Exploring life on a Vespa Scooter and Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycle.
Riding provides a landscape on which I can let my mind wander across thoughts and ideas the are either bothering me, or just spring to life as the scooter and I are running down the road. One of those ideas that has been bouncing around in my head — the ability to change.
It’s strange how often things occur to me while I’m standing alongside a road, alone, and relaxed.
Continue ReadingBut I love Halloween, and I love that feeling: the cold air, the spooky dangers lurking around the corner.
Evan Peters, American Actor
Lest Imagination Runs Away…Riding my Vespa scooter through the countryside I began thinking about Halloween. It didn’t take long for my imagination to begin creating scenarios straight out of the scary stories of my youth yielding a sense of fear on the road.
The healthy, life preserving fear of operating a two-wheeled vehicle, motorcycle or scooter, on the road remained intact. Respecting, understanding and accepting the risk related to riding and performing accordingly is, at least for me, an essential element of being a competent rider. But sometimes my imagination runs off…
The bare trees on empty landscape seemed ominous and twinged with foreboding — as if something bad had happened here. My brain replayed scenes from old horror movies that would leave me spellbound late on a Saturday night as I would watch Bill Cardille’s Chiller Theatre on channel 11 WIIC in Pittsburgh.
Fear, Halloween and being scared was a lovely combination.
Turns in the RoadThe weather has been sublime. With few physical challenges — cold, rain, snow — both the scooter and my imagination could wander through a pre-Halloween landscape. I’m surprised how often roads play a part in our collective imagination as places of danger. Not the obvious traffic related stuff, but instead the pathological to supernatural occurrences. A few movies that fuel the frightening possibilities of the road:
I carry a lot of psychic baggage in my head available quickly to concoct a chilling idea of where the road is leading me.
I wonder if kids today are still watching scary stuff on TV after their parents go to bed…
Wandering Down the RoadThe ride wasn’t nearly as scary as my imagination might create. The day was mostly a slow, languorous journey through the fine, warm central Pennsylvania countryside. That’s a fine place to be.
But a rider always needs to be wary of the sudden appearance of a zombie. Or a witch casting a spell that might cause said rider to trade a magnificent Vespa for a URAL or worse…
Riding alone has curative powers for my irritated mind. Destination or route don’t seem to matter as much as being alone with my thoughts. Being alone isn’t as much a desire as it is a need. Without recurring doses of time alone I get:
Basically a pain in the ass.
At some level I probably recognized this personal quality and adjusted my interests and time to satisfy the need to be alone. Walking, hiking, wandering with a camera and now riding. A few miles on the scooter and the world begins to make sense. Or at least my restless thinking begins to calm down.
This morning it was cold when I left the house with the temperature at 41F. Destinations rolled through my head as I pushed the Vespa out of the garage but none fired enough neurons to form a plan. A plan isn’t really necessary when being alone is the goal.
Most of the leaves are down now and we could see snow at any time. The days continue to shorten and already I’ve gone to work and returned home in the dark. This morning I took a short ride just to soak up some sunshine and embrace the day. I’ve been by this place many times but I’ve still not really seen it. When asked if I bore of riding the same paths I always think of the photographer, Josef Sudek, who during the Nazi occupation of Prague spent years photographing in his little studio and window and made a remarkably complex and rich collection of photographs.
There’s much more to see on the roads I travel.
I never saw this hay bale pilgrim all ready for Thanksgiving. Someone spent some time and effort putting it together including the use of hydraulics considering the weight of a round bale of hay.
Lots to see on the road.
A perfect morning. Looking at the scooter in such an idyllic setting it’s hard for me to understand why anyone would oppose someone learning to ride. Even when considering more traffic intensive places the question persists.
I’ve heard a resistant spouse or lover raise the danger question fearing the almost certain death that accompanies riding. It may present as “we have children” or “I had a friend who rode…”. I understand the concern and I’ll be the first to admit that riding is more dangerous than driving a car. But there are other points to consider.
Who is taking the greater risk? A distracted driver, frustrated and in a hurry to beat traffic or a rider focused on the road, relaxed and happy?
And who is a better partner, parent or lover? The angry driver who comes home wound tight or the rider who arrives home with a measure of serenity mixed with pleasure?
I like to think riding has made me a better person. I certainly feel lighter and happier after a ride, even a short one through ordinary places, alone on the road, alone with my thoughts.
At the end of the ride I stopped at the Pump Station Cafe to make a few notes and read a few more pages from Thomas Merton’s Thoughts In Solitude
Like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
It’s safe to read — I wouldn’t fear abandoning your worldly possessions to become a monk. And besides, if you have a scooter or motorcycle, you don’t really need a monastery.