Pathetic 3,000 Miles

On the first day of each new riding season, before I roll the motorcycle out of the shed, I reach over for the pencil on a string and write down on the shed wall the beginning odometer reading. If you follow this blog you know that my work life has taken a new turn, the family is growing, and obligations are insisting on my attention. So it was with great surprise and dismay when I rolled Blaze into the shed yesterday after my commute home, I looked up and realized I had a mere 3,000 miles for the season! It was a shocking testament to how little saddle time I’ve had this year.

My time is filled with living the riding season vicariously through friends and acquaintances on two wheeled adventures. There’s our new friend Bob Q and his son Matt heading from the South Carolina to Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and on to Newfoundland. The photos and descriptions of his motorcycle trip are helping, if only a little, to know that at least someone is on a great adventure. I hope to catch up with Bob and Matt as they make their way back south and pass through Utica New York. It will be a great weekend ride it we can coordinate our schedules.

I’m also watching Kate (the Bee) take a solo cross country trip on her fabulous Harley. There isn’t a soul who meets Kate along the way that will ever forget her. She’s a vibrant woman with a signature bike coupled with a signature smile. Follow Bee’s adventure on her own blog, Bee in the Wind. While I’ve traveled to many of the places Bee is visiting, I have never viewed it from the saddle. If my Western adventure two years ago is any indication, I’m sure she is having one heck of a trip to “bee” envied.

I’m not giving up on a trip of my own. I’m working to clear the work schedule for time this season for a week of my own on Blaze. The research and planning is progressing. The new Zumo is getting waypoints plugged into it for all the spots I need to stop, investigate and to snap photos. What’s the plan? This season, with only a week left for me to squander will be used in visiting all the lighthouses in Maine a motorcycle can get close too. We will start at the most Northeasterly lighthouse in the US which sits in Calais. Other highlights include the light at the point in Maine where at certain times of the year, the sun rises first on this good old US of A. I’ve been thinking of this trip for some time; have talked enough folks ears off about it to, so that Deb in Framingham found reason to send me a lighthouse cookie cutter for Christmas. I’m thinking I should make a batch for the trip to munch on the road.

For now, I’ll sit back in my seat here on Southwest Airlines, watch the country pass beneath me and dream of the roads I’ll one day take to inspect this great country up close and personal. I’m thinking ahead already to next year and a road trip to Sturgis. I’m going to connect with Jeff and his pals who rode out themselves a few years ago, and get some tips, like where to stay, what so see and what to avoid. It’s a place I’ve been too also, but never on two wheels and Jeff’s advice will be invaluable. In the meantime, dreamin’ is as good as it gets!