I LOVE Riding!!

I awoke or regained consciousness, I'm not sure which one, looking up at the white clouds, streaked and ringed with grey. They were quite beautiful but I also felt that there was an aspect to them that made them more beautiful than their actual physical qualities projected, or perhaps there was something about the, about my, particular space and time in the universe at this moment. I took stock of my situation; I'm looking up but I'm not standing. OK, then l'm prone somewhere…where, why? I try to get up and the pain immediately hits me hard. WTF? I have a helmet on my head, a motorcycle helmet. I look down and notice motorcycle gear, a jacket and pants, not your normal walk in the meadows kind of attire. I again try to get up, more slowly this time and manage to prop myself up on one side. I look around and I see IT, and bits of my last conscious moments start trickling through the pain and the fog. IT is my baby, my motorcycle and it's lying in the grass a few metres away from me and both IT and I are about 10 metres from the highway. 

I thought I was ready for the storm. At the last stop for gas, I saw the ominous looking clouds so I checked the weather radar map and indeed rain was coming. I put on my rain gear and changed the riding mode on the motorcycle to Rain. I’ve ridden in pretty serious rain storms before so I wasn't too concerned. What was different this time was the intense winds that were whipping across the highway and the lightning strikes that were coming right down to the land all around the highway. As I struggled to keep control of the bike, I wondered whether a car or a motorcycle was more likely to attract a lightning bolt, what it would feel like to get hit by lightening, I thought. Would it be the bike or me? These questions, combined with the rain accumulating on the highway and the vicious winds whipping all around made me think that it might be better to more over to the right most lane on this three lane highway, just in case the unthinkable happens. So I did, and then it did…

Our minds are our minds and what enters into them is out of our control. For whatever reason, the genetic and environmental tweaks that cause the strangest and darkest of thoughts to pop into my brain have haunted me for as long as I can remember (please stop laughing, I know it sometimes seem that I can barely remember my swim from the opposite end of the bowl but I actually do remember a few very specific instances from my youth). In fact, it was not an insignificant factor in my early adoption of some sedative drugs as they were the only ones that would stop the endless chatter inside my brain. A few close calls while driving at 16 on said drugs, including falling asleep at the wheel and crashing into a sign coming off a highway helped me decide to try and make peace with the cacophony and an uneasy truce was agreed to.   

The rain was hard, the winds were insane, the lightning strikes frequent and scary and I thought what would happen if…but it didn't. The above was just a fun little story that unfolded in my over active imagination as I remembered the pretty clouds that were there just before the grey ones moved in. I thought…what would happen if…and from there the story unfolded.  I have ridden some pretty scary and sketchy roads this trip, but I love them all. I feel comfortable and safe as one can on my S1000XR and never feel that there's a situation I can't handle. 

Back to life, back to reality…my favourite multi day ride I have ever done, and I've done a few, started on July 20 in Thonon-les-Bains, on the southern edge of Lake Geneva, and ended 700 km and five days later in Menton in the south of France, the absolutely epic Route des Grands Alps.

There are a whopping 17 mountain passes (cols de montagnes) each with its unique characteristics, thrills and chills and 28 towns and villages between the departure and arrival cities. Along the route, I camped in twice, stayed at an old friend of Gi's, Mateo, in Briançon, and spent one night at a hotel/hostel. All were in the mountains or mountain towns and beautiful. People hiking, cyclists, riders, great vibe everywhere.   

For cycling enthusiasts, many of the cols are big faves for serious riders, no electric bikes here! Everyone I saw climbing these seriously challenging mountain passes used road bikes and some roads had tons of riders. This really adds to the challenges of us motorcyclists, especially on the uphill sections as we roar up the mountains swinging the bike to and fro, attacking the corners, but always aware that a cyclist may be just around the corner going way slower than us because the uphill climb is tough and slow going on a bike. 

A bit more of what Iˋve been doing since leaving Paris on July 18th I think…On July 19, I had another lovely meeting with Pierre and Simona, friends I met serving a Vipassana meditation course in France September of 2023. After that I started my Route des Grands Alps ride. After that I hung out in Menton, and as noted previously had some motorcycle issues that I had to deal with. After Montpellier and Nice, I went to visit my friends Carlos and Barbara in Barcelona. After that Gi and I were supposed meet at the Sizigia psytrance festival (August 10-14) somewhere between Barcelona and Madrid. Apart from an absolutely killer lineup of all our favourite psytrance DJs, we’d watch the eclipse from there. After that we were going to a Vipassana centre near Madrid to serve a 10-day course. Unfortunately, the festival got cancelled which caused a cascade of changes. We cancelled our service at the Madrid centre but I was able to sign up to serve a course at a Vipassana centre close to Barcelona from August 13th to the 23rd. But before, I went south a bit to the city of Vilanova i la Geltrú, the closest place to Barcelona I could find that had 100% totality of the solar eclipse. It was very cool. 

And now I'm in Clermont-Ferrand, making my way towards the Hadra psytrance festival around the town of Vieure, France and I will meet Gi there tomorrow!

Whew…all caught up.Read more