While traveling from California to Arizona I pass a mobility scooter, the last in a line of Harley riders riding the posted speed limit. A mobility scooter, if you don’t know is essentially a three wheeler form of transportation, for the aged. This group of riders all looked picture perfect riding together while also wearing the “lifestyle” Harley flagship clothing line.
I’m not on a motorcycle this time but, in a jeep while pulling a 2022 Adventure Yamaha FXHO watercraft. If motorcycles and behemoth recreational vehicles can be referred to as “adventure” then so can this watercraft.
Earlier this morning, with almost no discussion at all, she just said go, but, in a good sort of way. We did the morning coffee routine with the new young Labrador Retriever Lexi vying for our attention. Then just like that, the road trip to the river was on; about 2.5 hours later I arrived.
One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it’s such a nice change from being young; all the wisdom that we are endowed with combined with the guaranteed minimum income is priceless, for someone like me.
The scenery was ever changing, but the one constant was the wind, the desert scenery and the long views of bare mountains and rolling hills. Think desert scenery, like in the Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote cartoons. Off white skies (possibly implying overcast/cloudy weather conditions) with desert bushes all crescent-shaped with bright yellow desert sand all around; the bright hot sun was now rising in the sky from the east.
As I near the California/Arizona border I am welcomed by two things. Cheaper fuel prices and small puffy clouds rather than the early crescent-shaped ones.
The wind welcomed me all the way into my retired marine friends home where he was just about to provide his opinions, conclusions, and recommendations about the ongoing Ukraine and Russian war; and the great thing is, he gets paid for it.
Once he is done with his job it’s hard to turn him off to switch gears to riding watercraft on the river. He goes on about artificial intelligence becoming a wartime reality. We are now able to control large numbers of unmanned systems and operate them in synch to attack an even larger though less maneuverable platform like helicopters or troop transports.
Wow I say, I’m totally impressed. Now. Let’s just put a Fitbit on your ass and see if we can get you to 10,000 steps today. He laughs. I laugh. We both laugh. I like that last line, it shows we’re human and very comfortable in our own skins.
Turns out, he just got a box in of the nutrasystem weight loss food delivered with his goal of shedding twenty pounds. The problem as I now see it is that you’re now just sitting behind a desk all day. That’s allot of sitting I say, and humans need to be in constant motion to survive. And tomorrow just happens to be cinco de Mayo and we’re probably near no less than twenty outstanding Arizona Mexican restaurants with authentic and traditional foods and Cadillac margaritas. Plus we need the salt and salsa; this heat is dehydrated guaranteed. One needs lots of fluids here to stay healthy.
We finally launch my new YAMAHA FXHO on the river after idling for about ten minutes to break it in. And then I keep the rpms for the next hour below 5,000. Soon I hit the two hour riding mark and after all the river exploring and sightseeing we go back up river and arrive as it starts to get dark. For a while we just floated with the river currents talking, another guy on a newer but smaller Yamaha joins us in conversation. He is originally from Romania. We talk about, guess what, communism, watercraft, the river, the ongoing Ukraine/ Russian war and Europe in general. Life is good for us three as we continue to float downstream. The air temperature at nearly 8:00 pm is still hovering near 90 degrees. The water is probably forty degrees cooler.
According to G. Shaw, “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”
And that my friends is one full day.
Trawlercat
PS: I updated my three life essentials to four now; something to do; something to look forward to; someone or something to love; and a little coin to spend.
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