One Month Into a Motorcycle Road Trip

Those of you who have been following the six-month motorcycle road trip that Sash and I are doing, we've hit the one month mark about a week ago. We were in Trinidad, CO at the time, a town that we had intended to just overnight while en route to Denver, but ended up staying two nights instead.

Thus far, we've overnighted:

3 nights in Yuma, AZ
1 night in Ajo, AZ
7 nights in Tucson, AZ
1 night in Lordsburg, NM
7 nights in Las Cruces, NM
2 nights in Roswell, NM
7 nights in Albuquerque, NM
1 night in Taos, NM
2 nights in Trinidad, CO

(we're now 6 nights into our stay in Denver, CO)

You can also take a look at our route map.

But just during this one month, both Sash and I seem to have made some progress towards spiritual healing, enlightenment, and all that other psychological and metaphysical shit.

For one, I think we don't argue as much.  I mean our last argument occurred maybe two weeks ago in Albuquerque, and that's a big improvement.  I think a big part of it is Sash finally getting to understand my behavior, why I do what I do, and how my brain works.  To get along with someone means having to step outside of yourself and look at the bigger picture of what's going on.  We're both doing that.

But I also think we've gained a greater appreciation of each other.  Every day she tells me how much she's thankful for being on this road trip, thankful for her new life with me, thankful for letting the real Sash come out of the old Susie Homemaker.

I probably don't reciprocate as often enough, but I really do appreciate being married to a woman who is her own woman.  First, she rides her own bike.  Two, she takes care of her own finances; we don't co-mingle funds.  Three, we check out other hot women and talk about doing them in a three-some.

However, I think the biggest change I've encountered is sharing more of myself with others.  If you've followed this blog long enough, you might have noticed that I describe more of my personal self.  That's just learning how to trust, something I haven't done much of before.  That's something that has built over the past few years I've known Sash, but I think has accelerated during this trip.

I think the biggest change for her, aside from letting the "rude biker chick" out of hiding, is that she's gained a closer connection to her father.  Having been deceased for 23 years now, it's almost like he's talking to her through this road trip.  She remembers words of wisdom he told her when she was young, and now it's making a lot of sense, from one old biker to another.

So, we've been in Denver since last Saturday, staying with Sash's girlfriend from high school.  My mother and brother live in Denver, and I've been able to spend time with them.  Sash's motorcycle is in the shop, at a place called "Thunderbird Motorcycles" in Wheat Ridge, getting new tires and new levers put on.

What's in store over the second month of the trip?  Well, Sash has a niece in Tulsa, OK who's about to give birth in another week or two, and she wants to be there for that.  We also want to see Memphis, TN.  It's sounding like we're going to make a right turn and head south-east.

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Winning Half the Game of Motorcycle Safety

Sash began to cry as marble-sized hail began to bounce off her hands and thighs as we rode down Highway 64 through New Mexico. But we were already well out of town and couldn't turn back. We kept our speed to about 40mph as chunks of ice fell from the sky and pinged off our helmets and leather jackets.

And for awhile, I wondered if I had the made the right decision to keep moving. I mean, I could see blue sky in the horizon, I knew if we kept moving we'd be out of the storm.

In fact, I had never wanted to stop in Cimarron the first place. Yet, Sash felt it necessary to put on rain gear. It wasn't really raining all that much at the time, and I knew if we kept moving we'd be out of it. But as she took the time put on her Frog Togg pants, the storm caught up to us.

"Look, it's hailing." I said.

She assumed we'd just stay put and wait it out.

But I was still of the mindset that if we kept moving, we'd be out of the storm. For some reason, I just didn't want to wait this out. Perhaps that little boy inside me wanted to prove a point, that we could have been in the clear if we didn't stop. Had my intellect stayed in control, we would have waited it out.

So off we rode, and Sash elected to ride too.

It was like a swarm of bees crashing into our helmets and jackets at 80mph, pinging and panging like a bucket of golf balls being poured on to a concrete floor.

Ice was hitting my hands as they held on to the handlebar grips, and they hurt, even just riding at 40mph. I was taking hits to the thighs as well. Those that hit my helmet or jacket didn't hurt, but still made as much noise, and I could still feel their impact.

About 5 minutes riding through the hail storm, I spotted three guys riding Harleys coming the other way. They didn't have helmets, and they didn't have gloves, and they were getting pelted as much as us.

And here, my intellect was kicking in, telling me what a dumb decision it was to ride in the hail, when I spot other riders toughing it out even more than Sash and I. Somehow, it justified my decision, and put the whole storm into perspective.

I mean, we have full face helmets, waterproof gloves, heavy leather jackets, rain pants, and steel toed waterproof boots. And yet, we're going to stand under an awning and wait it out? Then why the Hell did we buy all this gear if we're just going to be fair-weather riders? What kind of a six-month motorcycle trip is this? Where's the character-building?

"And I used to be afraid of riding in the rain", Sash told me later. "But after the hail stopped, I was relieved to just have rain."

Nothing like riding in hail to make you appreciate riding in the rain.

The same was true for me about riding on gravel. After my Honda ST was sloshing left and right over a muddy road in Alaska, I was ever so relieved when the road turned to gravel and I regained traction. And to think, there was time when I was afraid to ride my Harley on gravel.

Sash, after she conquered the hail storm.

And that's really what perspectives are about. Facts are meaningless without the human experience.

You can ride an 800 pound Harley-Davidson on a very tight-twisting road and feel overwhelmed by it, but later switch to a 375 pound Ninja 250 and find that it's piece a cake.

Life's experiences makes a huge difference too. You could have grown up taking great measures to avoid accidents, injuries, and illnesses, and then find yourself quite fearful of dropping a motorcycle. But you could have also grown up crashing your skateboard, crashing your bicycle, crashing your dirt bike, and not think anything of it to drop your Harley.

And so perspectives is why some of us wear a chartreuse yellow riding suit versus a black leather jacket. It's why we decide to ride in the hail versus waiting it out under a bridge. There is no right or wrong on what we do. Our perspective is what makes us feel safe about our decisions, and if we have that confidence in ourselves, then we've already won half the game of motorcycle safety.

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How Many Sticks of Lip Balm Does a Biker Need?

Sometimes you have to spend a month on the road to know what you don't need to live with.

When Sash and I left on this 6-month motorcycle road trip, we had already trimmed down our personal and work belongings. But yet, we continue to identify more stuff we don't need.

For example, Sash brought five compact mirrors with her. As if the mirrors in the motel room aren't already enough, as well as the rear view mirrors on the bike, a woman needs more mirrors to keep on her person to make sure she's presentable every minute of the day. And OK, I can understand that women have different priorities that are important to them. But how many compact mirrors does a woman need?

The same issue with lip balm.

Turns out, we have 12 sticks of lip balm with us. That only happened because when we need a stick of lip balm, we can never find it. Hence, we buy another stick.

I also discovered we have 4 fingernail clippers.

Having 12 sticks of lip balm doesn't really bother me at this point if we can agree that its excessive.  That's part of the reason of doing Road Pickle, identifying how big of a pair of pigs we still are.  We'll shop at Whole Foods Market and pat ourselves on the back for buying local, fairly traded foods, yet amass excesses of stuff that make us look like an episode of Hoarders.

Well, OK.  It's not that bad.

Whatever it is, it's good that we're taking an inventory and exploring what excesses we're still carrying on our bikes.  That teaches something about ourselves, and that's part of what Road Pickle is about.

And I'm just as guilty. I still have two laptops I'm carrying, along with a tablet. I just now relented and said that I would FedEx the other laptop and tablet back home.  I'm also carrying three pairs of riding gloves, and will send one of the pairs back home too.  I guess we needed this first month on the road to discover what we really needed.

If you really boil it down, what do you need to survive?

Certainly you need food, but if you have money, then you can just buy food wherever you are. Why carry it with you?

Since money doesn't grow on trees, I need enough stuff with me to keep my website and blog publishing business going.  That and some sets of clothes and my boots.  What else do I need?

I'm happy to see that we're lightening our load, and I hope Sash is happy about it too. I'm proud of her for making the transition away from a mom-jeans-wearing suburban soccer mom who needed her stuff to make her feel secure.  The less stuff she has, the more she relies on herself for security, the more she flips her finger at the world.

Who else is ready to do a "road pickle" of their own and do a gut check on what items they really need to live with?

12 sticks of lip balm

How many tools does one need to manicure their nails?

Five compact mirrors, too many, not enough, or just right?

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