There are plans, and then there are\u2026 all those other things that actually happen\u2026 I plan when I need to or when it makes sense, and I sometimes plan out of habit\u2026 Occasionally I\u2019ve already done some planning without even realizing it\u2026 Some of all of that happened recently\u2026 and all of the events were connected more or less\u2026<\/p>\n
It started when I decided to sell my house and move to Florida. Sheeeeesh! Talk about required planning! I could write volumes on that score, but my fingers simply don\u2019t have the stamina\u2026 Besides the formidable issues of selling my house and relocating my household goods, there were other onerous chores to coordinate, handle, overcome, work around, figure timing and sequencing of\u2026 yadda, yadda\u2026<\/p>\n
Among those were the needs to transfer insurance coverages on my vehicles, obtain new titles, get new tags and registrations, and my driver\u2019s license had to be changed, also. Oh joy! Just what a biker gypsy loves to do\u2026 stand in long lines, then eventually listen to bureaucrats drone on about this and that, then tell you why they can\u2019t help you until you return with whatever it was that you didn\u2019t anticipate needing\u2026<\/p>\n
By the time I\u2019d closed on the old house and had all my personal goods loaded and transferred to my new \u2018home\u2019\u2026 I needed a road trip bad! Well, some planning would necessarily be involved because of the ticking time bomb\u2026 My birthday is in October, so I had what remained of August and the month of September to do any riding I could, then get those other pesky \u2018time sensitive\u2019 details all ironed out\u2026<\/p>\n
There was also a couple of other rides I wanted to do\u2026 The Indiana Ride had already been missed, because I\u2019d been out west at the time. The Fall Color Ride already had me pretty committed, but the BBQ in Prescott had crossed my mind as well, and then JoeValkIS was doing another Missouri FCR, and those are good\u2026 and he is a great guy, so I hated it when that didn\u2019t work out. In fact, only the FCR that SmokinJoe hosts ended up attended by yours truly. Well, that and my solo road trip back to the northwest just after my \u2018big move adventure\u2019\u2026<\/p>\n
See where I\u2019m going with this? Working out all of that, doing the necessary triage to make the priorities fit even at the expense of lesser ranked stuff\u2026 mandated some fancy planning. But, I got everything required done, and I still managed to work in some of the \u2018nice to haves\u2019\u2026 all thanks to careful planning\u2026 Yuk!<\/p>\n
By the time we pulled away from Robbinsville, everything had been taken care of\u2026 well, I still do have a few boxes to unpack back in Florida, but those can wait indefinitely. I\u2019m so relieved! One or two more things to work out\u2026 well almost\u2026<\/p>\n
Napper had met me for the FCR. Good. Napper is navigationally challenged. Not so good. We\u2019re not just talking about an ordinary affliction here like the one I have, either\u2026 I mean, you mention complex concepts to her like north, south, east, or west, and she gets that panicked \u2018deer in the headlights\u2019 look\u2026 She is more comfortable with things like: Turn left just past the Walmart, or go two red lights that-a-way, then hang a right\u2026<\/p>\n
She absolutely hates Interstate Highways and\/or big city driving! Traffic of any sort throws her into a three-quarter tizzy; heavy traffic at all, and she immediately retreats to her \u2018happy place\u2019. Well, all that complicates travel involving her, so considerable planning is always required\u2026 She\u2019s worth it, of course, but still\u2026 allowances and accommodations have to be made\u2026 and careful planning is unavoidably necessary\u2026<\/p>\n
I volunteered to lead her part of the way back to Alabama\u2026 When we parted in Rome, GA, I told her, two left turns and you\u2019ll be in Wetumpka\u2026 this included the first left turn being out of the parking lot where we were standing. Simple, right?<\/p>\n
She managed to make a right turn in there someplace\u2026 and\u2026 Mercifully I didn\u2019t know about that until after she had worked her way out of that snare and had already found her way home\u2026 No action beyond empathy from me was required\u2026<\/p>\n
I\u2019m supposed to call Trout Dude in a few days\u2026 That is another time factor to figure on\u2026 And, I was seriously thinking about still trying to work in the Missouri FCR after all\u2026 I called the motel in Missouri to see about vacancies\u2026 \u201cWe have one room left,\u201d the lady informed me\u2026 \u201cthe honeymoon suite\u2026\u201d Now if I had an alter ego Like Stanley does with Cletus, I might have considered it, but\u2026 I don\u2019t\u2026 so, I didn\u2019t\u2026<\/p>\n
I then thought maybe I\u2019d ride up to West Virginia. Going to Morehead City, NC, to visit my cousin had already been postponed until Thanksgiving due to flooding and road conditions, so the mountains of WV seemed a sensible alternative\u2026<\/p>\n
Once back in the mountains and riding along thinking cool thoughts, another notion sprung forth\u2026 Why not get a cabin for a few days in Fontana Village on NC HWY 28 just down the road from the Tail of the Dragon? I haven\u2019t stayed there in many years, and it would be a nice change of pace\u2026 WOW!<\/p>\n
I rode the Cherohala Parkway across to Robbinsville, turned north (hey Napper, that means I made a left at the stop sign) onto US 129 towards the Dragon\u2026 smiling all the way. Yep, I\u2019d figuratively just thumbed my nose at my ‘plan’, and by extension planning generally, and now I was coloring outside the lines again! I just love it when a non-plan comes together\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are plans, and then there are\u2026 all those other things that actually happen\u2026 I plan when I need to or when it makes sense, and I sometimes plan out of habit\u2026 Occasionally I\u2019ve already done some planning without even …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meanderings-by-ddt-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":774,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions\/774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}