October 25, 2006
A few folks have wondered where my travel tales have been this year. Or when I was going to start writing my next book. Those projects have been put hold so far this year, I’m afraid. And I really haven’t ridden my bikes very much this year, either.
I have to confess. I am embarking on a journey that may be disturbing to some.
I am at that point in life where the Significant Other and I have bought a motor home.
But not just any RV. The previous owners’ kids used to call this thing Jesus because that was the comment that their motorhome would get when they pulled into a campground or a restaurant: “Oh Jesus, look at that!”
The previous owners also had a brown moose mascot for this thing. We have the brown moose secured in a place of honor, just so no one forgets their heritage.
Aren’t motorhomes the province of retirees and old people? Funny, because I don’t feel particularly old – at least as long as I don’t look in the mirror – and I’m certainly not planning to retire anytime soon.
And I don’t particular like the food at the Cracker Barrel, either. So I can’t be that old. Even if I do hear that most Cracker Barrels have RV parking.
I remember going to a motorcycle event in the Florida Keys several years ago that had attracted scores of folks who had ridden for hundreds, if not thousands, of miles to get to the now-defunct Knight’s Key Campground in Marathon. There were folks with some very elaborate camping setups that they were carrying on their motorcycles. And during an evening BS session I dared – DARED, I tell ya – to comment that “Y’know … if I did this regularly I’d have a motorhome with air conditioning, showers, and plenty of martini fixins’ and I’d park it over yonder <pointing to a nice spot near where we were sitting and telling lies>”
And a hush fell over the place because I had broken one of the cardinal rules of the serious motorcyclist. I had dared to admit that I might consider trailering my bike instead of droning up and down those boring stretches of I-95 that I know all too well.
A few years go by and what do I discover? One of the folks that I was hangin’ with that night, a lady who sells motorcycle camping equipment no less, has purchased a semi-retired horse carrier on a Volvo truck chassis that she plans to convert into a motorhome mit motorcycle carrier. Go figure.
So I am hoping that, in the long run, I will actually be able to do more and better motorcycling with the motorhome because I will be able to transport a bike, maybe some friends’ bikes, along with tools and luggage, to a location where we can set up camp and ride for several days, instead of having to constantly shuttle between my North Florida home and that places that I really want to ride at. The flexibility should actually give me more quality riding time and less time commuting on boring roads to and from the house. Plus, there are some places that I have wanted to explore for some time (read: in the Smoky Mountains and in Mexico’s Copper Canyon) that I simply cannot ride without a dedicated off road bike and the motorhome and trailer combination will give me the opportunity to carry a spare dirt bike.
So that’s the plan, at any rate. Stay tuned. We will see what the next few years hold.
Photos of this monster, a/k/a The Beast, at
http://www.fototime.com/inv/08796AFE564A64B
(to be continued)
