three hundred fifty three

TIME RELATIVITY

I have been off subject for a few posts so this post is all about bike touring. Bicycle travel is a very primitive form of transportation. As I get older electric bikes look interesting but I’ll stick with my human powered contraption.

Airplane travel still amazes me, you sit in a chair that is traveling 600 miles per hour, you dawn your noise canceling headphones and eye mask, adjust your neck pillow and pop an ambient. Then you wake up on a different continent, in a different time zone and hear people speaking a different language. This was unimaginable a few generations ago but I still hear people complaining about how long it takes.

Car road trips are at a different pace. Driving takes concentration so watching the road in front of you is about all you actually see. Your focus is on watching for bad drivers and yes, nuts on bicycles. Motel to motel, gas station to gas station, restaurant to restaurant then throw in a few rest stops, scenic vistas and a couple driver changes, you are there.

Motorcycle touring looks like a lot of fun. You experience the open road and an open air a feeling of freedom you don't get in a car. You cover more ground and see more things but endlessly flashing the cool biker wave to every single passing motorcycle drives me nuts. 

Group riding can be fun plus there is safety in numbers but where I go and when I stop isn't up for a vote. The age old measuring game is on full display. Look at me I ride a BMW, Harley Davidson, African Twin or an old man Gold Wing. Motorcycling is popular, too popular in my opinion and like most group activities there is a pecking order. 

(Not that I'm looking:) I won't say much more negative for now, I may someday be on a Honda NC750x when I can no longer turn the cranks on my bicycle.  

PRIVATE ROOM AND FREE PARKING

FINE DINING

PRIVATE BATHROOMS

SHOWERS WITH A VIEW

 AND AMAZING WATER PARKS

Bicycle touring operates in a different sense of time. You can't go fast or far, every mile is fully experienced and earned, planes over your head, cars, trucks and motorcycles over your left shoulder and electric bikes that serve no useful purpose other then to piss me off. Occasionally a spandex clad group of road cyclists pass you by as each one gives you an "on your left".

You need to focus on the road but you still have plenty of time to scan the world around you. You can take in the sights and sounds and monitor that "spidey sense" that has alerted you of danger countless times. There are no crowds, traffic jams, parking problems of fear of speed traps. The police put you in the "not dangerous but crazy" category. Some think what you are doing is cool, most don't care but a few think you are just plain nuts, but not the dangerous kind of nuts.

No long lines, scans, pat downs, tolls or fuel charges. All food tastes amazing, ice cold water is an experience and a cheap motel shower feels like a luxury resort spa. 

Crossing the path of another touring cyclist is like meeting a long lost friend, reaching a summit makes you want to dance and hearing "yes, you can camp in our field" gives you peace of mind. Ice cream, cold milk and raisin bran, fresh strawberries at a road side stand and finding pop tarts you thought you had eaten in the middle of the night. In the morning discovering there is no morning dew, finding strong coffee and a bathroom big enough you can park your bike inside. 

All of these seems strange but everything is bigger, brighter, more flavorful but not faster. Eventually you discover time really doesn't matter, you will get there when you get there. The time thing is my favorite, not at first but after a couple of weeks I rarely look at the time, date or day of the week.

This isn't for everyone and thats a good thing. The few of us who get this are a strange breed. The dirt, sweat, exhaustion, aches and pains are all part of the experience, if you don't get it you probably won't.

I have been distracted lately, it's time to refocus and remember the dream.