Freedom of the road... is not always Free and Easy.
Though I live on the road, I don't "Live" on the Bike. My house has four wheels and a hitch, and is drug by a truck... which in its senility, requires ever more attention, a couple grand and more in the last 60 days...
There is hardly a day that passes where I don't wish for an even simpler life. The happiest I've been, in the past ten years, was sleeping in the rain, under the thin skin of my HooDoo tent in Alaska. Just me and a bike. Nothing else to worry about or contend with.
Just me, a man, free on the earth... in rhythm with the land.
Now, my bike, my ONLY truly precious and necessary possession has her own need for attention.
The seals in her forks started leaking some time ago. First one, and then the other. Repair is simple. It only costs money. But that money, as soon as it gets close to being sufficient to pay the mechanic... is consumed by the life around me... and the rig. boo hoo. poor me.
Riding her I have to hold back. The unequal conditions in her front legs produces an unsettling wobble over uneven pavement if I push her out a bit leaning through the bends... and there are other maintenance needs that are stacking up for attention.
Now, knocked into low spirits by the trivial realities of life... I head for Idaho and Montana... only to be confronted by smoke and fires, straddling all the routes I was hoping to travel.
My wheels turn back farther north, Hoping that I can find clear air to travel through, and enough miles without need for repairs... that the repair money can go to Sonja. Sitting patient. Waiting for the attention she deserves. Waiting for the attention she requires. Waiting for the attention she has earned.
A simple life? ahhhh... such a sweet fantasy. It's all just life. Savor each of the small and good bits along the way.
Grab Your Handles and Ride
Brian
... Splitting the wind on a Motorcycle... Feeding my soul with the Healing power of the Open Road... following that twisting, Ribbon of Highway that leads me on...
3 comments:
Which is exactly why we only have motorcycles.
The less you own, the less you have to maintain, the less the cost.
Other than our bikes, we've had zero in maintenance costs, because we just don't own anything. All of our money goes to ourselves and our bikes.
Sending love to Sonja and hopes that she gets what she needs. Katie needs a front tire. . . that I need to buy now.
Hugs and smooches,
Sash
www.SashMouth.com
Well the good news is the rig repairs are cheaper than an unending mortgage. The bad news is that doesn't make it any easier to shell over the money. Might be easier to try and justify it as even with the repairs and gas it is cheaper than a motel every night.
Well maybe not. Don't calculate it.
We've been thinking of a 2-3 day motorcycle trip but it doesn't seem to matter which direction we head from Corvallis, it's all smoke and fires. They are even closing some campgrounds in southern Oregon by the Rogue River.
Hope you find a route through and get Sonja fixed up race ready.
Tina; if it was just me? I'd be on a bike... but, herself thinks differently than I do... and unless that changed and we went to a pair of trikes or maybe sidecars to carry her dogs... uhhh... nah... I ain't goin' there! ;)
Trobairitz; The smoke pretty much thinned out north of Ellensburg... and the farthest north fire was NW of Yakima somewhere... so... if you kept to the coast to get around that one you could make some miles in clear air north of there! :)
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