Scooter in the Sticks

Exploring life on a Vespa Scooter and Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycle.

Riding at the End of Summer

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Kawasaki W650 motorcycle parked in front of a municipal building.
Signs of the end of summer — paying property taxes.

Motorcycle Utility

On this day it was the Kawasaki W650‘s turn for a ride. With five machines in the garage I have had to set up a rotation to keep them all working, the fuel fresh, and the moisture driven out of the oil. Fifteen to twenty miles is usually enough to do the trick. And it helps me keep my head on straight.

Paying property taxes is an annual August event. Pay the total by the end of the month and you save a few dollars. So that’s what I do. Any excuse to go for a ride at the end of summer.

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The Unlooked-For Gift

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Vespa GTS scooter parked outside the Pump Station Cafe.
Special scooter parking at the Pump Station Cafe.

Sudden Changes

I had a plan. An early morning departure for Altoona to pick up my mother-in-law for a visit. Breakfast at Tom and Joe’s Diner followed by a leisurely drive back to Boalsburg where we could all spend the day together. It’s nice to have plans. Then the call she’s not feeling well and those plans evaporate.

Suddenly the day lays open. It’s relatively cool at 68F. A heavy overcast softens the light and whatever scorching the sun may want to inflict. As I write these words I’m mildly shocked it didn’t feel much desire to go for a ride. Perhaps the approach of my 70th birthday has mellowed my riding obsession.

The half mile journey on the Vespa to the Pump Station for breakfast revealed a desire to relax, read, and just soak in the world. Perhaps the unlooked-for gift.

If I time things right I can get to the Pump Station between the early morning commuters and the daily groups that gather. Seeing just a few cars I know my timing is perfect.

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Dogs and Scooters

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Two Belgian Sheepdogs on a sunday morning at the park.
My two canine teachers.

Dogs and Scooters Make Good Teachers

If I’m willing and not resistant or rigid in my belief that I know best in every situation I can learn something about myself and my life. Lily (left) and Aiden continually remind me of the power of simplicity and the joy hidden in the mundane and ordinary. Each morning they leap out the back door and into the day with no expectations beyond what they might see and smell in that moment. There are no thoughts about adventures in the mountains or disappointment that they aren’t wandering along the Blue Ridge. They’re too busy exploring what’s right in front of them. Right now.

Dogs and scooters remind me that my life does not exist somewhere else, or tomorrow, or yesterday. It is happening now. Even though we walk through the same places in the morning, along the woods, over a creek, through a field, it’s new each time. The light changes, the fragrance in the air changes. I’m not the same man right now that I was ten minutes ago. And if I can stay focused on this moment as the dogs do, I can find pleasure and contentment. For as long as I can focus…

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Prescription: Royal Enfield Himalayan and Autumn

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2022 Royal Enfield Himalayan in a rural autumn landscape
Unwinding with an autumn motorcycle ride.

A Change of Scenery

A riding rhythm has eluded me for the past two months. Maybe more. The usual drive to get on the motorcycle or scooter just hasn’t been animating my decisions. Instead, i’ve lost myself in too much television. Too much sugar. Too much sleep. Staring out the window at the changing autumn landscape, wondering what was wrong, it occurred to me the prescription was simple — get on the Royal Enfield Himalayan and go for a ride.

Anywhere. Just a change of scenery would alter how I feel.

And it worked.

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Singular Focus While Riding a Motorcycle

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a chocolate chip cookie
A talisman of singular focus.

Chocolate Chip Cookie

How is it that a chocolate chip cookie is so important to me?

Is it really a talisman of some mindful focus on the present moment? Or merely a reflection of a lifelong addiction to sugar?

I choose to believe the cookie’s oversized importance points to something greater than sugar. A magical draw toward the present. A jumping-off point where I abandon the past and the future and exist now.

Of course, all of this may be a delusion brought on by a rhinovirus that woke me at midnight after hours of sleep, my body sluggish but my mind racing.

Still, there’s something to my singular focus on a cookie.

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