Well, the choice to wear the chaps worked out quite well. I enjoyed having them on for the first 50 miles or so, and that allowed my thoughts to be on things other than being cold! I’m riding along US HWY 2 now, and it is one I’ve ridden several times before. I like to ride this route, though, because I do so infrequently enough for it to remain mostly a discovery opportunity.
I also like to travel this way, because US 2 for me is like Route 66 is for others… An image of America the way things were, the way things are, and the way things are going. The ups and downs of the oil patch, the strife and struggles of agriculture, growth in some towns, decline in other towns, people adjusting to changing times… some better than others, but all grappling with constant problems and challenges.
It also affords a glimpse at the convergence, sometimes clash, of cultures as with the Native Americans, but also the migratory patterns of all people over the last century or two right up to the present day, and of the triumphs and tragedies, successes and failures of us humans to get it right much of the time. Still, we persist and persevere, and through it all we, arguably, seem to make general progress…
And that, I think, is the story of America… A story of hope, dreams, and ambitions, failures and overcoming, as well as of idealists and scoundrels, hard-working folks and slackers, plodders and those who imagine great things.
Risk-takers have played a huge role in shaping our present, but not without cost. Those who guessed right and played their hands well prospered, but often only after having already tasted the bitter fruit of failure first… and all too often having left casualties in their wake. Those who did not, or simply had bad timing or bad luck failed miserably. Those who got in the way usually got bowled over…
Through it all, though, the majority of folks picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and forged ahead… again. We’ve made some bad, sometimes disastrous, choices as a nation, and we’ve sometimes hurt other people terribly. We’ve also afforded opportunities for success to all who will take the chance, and many have been handsomely rewarded. Ours is an imperfect system in an imperfect world run by imperfect decision makers… but I wouldn’t trade it for any of the others…
WOW! When you’re in the groove all kinds of cool stuff percolates through your thinker muscle! But, the physical world has a way of changing things in an instant. As I was cruising along doing what I do, I suddenly realized I had drifted close to the centerline in a sweeping curve, and a big truck was closing with me fast! I reflexively swerved to avoid it, but that was close to being a close call… I decided it was time for a break… perhaps past time!
In the next hamlet I came to, I pulled into a convenience store/gas station, and topped off. I also decided to shed a couple of layers, including my chaps. Just prior to this stop I had also detected a slight elevation in my pooperosity level, but no general alarm had sounded… yet. I figured I had plenty of time to stick to the plan, then go inside… Dang! I was wrong!
Mercifully no issues ensued, but that was an even closer call than the one that had brought me there in the first place! I had to take itty-bitty steps, and my butt cheeks were taught as a snare drum, but… Safe! I barely made it, but man I was mighty worried there for a fleeting instant…
Now what? Is this just the natural aging process at work again, or is there some other explanation going on here? I thought hard… could it have been my visit to the Doc Holiday Roadhouse the evening before? If so, I’m really glad I only ate half of the patty melt sandwich I’d ordered. Happier still that I’d tossed the other half this morning in favor of a more traditional breakfast… and speaking of breakfast… but first…
Another hundred miles or so, and I was feeling a resurgence in my pooperosity level! Dang, but wouldn’t you know it? Just as I was slowing to enter a village, I saw a new Rest Area on the side of the road… Man, talk about good fortune! I pulled in and did the deed… Now, two incidents already, but solutions readily at hand both times! What is that all about?
My GF, Napper, is fond of saying ‘clean living and pure thoughts’ result in good things happening. Well, my behavior habits and thinking processes haven’t varied much from other times when I haven’t been so fortunate, so I question that… Then it occurred to me that this time I’d been yodeling a lot. Could that be it? I think I’m going to be doing a lot more of that… just in case…
I stopped again to top off down the road at the same station where Dennis, Mitch and I had stopped a couple of years ago. That was the place a biker couple had told us about her not being allowed to cross into Canada because she’d had a DUI conviction on her driving record… We’d never heard of that before, but the three of us were OK, so we didn’t worry about it.
Anyway, a nice lady pulled in to top off her tank, and I asked if there were any good places to have breakfast in that town… She pointed me to the Wild West Diner just a couple of doors down from where we were, and that’s where I went.
My tush had no sooner hit the seat, then a kindly lady smiled at me and commented on what a nice bike ALI is… Naturally I responded and thanked her. She then informed me that she and her husband had ridden Gold Wings… She turned out to be the mother of the café’s owner, so I invited her to join me… she did… We had a delightful chat, and this meal was far better than the one I’d contemplated the evening before… and so far, with far better results!
Anyway, she turns out to have been born in Norway. Her family had emigrated to Montana in 1947 when she was a small girl. She’d grown up right there, married her husband, an emigrant from Russia when he was a child at about the same time she had come… and they’d made their lives there. He’d passed-on ten years before, and now she spends time with her kids, grandkids, and two great grand kids. We compared notes on things we’d seen, places we’d been, and things we’d done, small talk really, but pleasant. What an interesting half hour or so!
Well, back at it. Down the road digesting my food for nutrition as well as lots of food for thought. It had warmed up some more, so now it was time to think about putting-up for the night. I’m in no hurry to be anywhere, I have no curfew, and I don’t have to be back ‘home’ any particular time… “What the hey,” I’d thought, “let’s just call it an easy day…”