Scooter in the Sticks

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

Is Riding Like Walking: A path to more creative thinking?

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Vespa GTS 250 scooter parked on a farm lane.
A stop on a recent late afternoon ride. Just some time on the road to think. Is riding like walking?

Ride or Walk?

I’ve long recognized feeling better when I go for a ride. The distance, duration, or destination don’t seem to matter.

A recent study from Stanford University suggests that walking led people to more creative thinking. I’ve read about writers being able to shake loose mental blocks and solve narrative problems while walking. So I’ve begun to wonder if riding is like walking.

The Stanford study showed from 80 to 100 percent of participants produced more creative ideas while walking compared to sitting. And sitting down afterward, that creative energy continued. I sit a lot. Perhaps if I take more regular walks my blog writing blocks may begin to dissolve.

When I ride my imagination definitely increases. Many of the ideas for blog and video topics surface during rides. Not so many when I sit at the keyboard.

Perhaps I just trying to rationalize more reasons to ride.

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Aimless Wandering

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Vespa GTS scooter in fog along railroad tracksWandering Along

The past few weeks have been a collection of exquisite riding weathers — fog, warm days, cool mornings.  For many riders it would open the door to long rides and adventure.  I wish I could say that’s what I’ve been doing.  But I’ve been doing some aimless wandering, on foot and on the Vespa scooter, but it’s not so much about the physical act as it is about engaging the senses.  Relishing the perceptions of being out in the world.

I stood for a long time at this railroad crossing gazing at the edge where what’s visible disappeared into the fog.  I wasn’t looking for anything; just feeling life flow around and through me.

That’s often the case when I’m riding the scooter.Continue Reading

A Walk in the Woods

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Danner boots on walkerThe Boots Are Made For Walking

Sometimes it’s good for the soul to take a walk in the woods.  It works the body, it works the mind.  Afterwards, whatever was chewing on the spirit is often gone.  Just a mile down the road from my home is the Stan Yoder Memorial Nature Preserve, a fifteen acre plot of land in Boalsburg that was rescued from development by the community.

It’s a good place to wear out my Danner hiking boots.

Trail in the Stan Yoder Memorial PreserveInto the Woods

This time of year the preserve is generally empty save from the birds and small mammals that live there.  Signs of deer and bear can also be found from time to time.  But mostly it’s quiet and provides a measure of solitude for anyone with a few minutes to walk.

Trail at the Stan Yoder Memorial PreserveDown the Trail

Each time I walk through the preserve I’m reminded of how rejuvenating a walk in the woods can be.  It’s not unlike a ride on the Vespa scooter only a bit more physically challenging.  Often I’m here with a dog.  I’m thinking in the future I may bring along lunch and just hang out and breathe…

Dog log bags at the Stan Yoder Memorial PreserveDog Log Support

I always travel with plastic bags in my pocket.  But for those dog owners that forget you’ll find a couple reminders and resources to keep the preserve free of canine land mines.  I didn’t see any on this walk.

Bench at the Stan Yoder Memorial PreserveSitting

For a lot of people this place must be a bore.  No ball fields or tennis courts.  No picnic pavilions with barbecue grills or tennis courts or swing sets.  There’s nothing to do.  In a world of frenzied activity and chaos a park like this is a romantic anachronism.  How many people want to sit alone on a bench in the woods and write poetry anymore?

View at the Stan Yoder Memorial PreserveThe Woods

I would have loved this place as a kid.  These days I would be shocked to see any kids here without their parents.  Different world now.  In all the years I’ve been coming here I bet I’ve not seen a dozen people.  I wonder what that says…

2017 Brave, Bold Blogger Challenge

This post is part of a month long writing prompt challenge conceived by Kathy at Toadmama.com.

Walking Stick

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Steve Williams with walking stickA Walking Stick

A recent rainstorm coupled with drought hardened ground, and neglect in keeping rain gutters clean, combined to fill my basement with water.  A few hours of after-midnight cleanup and 18 trips carrying a Shop-Vac up steps to empty was all that was necessary to create a returning patient for my chiropractor.

I have an old yoga book that I’ve glanced at a few times over the last 25 years when the idea I should care for my body takes hold.  There’s a line etched in my memory — “You’re as young as your spine is flexible.”

I’m not too young.

A week of incapacity and riding-free life has passed.  Mornings of struggle to get out of bed and strategies to get dog food bowls to the floor have passed.  New ways to tie shoes were developed and standing up straight is a reason to celebrate.  I’ve been walking slowly through the garden to help  limber the lower back and hips while hoping the dogs don’t run into me as I play the fragile aging man.  And from this place of woe an old friend emerged — my faithful walking stick.

I’ve had this walking stick since the early 1980s.  It’s a long staff reaching almost to my shoulder and has travelled along on many hikes and backpacking trips.  It’s tapped along the Maine coast and the Appalachian Trail.  Now it provides welcome support to an otherwise shaky existence.

The back is much improved but I’ve come to appreciate the form and function of a walking stick.  I’ve often wondered why people use a cane when a walking stick is far superior.  You can lean on it, pull yourself up, and keep an angry dog at bay with it.  It is a damn function bit of technology.

The Complete Walker

My love of walking sticks grew out of books by Colin Fletcher, especially The Complete Walker.  This book fueled a love of walking and hiking and is full of stories and reflections of a life on foot.  Between the lines of much of what I write is the influence of Fletcher.

The morning may bring enough back recovery to consider riding to work.  If I do, the walking stick will have to stay at home with the dogs…