Scooter in the Sticks

Exploring life on a Vespa, Royal Enfield Himalayan, Honda Trail 125, and a Kawasaki W650

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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I Need to Go for a Ride

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Vespa GTS scooter on a rural road.
On the road between calm and chaos.

Morning Chaos

These photographs and reflections are from a ride I made this past September 2021.

There is a short time interval between the calm and quiet of waking in the morning and the sudden jolt of frenetic chores, tasks, and running around. If I manage an hour of quiet time I feel blessed. And as the day continues to unfold and the chaos increases I find myself frustrated by what seems to be biological programming to shut down and do nothing. And it’s in those moments I think, “I need to go for a ride.”

It’s that thought that often has me dropping everything and heading out the door to save my soul. I let the Vespa do the heavy lifting.

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Riding is Magic

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It’s always a surprise what triggers me to write an essay for Scooter in the Sticks. This time it was dragging the garbage can to the street for pickup and seeing frost on the car.

BMW K75 motorcycle parked by the Mid State Trail in fog.
A magical, foggy morning on the motorcycle.

There are hints that winter is approaching; leaves descending from trees; geese honking overhead; squirrels and chipmunks growing fatter and fatter as they store the peanuts we put out for the birds. And now frost along with a faint bite on skin that rattles awake ancient programming in my DNA that whispers deep in my brain, “you better get ready…”

Those feelings sometimes emerge while riding, especially when conditions turn toward the surreal or become physically challenging. It happened one morning when I was riding the motorcycle into the mountains and encountered fog.

I discovered (again) that riding is magic.

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Morning Meditations

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dog in garden
Dogs enforce habits and rituals for their owners.

You Shall Not Pass

Morning meditations have become a daily ritual. One that didn’t come easy.

I’ve learned life is easier when I begin the day slowly.  It’s not a simple task because my mind is most active in the morning and I can be swept into action before I really have an idea of what I should be doing.  Or worse, jump on the merry-go-round of obsessive thinking, often on a subject I’ve given far too much attention.  Fortunately,  I have dogs who stand ready to stop me as they demand their fair share of the American dream.

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