“The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.”
—ROBERT FROST
A motorcycle’s life begins the moment it starts to gets ridden. Soon (D+11) though, eleven days from today, I start our journey from home towards Phoenix, Arizona to subsequently join (Joey, Chris, Tracy, Todd, Brian) for the start of a Joey, aka Jazz ride that leads us into Ciudad Mexico. Once across the USA/MEXICO border we start laying down gpskevin type tracks to connect to a ride Yoda Kevin and Yoda Roberto affectionately created called the Mixteco ride to Oaxaca.
“And just at about the time when the Moors began to take over the Iberian Peninsula (Spain) the original Zapotecs also began to lose out to the new and more powerful Mixtecs.” (From my featured Mexico history story titled Ciudad Oaxaca Day 1 – peruse it for more Oaxaca history)
And just like a sailboat, you can’t change the direction of the wind but, you can adjust your sails to continue going in the desired direction; well, if you also can’t change your colder weather too, this January 2022, you can do like us and ride south of the border to warmer places in the Mexican tropics.
If I were to walk a stranger around my big fat and beautiful 2020 BMW GSA 1250 motorcycle I call Gordo, I could easily start a story about all those “stickers” atop my aluminum box top case or the symbolism of the sharks mouth on its massive near seven gallon fuel tank, plus stories of all the places we’ve visited on account of great riding friends during these past fifteen months when Gordo was new.
This planned ride is already serving to remind me of why we do this. We do this not only for the adventure and thrills of being alive but, of the pleasures of riding with other great riders.
And soon, even while on the present ride other great adventures are born, planned and further refined. Like for example, a future personal watercraft adventure down Baja way from the lovely port city of San Felipe to San Jose de Cabo or a Cuban scooter ride from Havana, Cuba down to the oldest colonial city on the island called Baracoa.
Gordo is still a baby shark in motorcycle traveling years and miles (15 months and 27,000 miles). More great tales like this upcoming ride are soon to be written, told and shared. This is the start of a great adventure!
Looking back at life, as a 15-year-old kid living and riding a Honda CB100 in Miami, Florida in the early 70’s I had no idea where life would one day take me.
If I were to go back in time, I’d tell that studly looking younger me that in the years to come, he’ll meet all kinds of people, some of whom he may never have met, were it not for continuing the passion of riding a motorcycle.
Thankfully, age differences are equalized on a motorcycle. The one commonality is that if you ride, you ride well and also love to push the envelope of adventure riding. And if you also love the thrills associated with pointing your face in the direction of the lands of spicy foods, so much the better.
And when we arrive, we join up with the rest of our riders who are flying in to ride (Steve, Jeff, Gustavo, Todd, Jim, Tye Dye Keith, Pete, Thane, Guillermo, Gpskevin, Tom, Janelle, John, Brian, Richard and Art B and Carroll J, Roberto, too!
Already in Mexico Roberto, Donn and Debbie H will join us too! All of those current and future friends will also continue to share in the simplest of pleasures. All of this Gpskevin puzzle continues to unravel for me and is now starting to make more sense to me. Hopefully, with enough time left in my remaining years, I’ll decipher enough patterns to become a Yoda too!
Trawlercat
January 2022
Trawlercat Personal Blog Chronicles 