It ain’t always easy being me, but it almost always is fun! Sometimes things are just too close to call, however… Take now, for instance. I’m sitting in a motel room in Safford, AZ, pondering what I’ve gotten myself into…
I have this non-riding bud who will be in Gallup, NM, next week, and I’m figuring to make a visit up there. Sounds innocent enough, until I pull up the weather forecast for that area! DANG! Daytime temps are quite manageable – mid 50s – but the nights will definitely be cooling down – mid teens!
Mercifully, no chance of precip is in the picture until the following weekend at the earliest. And, out here there is no guarantee any precip will actually materialize. On the other hand, you can never take that prospect for granted, either, because it does sometimes appear! And, what’s more, this time of year, it can come down in the form of snow and/or ice… Pretty to look at, but to ride a bike in…? I don’t think so…
Oh well, that’s all part of the deal when we sign-up for serious riding. Adverse weather can certainly be avoided, but then much of the adventure of what we do would also be missed! One must be well beyond the ‘fragile’ range both physically and mentally to do this for extended periods, and if we don’t know that in the beginning, we soon enough will!
Winter riding for this rider is limited to the southern tier of states. Still, it can be downright challenging pretty much all the time. Nothing that can’t be handled, of course, but it does require some thought… and, it most definitely requires proper equipment! I’ve been fortunate to know some riders over the years who have found what folks like yours truly need to cope with all we encounter, and I’ve benefited greatly from their advice and recommendations… Gerbings electric gear being a classic example!
Is the adversity part of the appeal of this form of ‘recreation’? No one answer applies in all cases to this intriguing question, of course, but I don’t doubt that it is at least a small part of the allure. Think about it… Fair weather riders would never even consider undertaking the sort of riding many of us routinely do. Although there may be a masochist or two among us, most of us are clearly not of that persuasion… Still…
I, for one, do enjoy meeting a challenge and overcoming it. I truly revel in looking back at some of the situations I’ve encountered and feeling the pride in accomplishment… and the joy of realizing I’ve met something difficult head-on and triumphed. Perhaps one of the keys to achieving self-respect lies in learning we ‘have what it takes’, and that we’re not afraid to tackle life on its terms and not just to seek the easy way out of everything. Understanding the difference in winning versus barely getting by…
More, I don’t think it’s the physical accomplishments that are the real reward, so much as it is the mental. In facing difficulty, uncertainty, and risk, then reaching down inside ourselves and finding courage and tenacity, and ultimately rising to the challenge and coming out the other end victorious… If you’ve experienced this exhilarating emotional lift, then no further explanation is necessary…
We’ll be pulling out of here later this morning… We have a very short ride down to Benson, AZ, where we’ll be hunkered down for two nights to allow the New Year holiday to pass. I don’t expect to watch the ‘ball drop’ this time, as I haven’t in many years anyway. I will watch a bit of football, though… but my interest in that ‘sport’ has waned considerably over the years. Hard to believe I once thought that stuff was actually important! Nowadays it is little more than an idle curiosity…
I broke with tradition and made a reservation for those two nights… One never knows what will happen during holiday periods, and the thought of not having someplace to be at night… well… I took the easy, surer path in this case! That did complicate matters a bit, however, when I later made the decision to venture up to Gallup immediately following that interlude… I’ll be farther away from there down in Benson than I would have been had I remained further north, but… What the hey, we’ll just scrap off a few more miles this way, and what rider can not enjoy riding around on an F-6? Especially in such an enchanting and scenic part of our country!
Riding north on TX HWY 54 north of Van Horn
TX HWY 54 north
Guadalupe NP, southwest Texas
It ain’t all hilly in west Texas!
North of Globe, AZ
DDT
