Because I Can
The Gray Fox
Out On The Road
And Then There Were Three
When Travel Is Imminent

 

Because I Can (With A Lot Of Help From My Friends)

This trip will be my sixth major cross-country trip in the six years I have been riding motorcycles. I have completed many other minor trips as well. Those who have followed my previous trips know what to expect. For those of you who are new to my web sites, my rules are easy:

• I ride only as far in a day as my comfort and scenic/friendship diversions allow.
• Most days I will cover about 250 miles and end the ride about 3-4 in the PM.
• I try to follow a schedule but am not bound to it...stuff happens.
• I try to write a journal and publish an album of photos every day. Some situations will preclude that effort but I will try to catch up the following day.
• There are no other rules.

My riding partner is Bill Hart. He has ridden with me on two other trips and shares my ideas about cross-country riding. We focus on the ride and not the destination. Sometimes we may not ride due to weather or other reasons. No problem. It is the ride. Not the target.

We enjoy hearing from those who follow our trip and encourage contact. All you need is under the Contact Info link in the Menu above. If you call us when we are riding, you will have to leave a message.

If you are interested in any of the previous trips I've taken, you should go to my main web site. The link is here and in the sidebar to the left of the Home Page. Select the Travel option and the trip you are interested in viewing. Bill has been on two of my other trips.

I am often asked why I go on these trips now and what compelled me to take up motorcycle riding. The answer to the first question is never easy to provide. I have discovered that usually the person asking the question has never ridden a motorcycle or taken a long motorcycle trip. The time worn analogy that 'motorcycling puts you in the movie while all other forms of travel put you in the audience' has a solid element of truth in its basis. There is a warmth that grows through your stiff body on a chilly morning on a motorcycle. It may have been a chore getting out of a warm bed and stretching stiff muscles from the previous day's ride. But 30 minutes 'in the saddle' and the sense of complete peace with yourself and your day has spread warmly throughout your body until there is nothing better in the world than what you are doing right then.

But it is not for everyone. You have to graduate with at least a Bachelor's Degree in Living from the College of Gottawanna. You Gotta Wanna do it or it won't have any value. It's not unlike anything anyone does: without the Gotta Wanna you're better off with a degree in Wanna Notta. Unfortunately, those whose degrees are in Wanna Notta, Some Udder Time, Not For Me, and similar areas of study will have to suffer Mark Twain's quote (see below) without me.

The answer to the second question (why I started so late in life) is much easier to explain. It was the result of a practical joke that turned out becoming a reality of the first degree. Short version: I secretly learned to ride to fulfill a boast to a friend and once I learned - I was 'in the movie'. And there is no turning back if you are truly 'in the movie'. I must admit I was never thinking of riding before the boast and the joke. I had thought of it and envied those who seemed to be free of all responsibility. I thought of it more often during times of stress in my careers. But it never rose in my crowded life to preempt the slew of activities I was involved in then. I'm happy I chose to find this way of life. Each trip I take on two wheels leaves me invigorated and happy even when things go wrong like flat tires (five total so far) and heavy rains (only a few) and cold with snow (on two notable occasions).

The ride even allows me to forget the current demise of this country for a time. It breathes a little hope into an otherwise dreary outlook for the freedoms which are in truth liberties I've known in my life. The ride is an elixer. It is addictive. And it is a path into a world of the youth that is rapidly fleeing my presence.

Come with me and enjoy. I guarantee you the ride will be enjoyable and beautiful.

 

The Gray Fox

Two days ago I saw the pair of Gray Fox who live under our deck in the back of our house. I arose early with the bright sunlight here in Fair Oaks Ranch in the late spring and was going to walk along the driveway to the street where Josephine, our newspaper deliverer, throws the paper. In my sleepy stupor I was lucky to see their silvery gray coats flash and the long black line that runs down their backs onto their tails waving as they moved with absolute silence. They were in the small patch of Saint Augustine grass outside our front porch and they ran to the narrow strip of native grass meadow on my land I have been able to protect from the encroaching development all around us. Once there, they sat and held their pointed ears toward the dawn sky as they investigated me emerging onto my driveway.

I stopped and tried to not worry them. They were so beautiful ... they were free. I suppose that is what struck me so much as I awoke sharply and with such pleasure. We, my wife and I, had seen one or two from time to time but this was a moment of discovery unlike any of the others. It was a special moment. They sat on their haunches with their ears pointed up as though to say 'Tell us what you know and we will share what we know.' All I could think of was to tell them they were far more lucky than I. Still I treasured the moment and we stared at each other until I, the weaker, tired of the wait and moved out to the street. They wandered off in their own manner.

Perhaps it is this love of the freedom and the surprise and the unknown that drives me to try to reach my own meadow in life. Perhaps it is also my fear of the encroacher who, stumbling out of a safe haven, could hurt me in an instant that gives rise to my desire to know what my country once was and should be. Perhaps it is the growing confusion and wonderment of the events surrounding me that causes me to stop and look back at those who could destroy me in a moment.

My foxes (they are really my pets and my symbols) are unaware of the safety I provide. That is good. I see them and they see me and we live in a small world that neither of us control or need to control. I find it rather depressing that there are so many now who think they know how I should think and that their only purpose in life is to make me think as they do.

That is not how I grew to be who I am and it is not how I shall live and it is why I will ride my bike so long as freedom and liberty have at least a little say in my little world.

Long live the fox.

 

Out On The Road

I have taken up an exercise routine first thing every morning and have found that it has a strong effect on my physical feeling and mental sense of life. I watch many of the others in the facility on the treadmill and elliptical and stair stepper machines with their earphones plugged into the small television mounted on the machines. They watch their morning shows, or the news, or some sports show and go about their daily routines much like I do on the ellptical machine and various weight lifting machines. I use earphones while at the facility as well. But where I differ from many of the others is that I listen to my collection of the 1000 best songs of my life while I work out. Since I have finished my routine after about ten songs (35-40 minutes), I go many weeks without hearing the same song twice.

This morning the sun was bright and the air was cool as I rode to the health club on Thunderbike, the cruiser I used on the first two of my cross-country trips. It was a delightful short ride to the local facility and my spirits were high as I mounted the elliptical machine for my twenty minute, 1 1/2 mile walk. I didn't think I could feel any more positive. I was beginning to feel the refreshing sense of abandon that accompanies every day's ride on the road during a long trip. I was anticipating my departure in less than a week. I felt good.

As I began my walk the very first song in my ear phones was the somewhat melancholy yet refreshing song by Anne Murray: Out On The Road. It's plaintive lyrics of a traveler longing for home yet needing the road were right up my alley and for a moment I was on the road instead of the elliptical machine.

Smiling faces and far away places that I've seen out on the road.
Five million miles of wall to wall smiles on the lips of the young and old.

The lyrics followed the rhythm of my walking and became a part of me as I worked at feeling the pain of the exercise. But no pain was available because I was drifting high on the anticipation of the upcoming ride.

Cheap motels and the long winding rails of the train taking me back home.
How do you do? So good to see you. Then I'm back on the road again.

I clearly saw myself leaning into a turn in the cool morning on an Appalachian mountain. The bright sunshine outside the health club filled the room with it's warmth. And, in an unexpected switch to the next song on the MP3 player, another Anne Murray Song (one of the thousand) began and made the morning complete. Sunday Sunrise flowed into my day with its upbeat tune and happy lyrics:

It's such a beautiful day that the sky seems to say good morning.
Mister dust off your shoes throw away all your blues and start smiling.
Take a good look around there's no clouds looking down upon your way.
So won't you decide to come back alive, it's a new day.

Life can and will be all you make it...if you make it yours.

 

And Then There Were Three

One of the things motorcycle riding has taught me is that the unexpected is the norm. This is especially true when on a cross country trip on two wheels. There is always the probability of weather in some form. There is always the possibility of mechanical problems. And there is always the undesired event of a dropped bike or an accident. Depending on how you look at it all, I have been the lucky recipient of each of these events: rain, snow, ice, blowouts, flat tires, defunct starter, bike on side on mountain road, hit from behind by a tailgater. Fortunately, no physical or emotional harm occured.

When it comes to family there are far more than three categories of the possible and unexpected type. But one of the strongest and most demanding of the limitless and varied possibilities has to do with children. And in this case it has to do with three of them - triplets.

My son and his wife are proud parents of three little girls. It becomes a significant challenge from tiime to time managing the demands of these infants who need almost constant attention and almost always disrupt any possibility of regular sleep. Grandparents were created for a reason and a most important reason is to help out. Both sets of grandparents have pitched in. And this time we have volunteered to do so on short notice and only days before my departure date.

We are providing the kids a much needed break from the persistent feeding and changing and holding and cleaning and feeding and changing and holding and .... These three prematurely born angels are now growing rapidly and voicing concerns with ever increasing talents. And their hold on grandparents is legendary. In our case we can attest to all we have been told - to the power of three.

As I travel the eastern half of this country they will journey with me in spirit. The circle of life goes on.

 

When Travel Is Imminent

The Triplet Mission is over and now I am ready to launch in the morning. There have been many actions required of this day but none of them require other than rote repetition. What I have been most involved with is my thoughts at once again departing on an adventure with unknown outcomes.

I am constantly bombarded with thoughts that cover the history of my experience from my first memory to my last. I feel I need to record a recent memory for some unknown reason as it tugs at my innermost sense of reality, and before I can get the thought right another strong sensation flows through my mind with another memory to replace it.

The cable television is playing its 'Easy Listening' music as I sit in my Easy Chair remembering whatever creeps into my 'now' life from the past. I am not fond to admit the fact that what I learned (and dismissed) from my elders many years ago is now a reality. You will remember what you had more than you enjoyed it when you had it.

If you follow this journal and its purpose, you will come to know why I travel. I have been searching for my entire life. I trust you understand that I don't want to find the answer to my search. And if I do I trust you will understand why I won't tell you about it.

Enjoy this trip with me.