Ode to a road crony and the three principles of partnership
Late on a sunny afternoon in September 1977, I picked up Mount Allison University crony Ken Langley at his apartment in Ottawa in my 1972 BMW 2002. I had criss- crossed the country a few times in the well- worn road machine and felt it would go forever. The iconic, gunmetal grey German touring car had a discrete sticker on the rear window that read “another BMW Whispering Bomb.”
Ken had a week off from his job as an executive assistant for a member of parliament, and Capt. Sowerby had taken leave from a job as a vehicular test and evaluation officer for the Canadian Armed Forces.
We were both excited about the impending overnight road trip back home to Nova Scotia, where we would visit family, party with old friends and perhaps even run into an old flame or two. Ken and I were both single, had challenging jobs and loved the road. But as the sun sank into the Ottawa River, the last thing I expected from the all- nighter was the twist of fate that would direct my life into a 33- year journey of proportions I could never have imagined.
Was it the open road, the hum of the “Whispering Bomb,” John Belushi’s recent hit movie Animal House or Jerry Jeff Walker cranked on the eighttrack stereo at three in the morning? Who knows, but rolling into Halifax the next afternoon, Ken Langley and I were deep into the concept of the ultimate road trip … to drive around the world faster than anyone had ever driven before.
We would have to quit our lofty well- paying jobs, set up a company to raise corporate sponsorship, then maintain faith in our abilities to take on a task that would hopefully earn us an entry for fastest land circumnavigation of the world in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Over the next three years, we managed to convince Volvo Canada to provide a 1980 245DL wagon we nicknamed Red Cloud, along with $ 50,000 and worldwide service support. This, in turn, opened the doors for additional funding from Shell Canada, Canadian Tire, Champion Spark Plugs, Motorola Communications, the Toronto Sun newspaper and the Bulova Watch Company.
The eventual success of that 74- day trip through 18 countries and five continents thrilled our sponsors and calmed the nerves of our friends and relatives. Everyone we knew shared the jubilation, except the bankers holding loans for the $ 110,000 shortfall on our $ 400,000- drive onto the front cover of the Guinness book. That record, under the onedriver rule in place at the time, has never been broken. Pip! Pip!
The “boys from the Maritimes” were left with three choices. Go bankrupt, get a job and pay off the debt over the next 20 years, or develop another event that might furnish the financial ability to pacify the jittery bankers.
We opted for adventure — surprise, surprise — and in 1984 went on to set a new speed record for the fastest drive from Cape Agulhas, South Africa to the northern tip of Europe at North Cape, Norway. Ken and I returned home to a hero’s welcome with nine bullet holes in our diesel- powered GMC Suburban truck from an ambush in Kenya, tales of a daring transit through the Iran- Iraq War, and advertising contracts with enough clout to wipe out our lingering debt. No sweat!
In 1985, Ken went back to law and I was left at a crossroads. Get a real job or take on the last of the three internationally recognized long- distance driving records, the Pan American Challenge. The lure of the challenge outweighed risk and responsibility, and in 1987 Montana writer Tim Cahill and I managed to halve the existing record for the drive from the bottom to the top of the Americas. Our ride? The first production 1988 diesel- powered GMC 3500 extended- cab Sierra pickup truck I still drive from time to time.
At the end of that quest I was firmly entrenched in the world of driving adventures. Although things were not the same without Ken, I have since been on the forefront of conceptualizing and implementing another hundred or so driving events of varying scope and purpose.
Ken and I have not worked together for more than 25 years but have remained best of friends. At this time of year, when summer is waning and the crisp of autumn is in the air, my thoughts often wander to those glory days when two enduring friends were bent on turning their zany, global dream into reality.
Oh yes, we knew how to party, but we knew how and when to focus. When one felt weak, the other was strong. When one was discouraged, the other pulled him up. Life was a laugh but we never wavered from the commitment to one another, to our backers and to those who believed in us.
With the help of countless people and organizations I’ve managed to have my cake and eat it, too. But it was the unwavering friendship of a trusted, loyal road crony that started it all.
Undeniably, the three basic principles with which we resolved to conduct ourselves paved the way to a career that has delighted, challenged and rewarded.
“Do what you say you will do. Nothing is free. And not much is easy.”
Thank you for that, and so much more, Ken Langley.