I'd been planning to attend a weekend music festival to camp with three friends. I started having misgivings about it, so I backed out. Then Chris, a friend from last year's Gap trip, contacted me. I could feel his anticipation as we talked. I remembered the freedom I felt while winding around the mountain, looking into the valley at the forest of maples, birch and pines, passing under electric lines lush with the growth of vines. "I wish you were coming," he said. And I realized I did, too. So began my hasty preparations for the 6 day trip.
After finding a suitable bike (mine is in need of costly service and new tires), ensuring there was a spot in a car for me and on a trailer for the bike, I began packing my gear. On a trip like this, packing the right gear is always a gamble. I don't have enough space on the bike to carry all the possible gear I could need, so I have to take what I think I might need, being careful to choose pieces that are the most versatile. Last year there was no rain forecasted for our trip, but I packed rain gear anyway and ended up needing it after all. It worked well during a particularly high mountain pass section where the real threat was cold, not rain. The temperature dropped by 20 degrees and my Frogg Toggs offered superb protection against the cold wind we encountered on that stretch of road.
Identifying the right gear for any trip requires taking stock of what you have and determining what you might need. When it comes to planning a motorcycle trip, this is easy. In life, not so much. I'm often limited to the tools I have on hand. And as the saying goes, if all I have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I chose one trip over another- motorcycling vs. camping- because I don't think I yet have the tools for the camping trip. Oh, I have the tent, the sleeping bag and the camp chair. But I don't yet know how to talk about the intense feelings that are coming up when I'm around this group of folks. It feels otherworldly, this intensity. It's as if a dream-life has taken hold and I'm living another life when I'm with these friends. Being with them reminds me of the life I want and not the life I have. I know I could go camping and would enjoy the music but I also know that sometimes I'd just be trying to enjoy it. Or trying to look like I'm enjoying it. I want to get past all that these days. I want to be really engaged by what I'm doing, not pretending to be.
The other night I dreamt of a beautiful man-child. He stood behind me in a mirror, his hands on my shoulders, looking into me. His eyes were compassionate and loving. Blonde curls framed his face. There was a strength to his features but I recognized more easily a tenderness, an innocence. A dream-worker friend of mine, tells me this man is calling to me, is a part of me. I don't yet know him, but feel like it's not long for the coming. A visitor from the other-world, the underworld, where sometimes things are more real than this world, is calling to me. I think I've been preparing for his visit. I look forward to this trip with him.
Tonight I'll ride my loaner bike to Aaron's house where he and Brian have their 4 bikes trailered up. We'll drive down to Kalamazoo where we'll meet up with 9 others- 2 more trucks and trailers for a long over-night drive down to North Carolina. We'll be staying in a house that rents out to all kinds of groups - many a lot like ours, headed down for a some of the best motorcycling roads in the country in the Smokey Mountains. All told, we'll have 4 full days riding and will hit 3 states - North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. While I'm there, I'll be learning to ride again. As any avid rider knows, new roads = a new ride = a new riding lesson. Instead of navigating the brick pavement, stoplights, alleys and traffic of my daily ride or the rolling hills and curves along local farms for my weekly ride, I'll be navigating hairpin turns around steep mountains with 100ft. drop-offs. It will be a study in "technical riding", as my friend Mike calls it.
This part of the journey, is all about the preparation. There's a lot of guessing, and after 10 years of riding, some experience, to choosing the best riding gear. So I'll pack my bags the best I know how then I'll just have to trust that I have what I need when I need it. It'll be a miserable trip if I second guess all these initial decisions the whole way down. So I'm gonna trust this decision to ride instead of camp. I'm gonna trust that the bike is the best place for me to begin the next part of the trip. And I'm trusting that this blog may be another place I come to get to know the man in my dreams.
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