Dreamin'

WHAT else can you do, when the weather is raining one day turning my access road to mud, snowing the next with just enough sunshine in between to ward off thoughts of stepping off a cliff.

The 225 is officially 24 years old, the XT600, twenty six!

The DT 50 was born in Hamamatsu in 1989.

And those are just my 'new bikes'

I appreciate my machinery, keep them running well and talking to them on cold winter nights, much better since moving to the Island, at least my garage is under the house and I don't have to be standing barelegged with cold air swooping up my housecoat like I did in Calgary.

Yes, I have plans, I always manage to cobble something together, like for instance, this time last year I was prepping my gear to head West for what turned into an epic and fitting 40th anniversary of the first XC ride in '75.  Okay so I flew out there but then managed to ride Liz's LS 650 SAVAGE almost 4500 km, adding a few hundred more on Ron's V Strom and Burgman 650.  Am I glad I didn't actually 'ride' across the country... you bet!  After all Canada is a huge space and much of it simply road.

I got to visit with many many friends along the way some of whom I wouldn't have had time for had I chose to ride my own V Strom from the Island and back.  At our age, me thinks its best to visit with Rusty and Ron, Tom and Liz, Kazue, Dan, my sister and John rather than sing to myself in my helmet for 10,000 lonely kilometers, don't you?

Somewhere in the Rockies 2015 on the Yellowhead.

... and here we are in 2016.  Can you believe that.  It's two thousand and sixteen.  What would George Orwell have thought when he wrote "1984" I've got motorbikes older than that!

Somehow even saying "2016" sounds like some far fetched futuristic, Star Trek like science fiction date in time, when humans had created flying drones, flip phones, talking screens telling me to 'turn right in 400 meters.'  Things have gotten so complex, not only a computer in every home but several!

Maybe that's why I appreciate so much checking the valves on my 225 or changing an oil seal on my TY 175.  Maybe it's something about getting in there, fingers greasy and stains on my jeans.  It's still something I can do myself, without calling a technician in.  You see, never in my wildest dreams when I was 10 would I have thought I'd have done all the things I have by the time I was 60.  In fact even the number was inconceivable at that age.  Hell, I thought my father old at 45... what did I know.

Dreaming is good, dreaming is gold.

Sure I still dream of one more ride in the Baja peninsula, maybe with niece Cindy, or doing the Trans Lab before it's all paved over, maybe going back to Europe and this time ride a scooter to Croatia or Greece or Elba or the south of Spain and  just staying there in a cottage on the beach.

On the other hand, we're surrounded by beaches right here on the Island, fabulous beaches.  Alright there are no topless women at Twin Shores as there were in Istrea but the beaches themselves are fabulous.

Within 500 km of where I live, there is history, great back roads both paved and not, the Atlantic proper is but a stones throw away in Nova Scotia and from there you can practically see Portugal!

I'll admit, I've slowed down some the last few years and proud of it.  Sometimes I'll do twenty five laps on my "BIG TRACK" sometimes ten is enough.  In fact sometimes it's enough to just wander through the trails and woods as Brenda and I did yesterday...

I'm still pondering a Moto magazine of some form, wondering if its really something I 'want to do'?  It could be done, could be fun doing it and could give me a broader forum than this blog.  On the other hand, there would be work involved and even though some of that work would be fun stuff, I can do the fun stuff any day of the week on my own.  I have nothing to prove to myself nor anyone else at this point, that I guess comes with age and experience.

I brought a National Motorcycle Training program to Fort Mac during the 70's, then to PEI.  Was heavily involved in getting Moto X going there as well as here, moved across the country at 26 and ran a successful dealership in three cities.  Ridden in Baja 12 times, crossed Canada 12 times.  I've raised two young women who are now extending the family further, should be a grand dad any day now, courtesy of Lisa and Rick.  Holly and Kevin will be getting hitched here on the Island in a few months and no doubt thinking of starting their own families.

Do I have anything left to prove... even to myself?

Let me see, at one point I was planning an around the world solo motorcycle ride, I'd even chosen a KLR as my transport and planned a cool "side car" that would carry my spares and could be mounted on the side of the bikes or towed behind.  Those plans were about 51% complete when I was rear ended in Calgary and physically have never quite recovered.

Right now, I am looking out my window of the home I designed myself here in Spring Valley.  Rained most of the night, but should be slightly above zero today.  Wasn't much of a winter but between those bastard loggers that clear cut across from us and left our access road in a mud rut shambles, and spring teasing us every day, I am getting short of patience.

I've been out to the highway (and beyond) on my Serow recently but not a chance I would attempt getting out with the VTR or T Bird, or even the V Strom.  Wanting to pick up the new addition to the two wheeled fleet but of course can't even get it in much less out to ride.

So... once again I find myself somewhat impatiently waiting and waiting, waiting for mother earth to warm us up, for highways to repair our road and for the snow to be gone from the fields and woods.

Dreaming...

Kensington PEI 2016