Why We Ride

So there's Father's Day weekend, two birthday weekends in a row, then .... mid-week we are outta here!  Hitting the road for 5 days of nothing but riding, good friends, adventures, and dressing up as gay pirates as our good friend Jon used to put it.  This ride is a lot about him and a lot about those of us still here without him.  We lost him in a motorcycle accident last fall.  This was a ride we all never got to take together.  He'll be with us in spirit I know.

There's gonna be some of this...

Heading through the Colorado Mountains.  I'll never make fun of John Denver songs again.

And some of this...

Silverton Colorado

And probably a fair amount of this...

The Big White Guy washes and I just look cute.  :)

And no doubt there will be plenty of opportunity for me to do some crazy shit like this...

Gotta keep everyone on their toes.  :) Standing at the edge of a cliff trying to look tough always works.

The Big White Guy and I look forward our big road trip every summer.  We've snuck in an extra day this year so this will be the most consecutive days we've been able to have on the road yet.  We do a bunch of day rides and overnighters but this is the big one.  The one we can't wait for.  The one that drags us through the frozen hell this place becomes in January.  To put it simply it's the anticipation of the ride.

Every ride is an adventure.  Even the worst rides are fun.  We made a run to Vegas in March to see our new granddaughter.  March is still pretty chilly in evenings and we got a late start out of Vegas.  Needless to say I was frozen to the bike and just about tipped us over trying to climb off.  We both hurt like hell   It was still better than sitting at home on the couch or riding in a cage.  Wouldn't trade that ride for a million sunny days in a car.

It's pretty tough to explain if you've never done it.  When you are on a bike you ARE in the moment and IN the environment around you.  There are no boundaries, no barriers, no to do lists, no what you should be doing, no who you should be, no phones, no nagging, no expectations, no safety nets,  there is only freedom in it's rawest form.  You are a part of everything around you, not just viewing it through a window.  It's the kind of thing that reminds you not only that you are alive, but to live, really live in each moment.

The big white guy and I are both wild, crazy, passionate, and very intense (makes for an interesting relationship).  Being on the road does for us what everyday living cannot.  It feeds the wildness in us both.  It reminds us of who we really are at our core and it connects us to that part of ourselves.  It is the release from the box of normal living that doesn't always serve our true natures.  That explains why we've rode about 30,000 miles in four years.  Which is still not nearly enough, but it is what we've been able to manage.  There's never been a bad mile nor do I expect there ever will be.  This is why we ride.