I feel the days getting shorter and already sense the coming of winter. The days are on the downhill slide toward darkness and cold, thoughts that seem premature in August. The drone of summer insects are betrayed by the cooling air of twilight. The hot, sweating nights are gone. More and more I’m riding into the evening twilight. This evening I rode into State College to talk with friends and am always pleased when there are openings in the motorcycle parking areas.
On the way home I stopped at Canyon Pizza to pick up a few slices of pizza for Kim and I. The town is still quiet, a calm before the storm of students return to Penn State’s University Park campus. So I’ll enjoy a few more quiet rides.
Clouds gathering over Mount Nittany conspire to ruin any chances of admiring the Perseid meteor showers this evening. Instead I’ll just melt into bed and dream of days to come. The riding today was simple, uneventful and through familiar, oft traveling roads. And still it was thrilling. How can that be?
Doesn’t the thrill of riding eventually wear off?
Perish the thought, Steve! Perish the thought.
(What blasphemy…)
Its funny you should write about the waning days of summer and approaching winter. Today I rode to work and felt the early morning coolness and noticed the increasing dew on the grass. I also notice the colour of the sunshine and it looks paler and not as bright. On my evening rides it os quickly becoming too cool to wear my mesh jacket and it becomes downright cold as soon as the sunsets.
I too find riding familiar roads to be both comforting and thrilling. I find an ease and joyfulness comes from familiarity and I actually enjoy the riding environment more because I know the road and that to me makes it more pkeasurable.
The persistent march of time shows itself when the seasons change. Those cold evenings are just one of the powerful cues.
Ride safe on those familiar roads!
Just had to ask…
Hi Steve ,
A very nice relaxing post,
Don’t think the thrill of riding will ever leave the heart.
You can be sure that when we are too old or worn out to ride we won’t look back and think it was right to park the bike up because its winter or it was raining , We also won’t be wishing we spent more time of the past gone by working,working and working.
Riding is a thrill, an in the moment thing…. a place to find yourself….exploration of the mind.
The minds a funny thing , The state of whats going off in your head can make the same road…..same trip very different.
each ride is unique.
just like no two people are the same and no two scooters are the same.
the same ride , same road…same trip are all uniquely different.
This is what ensures the thrill of riding will stay forever.
Great pics and now I need pizza:)
LEN
Sitting here, late in the evening, and I want a pizza too. I suspect it may be nothing more than a lame excuse to go for a ride….
I think you’re right about coming to the end of the road and not wishing we had worked more. So much of our lives are spent working. It’s unnerving to think about. Oh well, it’s nothing a little ride won’t fix.
A toast to the thrill!
“Doesn’t the thrill of riding eventually wear off?”
Only when you close your heart to it.
Don’t do that.
Ever.
I’ll try. The thought of doing that seems impossible right now but who knows what’s around the next bend…
Perish thoughts of summer’s waning, I am resolutely in denial. Wash your keyboard out with soap!
It’s going to be in the 90s here on Sunday. A real scorcher. Winter? Humbug!
Night riding is better away from big suburbia (where I am) …. been with Miles, my soon to be 16 year old, racking up nighttime driving practice hours instead of riding….it can be “interesting”.
My father couldn’t, or wouldn’t, take me driving. It all fell to my mother. She did something right — ended up taking my driver’s test in our 1970 VW Campmobile — standard trans, big bus. Not problem. Loved that thing.
Hope your driving lessons are going well.
Love the feedback. I love each time I can get on my scoot ot motorbike. Wish we could ride all year. Summer is precious! Brent
It’s hard to stop riding. Probably explains why I keep going through the winter. The fire is still there. And if I begin to wear a little maybe then (don’t say anything to Dom) it will be time to look at a URAL.
Like David, I prefer to remain in a state of denial and I will continue to do so for at least two more weeks until the smell of new crayons and the sound of the bell snaps back to reality.
When I read “new crayons” the smell came flooding back. I loved starting school when I was little — getting a writing tablet, a big pencil, and a box of Crayola crayons. Where did the years go?
Steve, I hear you. Really, where DID they go?
Things just slip past me…
The thrill has never worn off for me….even in a truly terrifying storm on Saturday. It was scary, but still a thrill!
That’s what I like to hear. I want to keep on riding until the sun finally sets…