Scooter in the Sticks

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

Giving Thanks

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Wisp of clouds in a blue sky over a mountain top.
Looking to the sky for gratitude and Thanksgiving.

Gratitude

This is a story about riding a motorcycle and giving thanks.

It’s easy for me to overlook the good things in my life. I blame the rush and chaos of everyday living, but the truth is — giving thanks is a habit I’ve not fully developed. Just as Ebenezer Scrooge learned to keep Christmas in his heart every day of the year, so should I learn the same in regard to Thanksgiving.

I ventured out on the motorcycle on a fine, crisp November morning at 35F. Gazing into a blue sky I felt gratitude for having another day to live.

The underlying, original motivation for Thanksgiving may have been pure, but my experiences of the day growing up were one of holiday, complete with family traveling to be together, a huge meal, arguments at the table followed by football on television and grown men asleep in the living room.

There’s nothing wrong with any of that. But a fundamental ingredient was absent the day — gratitude.

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Haunted in the Autumn Landscape

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Vespa GTS scooter on a rural road
Riding through the autumn landscape and memories of the past.

Sometimes Riding is Secondary

Do you set time aside to take in the autumn landscape? To remember times in the woods?

The autumn landscape in central Pennsylvania is nothing short of stunning. I’ve been witness to the symphony of color and fragrance for 47 years — on foot, riding a bicycle, from within an automobile, from the air and astride a scooter or motorcycle. Of all the ways I have enjoyed these landscapes the most compelling has been with the Vespa scooter.

On this particular day, I was not concerned with the ride beyond its ability to move me into the world. I wasn’t thinking of performance, lines through curves or anything like that beyond remaining safe and aware of the road. I just wanted to take in the scenery.

How often do you “watch the woods” and look at the autumn landscape? Or any landscape you happen to live in?

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Morning Meditation on a Vespa Scooter

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wheat field in the fog
A rural landscape transformed into an elemental painting of shape, line and color.

Shape, Line and Color

Fog reduces the landscape to basic elements of shape, line and color. Standing alongside the road, studying the wheatfield, I’m free to consider my place in the world and continue the conversation that’s part of a morning meditation on a Vespa scooter.

Is this serenity? Is this where I’m supposed to be? Is it enough?

On different days there are different questions. Riding opens a door to examination of what’s going on in my head and heart. And then as suddenly as I stopped I’m moving again, traveling at a pace that seems in synch with everything around me.

It’s not just going for a ride, it’s meditation on a Vespa scooter.

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Breathing in Spring on a Vespa Scooter

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Vespa scooter stopped on a rural road in early morning light.
Stopped along a road near Linden Hall, Pennsylvania.

Bathed in Wind and Light

The scooter is the lightest it will be all year. The first rides after removing the winter protection from the scooter. The machine feels as if it’s floating over the road, nimbly dodging patches of gravel and pavement holes and cracks from a too harsh winter. And with it all goes a lightness of being that’s nearly beyond description. How do you tell someone of a smile wrapped around a heartache fired by a sense of freedom felt while bathed in wind and light.

I no longer manufacture reasons to ride. More often than not I say to my wife, “I’m going for a scooter ride.” She understands that I get something from them even if she can’t experience the feelings first hand. The rides of early spring bring a new optimism and hope for better things ahead. Winter quickly burns from memory as the scooter travels through a complex mix of birdsong, fragrances of flowers and moist earth.

Astonishment rides along with me as I drink in the spring.

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Patience and Perseverance

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Self-portrait of Steve Williams
Reaction to learning of yet another stumbling stone in the path of life — yet another tick borne infection requiring 21 days of antibiotics.

When It Rains It Pours

Feels like the universe is out to get me. Us. Kim and I. Osteomyelitis for her followed by six weeks of IV antibiotic infusions. A severe reaction to the medicine followed by six more weeks with another mix. So I’m on a strict schedule administering the antibiotics and then find a tick followed by “the rash.” As I down the daily dose of doxycycline I find myself reciting “patience and perseverance.”

Sometimes you just have to buck up and deal with whatever comes along.

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