3 Sleeps Left

I was provided access as a contributor to this blog about a month ago. It is quite an honor to have been given this authorization and with that great honor comes a wee bit of pressure. Tony has asked me a couple of times when I would make my first post but up to now I have had some difficulty coming up with anything that felt worthy. So, before I embark on my first long distance motorcycle trip I thought I would dedicate my first post, quite fittingly, to my dad (Pop, as Kirsten and I called him) who also loved to ride. Please forgive me any rambling – I promise I’ll try to make them less so as I become better at this. As we travel I will do my best to provide interesting observations and entertainment.

It is 3 nights (sleeps as I like to call them) until we take off on my first big road trip on two wheels. Sure, I’ve had a weekend trip and a couple of eight hour day trips…but four continuous day trips..on the back of a motorcycle? Nooo. It is with great excitement and perhaps a bit of trepidation that grows a little more every day.

I am guilty of having been called a “princess”, a title that I’m rather grateful was eliminated after my SE Asia travels. Cheerfully eating bugs, swatting cockroaches out of my dirty laundry and crawling into a silk sleeping bag to avoid any crawlies on the bed that cost $12/night, not to mention the lavatory situations in many places visited, will surely ditch the reputation for being difficult! After eight months of such humbling experiences I have decided that this will simply be another great adventure. Not only that – a great adventure to share with someone very special to me.

I have discovered a shared love of two-wheeled travel with Tony. I had my hesitations at first, after having lost Pop to his love of the same method of transport. I hadn’t expected the sudden understanding and kinship I felt with Tony and Pop the first time I sat behind Tony on the Tiger. What freedom! The smells, the sudden change in temperature, the ability to see so much of the countryside that you miss in a car!

I don’t often speak of my thoughts and feelings on spiritual connection but there is a feeling I have of something greater than myself. This feeling came to me when on a small road in rural Ontario late last summer – the sun shining on me, looking at farmland and smelling fresh smells I hadn’t smelled since moving to Toronto – I could hear Pop’s laugh in my head and visualize him while he laughed. I hadn’t been able to do so in years. Memory is funny that way when someone exits your life.

A colleague of mine asked me yesterday “Isn’t your butt going to get sore?”. Well, yes, quite sore as a matter of fact, as does my entire body after sitting like that for hours on end…But the trade off is rather worth it. Whether I will be saying this same statement 2.5 days into travel, I can’t promise you. What I do know right now is that I am completely grateful for the experience that connects me to the Tony, who loves me for all of my quirks and qualities, connects me to my spiritual centre, and connects me to a wonderful man who passed before his time but not before passing on his love of the freedom of two-wheeled transport to his oldest daughter.

Peace.
L