Ear Plug" Guy's Favorite Shade Tree

Lord knows I'm not ten foot tall and bullet proof anymore. And I know we don't live forever.

But by-God the passing of friends is really starting to get too me. I think none more so lately than the passing of The Ear Plug Guy.

I hit the Top of the Rockies rally again this year and really missed "Arizona Al" Schibi's ear plug making setup under his favorite shade tree.

Forever, I looked forward to seeing Al at the Paonia rally, hanging with him all weekend, and helping him run the local convenience store out of Coors Light. (we actually did that 4 years ago with the help of some of his other friends too)

He didn't attend a couple of years ago when he got ill... (ALS), last year's rally got COVID cancelled... and this year, well, he's just gone.

Am I weird? Every time I walked by "his" spot, I kept looking over. I knew he wasn't there, but I looked anyway.

Ugh. I borrowed a laptop, printed off some pictures from the Net, stripped off some Gorilla tape and plastered a makeshift memorial to the fence in front of that shade tree.



I miss that "Yeeha!" yell across the gravel parking lot at the www.bmwsporttouring.com bi-annual Torrey rally. I miss that "Yeeha!" yell across the sea of tents at the Sipapu and Paonia camping rallies. I miss that grin and the annual "Hey buddy, how's Miss Vicki?" questionnaire.



Damn. I was really feeling it this weekend.



Hey buddy, RIP ....



SS
 

Attachments

  • Al 1 (640x480).jpg
    Al 1 (640x480).jpg
    341 KB · Views: 197
  • Al 2 (640x480).jpg
    Al 2 (640x480).jpg
    346.9 KB · Views: 197
+1

I saw that signage at the rally and was glad someone had put it upā€”thanks! Al was always a pleasure to meet up with and to do business with, and I rode Sonora with him one year coming back from the 49er. With the UniGo in tow he was not holding up ANYONE on that pass! šŸ˜Š

Al will be missed personally, but professionally too. The second pair of phones he made for me have lasted for years, but the electronics need replacing soon and I have no idea who else makes earphones using the air tubes that give sick great response. The search begins, I guess.

RIP, Alā€¦

DeVern
 
Good for you in remembering your friend. Besides that, looks in the picture like he rode a K1200rs, one of my favorite BMW's.
 
Also missing were Peter Deets and his wife Marti Porter.

Originally from Virginia (home shop was Morton's), I first met them at the Grand Junction shop (1998, I think); by chance they had pulled in just ahead of me. Marti's older K1200RS had a badly dinged wheel, and I was hoping to get an oil change and a tire. We started chatting in their waiting area, confirmed that we were all headed to Paonia, and our friendship grew from there.

After a few years, Peter decided to move out west, and he signed on as a software engineer for several years at a subsidiary of where I was working. I had several of their bikes in my garage for service and restoration. Then they decided to retire and move to Arizona City.

They vacationed in Europe in 2013; then in 2014, Peter came down with sudden extreme liver (and kidney?) failure, spent a couple of weeks in the hospital, and died shortly thereafter. A few years later, Marti caught what was diagnosed as pneumonia (although it may actually have been one of the very early cases of Covid, before they could recognize and perhaps treat it), and died.

Way back in 1999, BMW published a booklet, cataloging their lineup; Peter and Marti appeared in that:
PD & MjP.JPG
Caption:
"I don't care. Where do you want to go?
Doesn't matter.
OK. Let's go."

R.I.P., my dear friends.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top