The Beach Boys Rush and a late afternoon ride.
I work at a performing arts theater where I manage the facilities and assist the technical director. It's a small theater just a hair under 1800 seats however we are fortunate to meet and be around some interesting famous people. Last night we hosted the Beach boys, The two original members and the rest of the band were absolutely the friendliest happy go lucky bunch making it a fun night. We are in high season so there's only about three days per month where we have no shows. Today was one of those days we call "dark days" in theater terms, that is a night with no show. So instead of getting home super late I got home at about 5 PM like normal people. It's about 65° and clear here just south of Tampa. I got to thinking it's been a while since my wife's shadow tour has been on a run so I grab my helmet & fingerless gloves bypass the Valk and fire up the willing shadow. My T-shirt and fingerless gloves were not quite enough but The cold air felt invigorating so I did not turn back for a coat, besides I was only going to go for a short run just to get the spiders out. The empty country roads the trees the cool air and the sun going down, quickly woke me up and I was alive! The short run was now history and I knew I wouldn't be home soon. I stopped on an overpass that has no entrance or exit for a couple of metal shine shots
and took off again finding curves open empty roads and cool wind.
Back on the road the shadow now took me to 95 and the trees are wizing by and I wondered what speed the Valk would taking me to. The speed wind and open country road reminded me of a song by Rush that started playing in my head. I don't ever ride with music, choosing mechanical music instead, in part because music influences my throttle and sometimes I'm bad enough without it. The song is about a car that was preserved well into the future. The young man goes out to the country to visit his uncle who lets him take the car for a run. I thought it apropos to change a few of the words. So, the Red Barchetta---
My uncle has a country place that no one knows about
He says it used to be a farm before the Motor Law
And on Sundays, I elude the eyes, hop the turbine freight
To far outside the wire, where my white-haired uncle waits----------
Jump to the ground as the turbo slows to cross the borderline
Then run like the wind as excitement shivers up and down my spine------
But down in his barn, my uncle preserved for me an old machine
For fifty odd years, to keep it as new has been his dearest dream
I strip away the old debris that hides a shining Valk
A brilliant red black F6 from a better vanished time
Ooh, fired up the willing engine, responding with a roar
Tire spitting gravel, I commit my weekly crime
Wind in my hair
Shifting and drifting
Mechanical music
Adrenaline surge
Well-weathered leather, hot metal and oil
The scented country air
Sunlight on chrome, the blur of the landscape
Every nerve aware! Suddenly ahead of me across the mountainside
A gleaming alloy air car shoots towards me, two lanes wide
I spin around with shrieking tires to run the deadly race
go screaming through the valley as another joins the chase--
Drive like the wind, straining the limits of machine and man
Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I've got a desperate plan--
At the one lane bridge, I leave the giants stranded at the riverside
Race back to the farm to dream with my uncle at the fireside.
