DDT (12)
Member
Posts: 4112
Sometimes ya just gotta go...
Winter Springs, FL - Occasionally...
|
 |
« on: March 11, 2024, 01:56:25 PM » |
|
It’s Not The Destination, My Friends…
We’ve all said it many times, and of course we all fully subscribe to the meaning and sentiment of that prescient saying. It is indeed all about the journey… first, last, totally, and always! Stopping points along the way and/or the end of a ride can present a reward of sorts for having made the trip, I guess; however, ... It is the ‘ride’ itself that is the true prize for venturing beyond the end of our own driveways on two or three wheels.
In truth, my own experience has been that I not only have taken the implicit ‘advice’ to heart, but I’ve fully embraced it and practiced it almost daily. There have been the odd times when I’ve needed to actually be someplace at a certain time, but… other than that… I just ride somewhere, anywhere, nowhere, everywhere.
It’s not uncommon for this random rider to pick a far-away spot at which to generally aim, but there is nothing sacrosanct about that or urgent enough to make it important to the point I ‘make it happen no matter what’. It’s also not uncommon for it to take several attempts over several months, and in a few cases even years, to actually complete the contemplated ride to that spot.
An actual destination is not necessary for my purposes, of course, so I suppose it’s more of a concession I make to the residual baggage carried-over from my ‘work’ days during which those nasty, hard-to-kick planning habits were relentlessly forged and so deeply imbedded. That ‘need’ for some direction, clarity, and/or purpose had been so thoroughly engrained in my DNA that even I can’t seem to fully shake it… at least not yet, but I am still working on it! In the meantime, I don't sweat it either way. For instance…
A year and a half ago, I decided to leave the Fall Color Ride and go for a scoot around the eastern Carolinas. RNFWP (Ross Mashburn) and I decided just before KSU in Robbinsville, NC, that we’d ride together as far as his turn-off for home in 'the up-country' near Greenville, SC, and I’d simply continue eastward from there.
Before we’d ridden even halfway to his departure point, however, we’d changed everything. We ended up riding as far west as Oklahoma and Texas, but no further east than Greenville, SC, following nearly two weeks of wandering around finding adventure and way more than a few grins. I hadn’t abandoned a ride to the eastern Carolinas at all; I’d simply chosen not to complete the ride for… a while… At most, merely a temporary postponement.
Following my doctors’ visits in Montgomery, AL, mid-November last Fall, I decided to ride to Arizona (the eastern Carolinas could wait some more). Since it was getting colder and any direction with a northward component was not particularly appealing, plus the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico significantly limited eastward or southward options… westward appeared the best choice in order to continue aimlessly wandering widely. That, plus the fact I really wanted to hoist a few with my good friend, Rob Tice.
We made it as far as Del Rio, TX, before the increasing cold finally persuaded this delicate rider to hunker down and reconsider possibilities. I rented an Airbnb for a couple of weeks and goofed-off in fine fashion. Hey, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, right? When nature gives us riders freezing temps, we find a toasty, cozy hunker-down point…
I finally grew weary of waiting around for ideal weather so we could continue west. The weather in Arizona ‘below the rim’ appeared to be quite nice, but the far western portion of Texas and southern New Mexico through which we'd need to travel still had some… ‘chilly’ challenges. Besides, it was approaching time for another round of doctor visits by then anyway, so… We reluctantly headed back east again.
Following the ‘all good’ pronouncements from all my doctors, a half-hearted attempt at riding to Arizona was again undertaken. A flat rear tire and necessary replacement involving another rescue by Troutdude & Waterbug nipped that token gesture in the bud. More aimless wandering around followed, but no serious campaign was mounted. With nothing at all pressing or beckoning…
… I decided we might as well finally do that Carolina low country ride… We did, too! Yeah, I know… surprising, but there it is… That turned into a rather nice easy ride with lots of peaceful gliding around and plenty of reflection upon things that randomly popped into my vacuous headbone cavity. Then, what turned out to be an appealing opportunity all of a sudden arose…
An innocent reply from one of our own members to a post of mine changed our entire trajectory completely. Mooksie (Dave Morgan) invited us to swing by for a visit and lay-over while in the area. Not wanting to impose upon a friend, and, frankly, not particularly eager to break our stride, I didn't accept or decline his most generous offer right away. Instead, he and I shot the breeze on the phone a couple of times.
In one of those chats, an invitation was extended for him to join us on our imminent next re-attempt of a ride to Arizona. He had all the usual reasons why he couldn't, but he didn't exactly say no either... During a subsequent conversation, he mentioned that all he'd been able to think about since that invitation was his desire, and need, to make a big road trip... and the one contemplated sounded perfect to ease what ailed him!
He’d shifted gears in his mind from identifying all the reasons he couldn’t go, to now focusing upon how he could make this happen. We then began to discuss how that might be brought about... and a way began to emerge… Our girl altered the heading of her front wheel, and she then transported her rider in the direction of 'Mooksie Manor' after all.
DDT (12)
|
