Episode 64: Riding to the Same Places - Like some kind of Psycho!
One of my friends texted to me an observation. He said “He saw a man sitting at a Starbucks. That man wasn’t looking at his computer. He wasn’t looking at his phone or listening to music through earbuds. He was just sitting there. Looking ahead, enjoying his cup of coffee. Like some kind of Psycho! Ha ha.
I don’t yet know what that has to do with this episode, but I think its really funny and really spot on for today. If you’re like me, when I’m out for a ride, I don’t know exactly where I’ll end up. I’m just riding, staring straight ahead, like some kind of psycho. Let’s see where this episode goes my Psychoic motorcycle riding friends. Stay tuned.
OPENING MUSIC
Speaking of psychotic behavior, let’s stay with that just for fun. Have you heard the expression, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. Huh, well maybe. But as for me, it depends.
That’s us, you know. So many of us ride our motorcycles in a circle. Maybe it’s a short trip or a long trip, maybe it’s 5 miles or 500, but when we go for a ride we generally physically return to the place where we started. We leave our home, go for a ride and come back home. We typically didn’t go shopping for clothes. We don’t have a specific purpose. We didn’t bring home groceries. We did nothing productive. Or at least we don’t come back home with anything tangible. Nothing anyone can see.
What many of us do come home with though, is peace of mind. A feeling perhaps in our hearts or our minds, that is different from the feelings that we had before we left. A new calm, perhaps even new ideas or a new appreciation for … life.
NEW MUSIC
I like routine. Every weekday morning I have a cup of coffee. Depending on if I’m having to rush catch a shuttle to the airport or not, I will have 1 to 4 cups. Not just regular coffee, but coffee from a small roaster near my home called Top of the Lake. The roastery is owned by a friend of mine.
With my morning coffee, I have a fig bar. Not a typical fig bar, but the Natures Bakery brand fig bar, either blueberry or raspberry. If it’s Spring or Summer or Fall, I’ll have my coffee and my fig bar on the back patio. Travel days are different, but similar. Usually up by 4am, leaving the house by 4:30, having my coffee and my fig bar in the car on the way to the shuttle bus. That’s where my wife drops me off for the 5am bus to the airport. Two options, either traveling that day or not, but still the routine. My coffee and my fig bar.
NEW MUSIC
Then comes the weekend when I’m home and have some bike time. Usually I will have Saturdays to ride and decompress. Usually the last thing I want to think about into the evening is meetings and the Corporate IT world.
I keep my bike(s), yeah plural, in the garage. Confirm the oil level. Confirm the front and rear tire pressures. Confirm that I have all of the personal gear that I may need for a full days ride. I keep most things packed all the time. Tire repair kits, GPS, rain layers, warm layers, phone charger. Probably 20 small but separate and required items for … just in case.
Then I head out. Just a rough guess, but here’s my estimates… 80% of the time I head northwest. About 10% of the time I’ll ride due west, like over to Estes Park and into Rocky Mountain National Park. About 5% of the time I will ride to the southwest, like toward Nederland and if my math is correct, the raining 5% of the time, I will ride East, across the flat lands like the Pawnee National Grassland.
Makes no sense why I ride 80% of the time in the same initial direction. Yeah, there are many deviations in the routes once I start making my way toward the NorthWest, those deviations in route are largely dictated by the weather, but … why to the Northwest?
Because once I pass Fort Collins, there are fewer and fewer people. Very very few cars on those roads. More cows, horses, deer, elk, rabbits, coyotes, antilope, even an occasional moose … four legged friends. Many more of them than people. It takes only a short time and for the next many miles, I’m in my second homeland. A homeland of miles and miles of open spaces. A homeland where I know many of the cafe owners and servers by name. A homeland where the farmer on his tractor in the field near by will most certainly look at me on my bike and wave.
Those who live in a large city tend to get it in their mind that there are crowds and traffic everywhere. That everything is paved over. But when you travel out west, away from the cities. Way out in the country and you discover how much space and beauty there is. Almost like being the first to discover such wide open spaces. The few locals or other riders that I do meet up with, way out there, those are often some of the most kind and pleasant people you could ever meet.. Like-minded folks.
You see, I’ve learned that country folks in the mountains are OK with being a bit isolated. These are folks who have their daily routines too, but they have learned how to stop, look around, listen and be grateful for just, just being alive. And I think, more often than not, country folks sit and sip on their morning coffee, away from the computer, without earbuds, , looking out across the mountains, …just enjoying his cup of coffee… like some kind of Psycho. Ha ha.
Go be a Psycho. So will I. Until we visit again, I wish you peace. I wish you love.
Music by Olexy from Pixabay
Music by Denis Pavlov from Pixabay
