A New Grandchild And Kind Strangers

Ron 0:12

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Peace Love Moto Podcast. I'm your host, Ron Francis, here in Loveland, Colorado, and thank you for joining me today to share a story. My wife and I just got back from a long drive out to Ohio. The occasion? A wonderful one. Our daughter had just had her second child, a gorgeous baby girl named Freya. So, life is good. The family is growing with now four grandchildren for Karen and I, and my heart is incredibly full. Along the way, on that road trip at rest stops, gas stations, and coffee shops, my wife and I met a lot of kind people. People who were okay with more than just a hello. People who, seeing our Colorado license plates, asked where we were going or where we had been, and of course, that opened the door for probably more than they wanted to hear, or at least expected to hear when we had an opportunity to tell them about our new little baby girl. Yes, it was fun to share, but you know what I appreciate most? I appreciate that strangers listened. So many of them did. So many listened to our short story at the gas station, coffee shop, or wherever, and they smiled and they said congratulations. And I could tell they meant it. I could just tell. So if you listen to this podcast often enough, you'll hear the pattern, I suppose. The ease of conversations that we motorcycle riders get to have with each other, certainly, and with those who ask us about our bikes at gas stations or coffee shops or wherever. But isn't it wonderful too, to be reminded that even in our digital, sometimes isolating world, there are people out there who really care. They really do. They care enough to listen. They care enough to give you a few minutes of their time. And when we in return grant them our time, they just may have a story of their own that we may be surprised or shocked or just love to hear. So let's talk about that. In our crazy digital world of isolation, we motorcycle riders, I think we have an opportunity to break through all of that and get to the real core, the real humanity of relationships. Thank you for joining me today. Stay tuned. Are you ready? Let's go.

Why Riders Connect So Fast

Ron 3:54

Or we'll just a little bit crazy. Whatever. Maybe it's a combination of the two. I don't know. I feel like I've always been that way. I just love to talk to strangers to hear what they may have to say. And this trip was certainly no exception, this trip to Ohio. As we stopped for a gas stop one afternoon, I spotted a writer and walked over and said hello, like I always would. He said that he had just been visiting the town of Sturgis in South Dakota, but not during the rally time, as he didn't care for crowds. He said that he was most interested in seeing the town of Sturgis before it transformed into a mass of bikers, as it does every year. To be there when the museums were not crowded, that's where he wanted to be, to be in that small town of about 7,000 full-time residents, I think, tucked away in the northern edge of the Black Hills well before the event. Yep, I told him I agree. I I'm usually averse to crowds, and I too had ridden to Sturgis in past years, but not during the rally time. Rather, I went to spend time in the Black Hills, certainly to visit the town, but also to appreciate the Native American history that's out there, the many stories that they have to share. Stories that require us to stop, relax, take a deep breath, I guess, and just listen. Really listen. And sometimes maybe even be transformed. He had on an Indian motorcycle shirt and hat. So this most definitely was a motorcycle rider. As he got up to leave before we did, I that's what I said. I said, excuse me, you're a motorcycle rider, right? And he said, Yes, I am. And we got to talking a little bit about uh bikes, and the conversation went on, you know, it was just so spontaneous and just so good. We talked for a few minutes about bikes, but then we talked about other things for a couple minutes too. He shared with me a little bit about his career and that it it had been quite stressful because of the nature of it. He told me that tie him on his bike, well, that was something that he really needed. Time for letting go. Perhaps time for a mindful experience, as I recall, he said. Yeah, super nice guy. And in both cases, the fellow I met that came from Sturgis and a guy that we met there at the cafe. In both cases, the moment I told them that I ride to any barrier that might have existed between two strangers completely evaporated. Gone. Of course, in both of these examples, and for many, many others of the past three years, I've told the folks about my podcast. So, yeah, I ride. I also love to ride, and I talk about it and interview folks who do the same. Yeah, that's what it's all about, right? That's what this podcast is trying to be about, too. It's about just communication, about the joy of motorcycling and what it does for so many of us. But it's also made me wonder, why is that connection between motorcycle riders so instant? Well, it's probably because the second you know someone else rides, you know a lot about them, really. You know a lot about their characteristics. And it's even more interesting when you have an opportunity to hear a little bit about their story.

An Everest Ride And Human Kindness

Ron 7:58

It was just recently when I was recalling one of the most amazing interviews I think I've experienced on this podcast. I had met Kim Casaris a couple of years ago while riding motorcycles with a group here in Colorado. We were all having lunch way up in the mountains, and I had not met Kim before, so I told her about the podcast and also about the fact that I'm always looking to record a good story. That's when she said so casually, Well, I rode my motorcycle with a group to the base camp of Mount Everest. After I recovered from virtually falling on the floor, after she told me that, I immediately asked, Well, would you share that with my listeners on the podcast? And she agreed. Yeah, that was the key part of her story, was the Mount Everest piece. But what I appreciated too is how she got started writing later in life, and also as a female, how that was a different experience. So I'd like you to listen to a little bit of that. The whole interview is on an earlier podcast, and I'll put a a link to that. But here's how our conversation began. How did you grow up and have this adventurous spirit that clearly took you to an amazing adventure?

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Well, that's really hard to pin down, of course, where it all came from. I do know that um my dad had a very adventurous spirit and he rode motorcycles. So I have to believe that some of that, whether it was nature or nurture, some of it came through. And um fast forward, uh, it was I was probably 50, 52 years old, 54 years old, and just looking for some more adventure in my life. And had some friends that rode motorcycles and said, hey, this would be a great thing to do if you want to travel. And I was looking to travel and get some adventure that way. This is sort of a fun way to combine the two: something new to do and exciting, a little challenge, or a lot of a challenge, and then start traveling around the United States and then a little bit around the world.

Ron 10:19

As my interview with Kim continued, after talking about her achievement of reaching the base camp of Mount Everest, we talked about humanity, about the world, about the people that she met, and how she again just learned that it's a great, big, wonderful world out there. I was so so grateful to hear this part of her story. Listen.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

But the cultural experience, what what was that like? That's clearly a very different culture than than who in Colorado, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Oh, it was for me probably one of the most intense cultural experiences so far. Yeah, as I say that, I'm I'm remembering other people talk about their cultural experiences, and I'm about to say the same thing that I think so many people say is the people are fantastic. And it's true, you can uh have differences in religion or in in the culture, such that uh you know how you drive or how you live, and so many people uh living in a small house, uh, how you go to the bathroom, all of these things, what you eat can be so different. But the people were always happy and excited to help us and interested in why we were doing what we were doing.

Ron 12:01

Did you catch that comment? I think that's a really, really important piece there. She talked about these people who were so different from her. Their life was so different, their lifestyle, of course, the language barrier, too, that she also talked about in the in the full interview, but she talked about their kindness, that these are good people, that there are good people all over the world. It's just a matter of stopping, saying hello, and showing some genuine interest, not only in yourself, sharing about yourself, but interest in them. Everybody's got a story to tell. I think sometimes we just have to give them an opportunity to share their story and a willingness to listen.

History Books And Motorcycle Storycraft

Ron 12:58

Since retiring from my corporate job a few months ago, I've had more time to relax, drink some coffee outside, and read. Right now, I'm reading David McCullough's biography of John Adams. And with the big 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence happening right now across here in the United States, it felt like the perfect timing to dive into Adams' life. He was, after all, one of the key signers of that document, the Declaration of Independence, and a massive architect of our American story. And reading about the sheer grit and vision that it took to build something out of nothing and the risks that he took. Well, it was just felt like something I needed to learn more about. I needed to learn more about his story. But alongside that history, I was also flipping through some motorcycle magazines that I hadn't been through in quite a while. One of them was by an organization called Vana, and I actually brought it along on the uh trip to Ohio. That's V-A-H-N-A. You can go to Vana.com and check them out. I had actually had a chance to meet one of the founders of Vana a couple of years ago at a film festival down in Denver. He was a super nice guy, and I just loved the film festival. Uh it's coming back up again this year, and I'll put some links to that in the show notes as well. But the cinematic stories that they share on film and the beautifully crafted pieces that they put in print, those really speak to me. They don't just focus on the machines, they focus on the people. The people who have a deep, resonant story to share, just like I try to do on this podcast.

Storytelling Traditions That Slow Time

Ron 15:00

And bear with me a minute, but this next part that I'm gonna share, it may not sound related, but I hope it is. Lately, I've been rereading and rereading a book that I picked up a few months ago. I've already mentioned it before in a previous episode, but I picked it up while I was on a solo moto camping trip, and it's called The Wisdom of Native Americans, and it was edited by Kent Nurburn. As I flip through those pages, one theme stands out over and over again: the sacred art of storytelling that indigenous people have preserved to this very day. To them, a story isn't just entertainment, it's like this vessel of truth, it's history, and it's about their soul. It's just so interesting and just really bringing its new insights into my life. I guess sometimes I go out on a limb when I try to draw parallels between things that may be quite different, but hey, it's my podcast. I guess I can say what I want, even if I may be a little bit uh off-center a little bit, but bear with me. I think that when you look at what the folks at Vana are doing and contrast that with the ancient traditions that Kent Nurburn writes about. And even the way David McCullough pieces together the human side of our history, you realize something beautiful. They are trying to do exactly the same thing across completely different eras, perhaps. In the Native American tradition, a story is never rushed. You sat around a fire, you looked at someone's eyes, and you listened to how a human being interacted with the world around them. Their struggles, their triumphs, their relationships with the land. The story was alive. Now, if you look at Vana films, the ones I've seen are just wonderful, and their writings as well. And you think about the young writer that I met out in Silverton just recently. We just happened to stop to look at a beautiful scene around the same time, just two motorcyclists out there, and I went over to talk to him and I said, What are you looking at? And he said, Just something beautiful. Yeah, that that was another thing too. It just instantly started a conversation, and we were in a nice quiet place to start that conversation, and to have a genuine communication between two guys out on motorcycles that just happened to appreciate something amazing right in front of us. So, whether it's the oral history passed down through the generations, the biography of the Founding Father, or the modern independent film that captures in in high definition what our love for motorcycling is about, the heartbeat of all of that, I think, is identical. It's an effort to slow down time, to honor the human experience, and to remind us, just like what Kim said, we're all interconnected. We may be in different parts of the world, we may speak a little bit differently, we may live a little bit differently, but we're all the same. I think in a lot of ways we're all the same. These traditions understand that a life isn't measured in how fast you get to a destination, but by the meaning you gather along the way to draw a motorcycling parallel there. When we ride, we break away from the digital noises of the world around us. And riding a motorcycle forces us into the present moment. It's a moving meditation, and maybe that's why riders are so quick to share about their lives at the gas station or the coffee shop or on the side of the road. We understand the value of the journey, and we aren't rushing the story. Because the story is being written on every mile that we

Share Your Story And Support

Ron 19:35

ride. So as we wrap up, I want to challenge you to slow down this week and think of your own story. You got a story to tell. Think it through and have it ready to share with someone who just might love to talk with you. And once again, I I want to thank my friends over at Viking Bags for their product support for this podcast. And if you too would like to support the podcast in any way that you want, uh, there's some options there in the show notes. Thanks in advance. And until we meet again, my friends, I wish you peace, I wish you love, and I can't wait to hear your story. Take care, my friends. Peace.