These are the days…

[flan8tive]

Great prose, Ned.

Will never forget the sound of your SE coasting up to the fuel apron in Moab. You had to push it the last 100' or so.

Tanks full, you were nice enough to offer some saddle time on your bike. Ten minutes on your SE and it was game over.

Truly the most amazing bike and it's great that you are out there collecting miles on it.

Thanks for sharing.

And inspiring.

[Stephen]

Well, Ned... damn.

I've hardly looked at a moto for about a year now. Sometimes there are other things, y'know? So many other things; losin' my dad, gettin' another granddaughter, gettin' to know my horses, tryin' to make some money without gettin' a job... tryin' to do all the things I hafta do without doin' things I just do not want to do anymore. And some things that have always brought me more than mere pleasure are left to sleep in the shed.

But, well, Ned... damn.

[MiddleAgedMissile]

Bravo Senor.... your moto melancholy is a pleasure.

[neduro]

Originally Posted by jimbee

hello mr. ned!!! Now I know what you were scribling in your diary: brilliant prose.

You are next, my friend. I’m stealing liberally from the pics you sent me, so thanks!

Not every day on the road is one that calls for intense scrutiny of one’s inner workings. Some days are just riding and eating, taking in views and looking for a good place to stay.

Perhaps my favorite thing about Mexico is that the rules are generally (with some glaring bureaucratic exceptions) based on what should happen, not on procedures that may or may not apply to the situation at hand. This is especially true of traffic laws- screw up, and it’s going to be a problem. Otherwise, don’t be an idiot is the basic law of the land. Cops will wave bikes through wrecks where they will fit but a car will not. Try to imagine that in the US, it can’t be done.

Luckily, my definition of idiot as applied to myself is exceedingly narrow, so not being one allows a wide range of activity. All that to say I’m splitting up traffic on a 2 lane road, as is my custom, headed for wherever the next place I’m supposed to be is as fast as I can miss the turn, when I come across this scene:



This is our very own jimbee and lovely GF.

I ask myself, why am I in a hurry? Why am I about to pass these folks? One of the recurring themes of this trip is the realization that my time really is not valuable, and the more I keep that in mind, the better off I’m going to be.

So I make a split second decision and slow down and wave. Jim pulls over and we have a roadside discussion. Seems he’s dealing with some difficulties on the ride…

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=432362

and it seems right to me that we ride together for a while. I thought perhaps I could help, erroneously as it turns out as Jim is 10 steps ahead of me on all this electrical crap. I just ride a KTM so I don’t have to deal with maintenance like that.

We stitch our way south and take pics of one another, since they are hard to come by from the road.





Later, we decide on a destination that can be reached either of two ways- down a sandbar road shown both on my GPS, and on the map, or through a big city on the inside of the bay and back out to the coast. We decide on the former and use the last little bit of light getting to it.



At this point, we’ve both been in Mexico long enough that our “this isn’t going to work” alarms are finely calibrated, and they were going off like claxons as we went the last few miles down an abandoned road to the coast.

Sure enough, the sand bar road was a fiction that lived only in pixels and ink, not dirt, and we had to go back and ride through the city at night.



This was a good thing as it happens, because in the melee we realize there’s a circus in town! Jim, possessed of outstanding foresight, realized that we should definitely go, so once we found a hotel, I set about getting tickets while he set about finding some food. We were successful in our quest, and when we realized box seating was only a few dollars more, we were ringside! Jim’s pics:








Not many gringos attend this sort of circus, so we were the butt of some good natured jokes, which we enjoyed as much as everyone else.

I woke up the next morning and took a walk on the beach before returning to pack.



Our hotel was not fancy, the windows were cinder blocks turned sideways so air could pass through, but our host was as friendly as could be as were our neighbors, and the price was right!



So Jim, three cheers that our paths crossed, and I’m looking forward to a ridge run with you sometime in the future!

[InfoManiac]

Originally Posted by neduro

Sure, rub it in...

[doubleu]

Originally Posted by neduro

And that’s the reason you go on these kinds of trips. At home, life treads a narrow path. On a good day, you beat traffic. On a bad one, you don’t. Out here, bad days are a lot worse, and good ones a lot better. This is real, this is strong, this is powerful. This is an adventure, for better or for worse, and the value of knowing what you faced and how you dealt with it is high. These are the days we will know for the rest of our lives, the hours when we felt most true to who we wish to be, and the minutes that a smile broke through that goes all the way to the soul. Beauty might only be skin deep, but adventure goes to the bone.

[Johnny Dakar]

Originally Posted by InfoManiac

Sure, rub it in...

Yeah, I thought of you on both of those wheelie shots.

[InfoManiac]

Originally Posted by Johnny Dakar

Yeah, I thought of you on both of those wheelie shots.

[maynard58]

Man, what a great bike.

[mommer]

ned, i gotta talk to you about one of your old bikes.. this story just keeps on being super sweet

[neduro]

Originally Posted by mommer

ned, i gotta talk to you about one of your old bikes..

Uh, just ridden on Sundays, by a little old lady, uh, I don't rightly recall, uh, you can't prove anything!

(I'll email you back, once I get home from a mountain bike ride)

[Johnny Dakar]

So Ned, how well does that touring screen work?

[AlanCT]

This is a beautifully written RR. The only one I've ever read through twice, in fact, just for the writing.

[c.vestal]

Proud to call you a friend and neighbor. Great report.

[Crawdaddy]

Originally Posted by neduro

One of the recurring themes of this trip is the realization that my time really is not valuable, and the more I keep that in mind, the better off I’m going to be.

Exactly........relax, breath deeply, take it all in, enjoy it, and please continue to share it!
Ride on Amigo!