Why The Podcast Keeps Going

Ron 0:10

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Peace Love Moto podcast. I'm your host, Ron Francis, in Loveland, Colorado. And can you believe this is episode 178? To be honest with you, I was prepared to stop after the 10th episode because I just I just hit a point where I didn't have any new ideas. I didn't know who to interview, and frankly, I didn't know if there was any interest out there in talking about the simple joy of riding a motorcycle, how it makes us happy. But every once in a while, someone would contact me and they'd say that the content was meaningful. Stan, you in Ohio, you're one who did that early on, and I appreciate you so much. Stan gave me encouragement early on, and um we're planning to meet in person someday. So thank you all though for listening and for caring and for your feedback. It means a lot. It's very, very helpful. So yeah, let's just keep going with Peace Love Moto.

Revisiting A Story About Dad

Ron 1:18

Looking at how far we've traveled together on this podcast, I find myself looking back to where it started. Specifically, one of our very early episodes from season one. That was episode number five, and it was called How to Disappear: Motorcycling into Your New Reality. Yeah, that was kind of a tricky title, wasn't it? But at its heart, it was a story about my dad and how his experience on the farm growing up can relate to our experiences today on our motorcycles. I was in Texas visiting mom and dad just this past week, and it reminded me of that episode. I have wonderful parents, both 93 years old. My sister and I are so blessed to still have them with us. So, as I described way back in that episode number five in season one, Dad used to spend long hours out on the tractor when he was growing up, plowing the fields while his mind wandered into the music that his band played on the radio. And I do mean his band. Yeah, he was on a radio show. It was the Chevrolet radio show. He played steel guitar. And yes, time has passed since I recorded that first episode back in 2023. Dad isn't able to play guitars anymore, but that love for music hasn't faded one bit. He still lights up when he hears a good tune and he still carries such fond memories of growing up on the farm and those days out working in the land. He also talks about his love for that little motorcycle that he had out there on the farm. So, yeah, here we are, episode 178. And today we're going to revisit that episode back in 23, episode 5, where I don't know, I just felt like it was good timing to bring that back. Maybe I needed to hear it again. It's for all of us trying to find some quiet space in a very busy and loud and confusing world. Whether it's out on the farm driving a tractor or riding a motorcycle down the highway, there is noise and weight in the world that can just fade away if we try. If we really just get into what we're doing, kind of lose our mind a little bit out there. Or who knows, maybe we're just gaining our mind back. We're just out in pure space to find pure peace. So whether you're hearing this episode for the first time or riding through it again with me, let's go back a few years together to season one and episode five. My

Tractor Rows And Rider Flow

Ron 4:02

dad worked on a farm and he was a musician. Dad's band played on the radio. Yeah, he was good. He still is. He shared with me recently about how during the many hours in the saddle of that tractor, plowing the fields, his mind would wander, thinking of the music that his band would be playing on that radio show. He said as he drove, the songs played over and over in his mind. He was so focused on the music, he essentially forgot about driving the tractor.

unknown 4:33

Haha.

Ron 4:34

That's kind of scary. But at the end of the day, he found that the rows that his tractor had carved in the field were perfectly straight. The turns that he needed to make just before reaching the ditch at the end of those rows were perfectly timed. It was like something else took over while he was driving. Does that relate to our experience riding long journeys on our motorcycles? You know? I think so. So to quote a line from an old country song, let's take a little trip and never leave the farm.

What Riding Does For Us

Ron 5:13

When I meet someone for the first time, I usually don't ask, What do you do? Now you may be a doctor or a pilot or a homemaker, and that's all great. But instead of asking what do you do? I like to ask, what do you do for fun? Because my hope is always that you're gonna say, I ride a motorcycle, and boom, you're my new best friend. Well, you understand. You know, it's just instantly something we have in common to talk about, right? It's a shared experience. It's the same thing probably happens to people passionate about sailing or golf or cooking. Oh, you sail? Me too, so let's go get a coffee, let's talk about sailing. And it's interesting that in so many conversations with people I've just met, our love for riding drifts into why we love to ride and what riding does for us. Now, not all conversations about motorcycling go this deep, but that's where we're going this week. We're going for a ride maybe into a virtual world. This world inside our helmets, inside our imaginations when we ride. I hope you're ready for this. For that matter, I hope I'm ready for this. There

The Pianist Who Disappeared

Ron 6:30

was a young lady who was gifted at playing the piano. She was fantastic. She poured her heart and soul into it. She practiced alone for hour upon hour. In front of her teacher, she played at that same top level. Such beautiful music, just flawless. She was completely lost in the sound, fully immersed in what she was doing. She was so happy when she played. Now, when she played in front of her family, that was different. She felt a little bit distracted. She wanted them to be proud of her. So she made a few mistakes. And she worked her way through it, but she could never play as flawlessly as she played alone. So in front of an audience, well, that just wasn't gonna happen. She knew that she'd be paralyzed with fear, so she refused to perform in front of an audience. She was convinced that her talent, her gift, would never be shared with a live audience because she was paralyzed with fear. It just wasn't gonna happen. Her teacher was just heartbroken over that because she knew that not only a small audience needed to hear her perform, but so did the world. After much thought, the teacher gave her student some advice that changed her path of life. The teacher told her student, don't play for me, don't play for your parents, don't play for anyone. Play and make music for yourself. Play because playing music makes you happy and it makes you feel wonderful. She went on to tell her student, whenever you get invited to play in front of an audience, go and do it. Just go out there and play because it makes you happy. Taking a big chance, the teacher scheduled her student to play in front of a large audience in a large concert hall in front of hundreds of people. Moments before it was time for her to go out on stage, out of the view of everyone, the teacher gave her student a hug. She looked into her eyes and she said, Go out there, go out there and be happy. The student walked out from behind the curtain, out onto the stage, and the audience erupted with applause. That got her attention, and not in a good way. She intended to look only at the piano, but with that sound, she caught a glimpse of the crowd instead. She saw her teacher smiling with encouragement. She saw her family sitting in the front row, and then she saw that sea of faces. That paralyzing fear, that nightmare was about to take its grip. But then she remembered what her teacher told her. Playing did make her happy, and she really needed to be happy right then. So she sat down at the piano, and the audience grew silent. She paused, took a deep breath, and she began to play. While she played so beautifully, she smiled. Then the audience disappeared. Moments later, her family disappeared. A little bit later, her teacher disappeared. And as she continued to play with her music filling the room, the piano disappeared. Yet her music continued. As her beautiful music seeped through the walls of that auditorium and lifted up into the heavens, she herself disappeared. I share

When The Bike And Noise Fade

Ron 10:48

these stories because sometimes I'm convinced that's how we feel out on the bike. That's how I have felt. Sometimes we just kind of need an escape from the busyness of life. So we get out on our motorcycle and we just go for a ride. And after some time, as we cruise along through the country, if the stars align just right, the sounds of the motor just disappear. Then the sounds of the wind disappear. Pure silence. Then after more miles and a little more time, the bike disappears. And it's at that time all of the burdens of the world disappear. At that very moment, all is right with the world. Just as my dad and the piano student experienced, we have arrived. Peace of mind. And for that, we can be very grateful.

Reflection Plus A Gear Shoutout

Ron 12:04

So here we are back in October of 2026. I'm glad that we took this journey together, going back in time a little bit. I just felt like um yeah, I needed to hear that. I was still working at IBM at the time, still traveling and still under a lot of work stress, frankly, due to travel and other things. But just like today in retirement, I find that my motorcycle does indeed take me to my happy place. It has since I was 11 years old. The place where all is right in the world, at least in my mind. Hey, a quick shout out to my new friends at uh Jaguar. That's J-A-G-W-E-A-R, Jaguar Motorcycle Gear, for allowing me to review some of their products. You can find that review on my Instagram account, and I will have a link in the show notes that you can use if you'd like. You'll get a discount on your gear if you buy from that link from Jaguar, and a portion of your purchase will go back to supporting this podcast financially. So that'll be really nice. Um, thanks in advance for thinking about that. But until we visit again, hey, go for a ride, and I hope to see you out there. Peace.