To See, Or Not To See

Distractions in any form can be a dangerous thing. Whether on the motorcycle, in a car or even some in life that sway us from our path from time to time. I am usually clear headed and very present when I am on my motorcycle but occasionally I find myself a little tired or impaired by bright sun or low lit areas at night. If I have the option to rest or wait before I begin riding I will do so. When trying to gain time or distance on longer trips sometimes I find myself pushing a little just to get to a destination. I've ridden on long country roads at night and often see animals on the side of the road waiting to dart out. Sometimes what I think is an animal is only a shadow or a tree branch. Even in the day time on a sunny day I'll see images in the distance that appear to be one thing but as I get closer they are not what I thought they were at all. 

To see things for exactly how they are can be a difficult thing. Situations may appear to be one way, but more often than not our own mind becomes the animal on the side and we wait for it to dart out in front of us. All the while its was just a shadow all along...

I have wandered all my life, and I have also traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. ~ Hilaire Belloc

Cheers.

Jim

OMG BRB with another blog!

Hey all, Happy Holidays!
So there is alot of snow on the ground and it makes it difficult for us to get around. I personally enjoy a good bottle of wine, a good movie and the warmth of my old dog curled up next to me on the couch. It's an extreme feeling from that of the warmer seasons when all I want to do is get out there and ride, make deeper connections to friends, family and the world around me. These cold months and time of less activity leave me with more time to embrace my technologically enhanced connections. More, blogging, more facebooking, more texting... It's a guilty pleasure of mine that I've often struggled with especially a couple years ago when we all started to lean towards those forms of communication.
I've shared some experiences on this blog about riding through parts of the country on the bike and the experience being heightened through the weather and smells that change constantly. To see the world from the motorcycle is a much truer experience than that of a car, not to say it's better unless of course you ride a motorcycle, then, yes its way better! Much like the experience of riding cross country and having a real tactile experience I enjoy the same with people I meet along the way. My hopes for 2011 is to embrace my true friendships I've made, those that have become stronger as a result of my crash and new ones that are not separated by a screen and some short hand text messages.
The convenience of staying in touch with people that  I wouldn't normally be able to without this technology is great, but I hope to see more of you out in the world we live in. I'll be riding my little heart out come the spring time and look forward to crossing paths on a human level with my friends old and new.

If you've got the time to follow this blog and you want to become a follower do it. I'd like to hear more from you all and be inspired to continue writing. I usually post these on Facebook but I'd like to get away from doing that at some point. Gimme a ring and let's grab a pop or a coffee and let me know how you're getting through this ride of life. Ideas and opinions, encouragement and inspiration are always great for this tattooed biker who occasionally has alot to say about nothing.

Cheers.
Jim

I got my baby back, baby back, baby back...

The ole scoot is outta the shop and being stored in a nice cozy garage for the winter, thanks to my gracious friends. She's running cherry and just needs a little cosmetic work over the winter. I have a new tank ready to be primed and painted and there are some other dings and scratches to take care of. I picked her up the other day and she purred like a kitten, well maybe a lion. Thanks to Shane and his trailer we had her in storage in no time. I had to start her up just to see what she had too say after over two months of being separated. I fired her up and rolled on the throttle and I could hear her repeating, thank you Jim, thank you Jim, thank you Jim, RIDE, RIDE...
Over the winter I will continue physical therapy for the finger, get back to work as soon as posible and prep the bike to hit the road in the spring time. I've got a mind full of things to blog about but I'm gonna keep this one short and leave you with a video that warmed my heart on one of the coldest days we've had...

"If you are going through hell, keep going." ~ Winston Churchill

Cheers,

Jim

Right Bike, Right Mind

Sixteen years ago I got my first motorcycle, a 1985 Honda Shadow 500. This bike was alot of fun, I learned on it and honed my riding skills. I rode that bike for a couple of years until I found that I needed a bigger bike with a little more power. I was taking longer trips and starting to ride with friends that had larger bikes and I wanted to keep up with the pack. I eventually bought a new bike with a larger engine that would help me pass cars in tight situations. It was a more comfortable bike and I could do longer rides on it which was my goal. I enjoyed that motorcycle for a couple of years. The more riding I did the more I wanted to do and the idea of traveling across the United States on a motorcycle began to enter my mind.
 I remember a trip I took up to Vermont with a friend. We were riding up route 7 in Massachusetts and got stuck behind a tractor trailer on a two lane highway. My friend decided to pass the trailer in the other lane and I followed him. As he buzzed ahead and back into the right lane I was traveling neck and neck with this trailer and I had my throttle completely open. As I looked ahead I could see an oncoming car in the distance and I needed to get around this truck asap. I creeped past the truck and scooted over to the proper lane nearly missing the oncoming car. This was when I decided once again maybe its time for an even faster more powerful motorcycle. If I was going to continue to take bigger trips that might put me in these situations where I needed the power to avoid cars and trucks with a quicker repsonse it was time to invest in a vehicle that could handle that.
2002...enter the new Harley. I've been riding this beast ever since, and I must say, I can count on this bike for all of the different kinds of riding I've done. I cruise on back roads in comfort, zip through traffic with ease and take on the occasional gravel road 1000 miles away from home. I've relied on this bike to start up and get me to where I need to go, it's taken me on some incredible adventures to explore the outside world and it gives me time to look at my own mind. I've become a skillful rider on this bigger, heavier bike and done some of the most challenging rides on it. A couple years and close to 30,000 miles later that beast has provided me with some of the most memorable times of my life. The bike has always fired up and been a solid reliable source of not only transportation but real enjoyment.
Of all the places I've gone and explored, this year will perhaps be the most memorable experience with the motorcycle. At the end of September, in the midst of a beautiful fall season when the thoughts of trying to ride as much as possible were constant, I crashed the bike. The crash seemed to be what might be the apex of a somewhat difficult year but it's been followed up by even more difficult situations.
Choosing a motorcycle to provide me with enough strength to get to where I need has proven to be a much easier decision than those I need to make within myself to get through the tougher times. Life's roads have gotten bumpier, there are more obstacles in my way and it seems as if I don't have the steam to pass them by. I don't think I can upgrade my mind to pass these times by any faster. In fact it may be time to downgrade to a slower version of my mind. A much more patient one and much more mindful one. There's tractor trailers everywhere and maybe it's time to back off a little and let them get to where they are going. There are plenty of side roads that offer choices to get you where you need to be. They are less traveled and move a bit slower but they give us a chance to look at ourselves and to listen closely to see how we are operating, even if it's not our bigger, faster, stronger version.

What is the best vessel to get us through our life, especially the tough times? While rolling on the throttle and passing things by is pretty exciting and effective, it's not always the answer. In these times where we are flooded with noise and opinions and distractions from all directions there has got to be some time to go down those quiet side roads and pull off for a little while. Maybe it's there we can take time and find that we are the vessel, and have to fill it with whatever provides us with the right amount of strength to get through a day, a couple of days or even 365 days.

Be well...
Jim

Green Leaves, Brown Leaves, Everything Leaves...

I've been lucky enough to explore a good part of the land in the United States on two wheels and it's a fulfilling experience. Some of the best times on the bike were spent traveling through the open spaces out west. I always feel relaxed and connected to everything around me. Not all of my travels bring out the same feelings though. One particular experience comes to mind for me. I was headed west and found myself stuck in rush hour traffic in the outskirts of Chicago. I was on a major highway, the traffic was dead stopped and the temperature was well over 80 degrees. As I edged my way slowly through car exhaust and heat I began feeling tired and irritable. I was eyeballing the closest exit and considering searching for a new route to get out of this metro hell. Once I got close enough to that exit I ripped off the ramp and searched for a gas station to stop and look at my map. As I drove through town I noticed it was crowded and a little run down, there was trash on the sides of the road and perhaps not the best part of town. I felt like an unwelcome foreigner, rolling through town with a giant pack on the back of my bike and an out of state plate. I plotted a different route to get back to the main highway and headed down the road. I was creeping in traffic again and as I approached some railroad tracks, I could see cars coming to a stop as the gates came down and the sound of an approaching train grew louder. So, here I am sitting in on the bike in rush hour traffic, in the hot sun, dehydrated, nervous about my surroundings and watching a textile train buzz past me. This train seemed to never end and I must have sat there for a half hour that seemed like a lifetime. As my patience wore thin I began considering pulling out of traffic once again and looking for yet another route. Frustrated and irritated I rolled on the throttle and pulled out of the mass of stopped cars and headed back the other way. After a couple minutes and a couple of turns I found and entrance to a highway in the direction I needed to go and jumped on.  I was moving again and I started to feel a little relief from my uncomfortable situation.
That situation brought up some anxiety and frustrations and I wished to get out of it as quick as possible. I knew it would be a matter of time before I got out of that mess but I had a really difficult time letting go of my aggravation.
Even in the slowest movements on the bike, stuck in traffic there were subtle changes and signs that everything would eventually leave. The cars would have thinned out and scurried off to there homes, the sun would have gotten lower and the temperature would drop, and I'd make my way towards more open land with less population.
Even coming to a place that I find visually beautiful, whether it be the mountains or the trees or open fields filled with wild flowers it all leaves in one way or another. The external always changes whether it appears beautiful to us or unsightly. So sometimes I wish for change so much it drives me crazy and sometimes I wish for things to remain and it brings the same discomfort.
While a good deal of riding my motorcycle on the daily basis consists of getting from one place to another, the best rides are those on the weekend with no real destination in mind. I can jump on the bike and just start riding and watch  things come into my sight then leave. I've spent years riding back roads in the East Coast, sometimes doing the same route over and over again. There is something different about them each time I do. Maybe the roads are a little more worn, a favorite tree is missing, or a new house has been built in a place it never was.  I could let those changes bother me or I can keep riding my motorcycle and think to myself, this is the way the world is. Is it easy to be at peace with the conditions in life? If you ask me about the last year I'd tell you hell no! It's certainly much easier to jump on my bike and hit those roads again and again. Somehow, while riding, I've managed to take in the ever changing surroundings and to look at them for exactly the way they are and be at peace with that. I've got to give it a little more practice while on two feet and not two wheels.

Keep riding, keep meditating, keep doing whatever it is you need to do to look at the world for the way it is and to accept that its nature is to constantly change.

Cheers!
Jim