Episode 79: A Chance Encounter: How a Simple "Hello" Changed Everything

We as motorcycle riders have it great, don’t we.  If we are fortunate enough to have access to a motorcycle and we have the physical and mental capacity to ride it, yeah, we are blessed.

I think most of us motorcycle riders too have a good heart.  Maybe if you listen to a podcast called Peace Love Moto, it’s probably a reflection on where your heart and your mind are.  That’s one of many things I love about my riding buddies and those who listen to this podcast.  You would do good things for others.  I know you would.  This topic came up recently.

I’d like to share a story, a true story that I originally shared almost 2 years ago.  This story was embedded into a different topic and I think it’s meaning got a little bit lost.  I was still learning how to craft an impactful episode and honestly, I think that I screwed up a little bit, but I think that the message got a bit lost.

This was an experience I’ll not soon forget.  All that I said was “hello”, then the magic of a motorcycling kinship took it from there.  Thank you for joining me today, stay tuned!

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I stopped at a gas station and noticed him sitting on a park bench near his bike.  Just sitting there alone.  After I filled up with gas, I walked over to tell him how much I admired his Ducati motorcycle.  It certainly looked brand new.  He said he had planned to ride somewhere for a coffee.  Well if you visited my website Moto coffee stops.com you'll know I know where the cool coffee shops are.  I asked him to join me on a backroads ride to Howling Cow Cafe' about 20 miles away.  

Now I had just met this guy. didn't know anything about him. Honestly, I thought it was really odd this dude just sitting there on a picnic table outside of a gas station really doing nothing. Seemed like he was just staring out into space. but he clearly knew what he was doing as far as motorcycling goes. As I mentioned, he had a beautiful bike, he had all of his riding gear, a really nice helmet, Very nice new jacket etc.

So when I asked him to follow me through the mountains through some very twisty and challenging roads, I watched him in my mirrors. I wanted to make sure he was keeping up okay. The last thing I wanted to do was get somebody hurt. We cruised North on our way up to a place called the stove Prairie school In a tiny Community called bellevue.. if you want to look that up just Google stove Prairie School colorado. and you'll find it. At the Stove Prairie School we stopped for a few minutes just to check in to see if everything was going well. He said he was loving it; he'd never been on this road before. I said fantastic , now let's go east. so from the stove Prairie School we went over another  mountain  and descended down to the howling cow cafe.

It was at the cafe over coffee that he let me know what was really going on. I had no idea.He shared with me at the coffee shop what had happened just 3 weeks before.  His wife passed away.  He said that her wish for him was to buy a new motorcycle because she knew he loved to ride..  As  it turned out he had come directly from the dealership. He had just ridden that motorcycle off of the showroom floor. but after topping off with gas he said he just needed to sit for a while. He had a lot to cope with.  He told me “until you came by and said hello, I was completely lost.

Certainly, nothing I could say would help to heal the pain, I guess in certain situations like this, our only job is to just sit and listen.  It seemed that riding his new motorcycle to a coffee shop with a new friend did indeed help.  He was so proud of the engineering behind this red Italian masterpiece.  He loved the sound of the motor and described its handling on the route we had just ridden together.  

How I regret losing his contact information, but my hope is that he has found healing From riding that beautiful motorcycle along those mountain roads we love to ride.  

It seems to me that it is those folks who go through trials in life who give the best advice. They have lived it. They have felt what it's like to find themselves at the bottom of the well. But they've also discovered that it's in those dark  moments when you look up that's when the stars are really really bright. and You are reminded from the heavens above that there is indeed hope. 

Thank you for listening. I wish you peace, I wish you love.

Music by Dream-Protocol from Pixabay