Rides, ramblings and rants on a motorcycle.
- We are scientists, too!
10.25.2007,9:27 PM
250cc's in Tennessee and more
One week ago at this time I was on the road in a truck, hauling two 250cc's across Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and east Texas. The Sherpa and Ed's XR looked like little doggies tied to the trailer bed; his red and white Honda, my KLR-green Sherpa (with the yellow beak). On the way to Tellico Plains they looked eager. Now they looked tired and dirty.
But abso-freakin'-lutely happy.
We were tired, not so dirty, and also happy. I've fallen in love with riding the mountains, and forest roads and trails. It's been decades since I've been out in the woods doing just that. When I limboed Sherpie and myself under that tree, I giggled remembering when I had to haul a 125cc over a huge tree that had fallen in the logging road I was riding. When I sat down on the boulder in Cherokee National Forest, gazing out over the trees, moss, rhododendrons and ferns, I felt as though I had been transported back in time and distance. And everything else in between was a dream I had had, or a book I read. There was only then. And now.
I'm back here in this contrived life and artificial environment and, as usual, the post-journey depression sets in. I don't want to come back. I just want to keep riding on. To new places, stop for awhile and get immersed. I don't want to ride by and see everything like a tourist. I want to ride through it, into it, be it. But I don't have enough life time left to do as much as I want. Go all the places I want. So I try and grab what I can, go when I can.
I don't want to stop; I can't stop. I'll stop when I'm dead (and maybe not then either).
I am posting photos and stories as I go through the photographs that I took on this trip. I'd rather be living in the photos then looking at them. But that is the way life is right now.
Click on Tennessee to conjure up the posts thus far. I'll finish one of these days soon enough.
Upcoming trips:
Palo Duro Canyons, November Turkey Weekend. Dualsporting on the Sherpa. Camping in the canyon.
Big Bend, Texas. X-mas time, December. Hiking the Chisos Mnts. and riding the Sherpa in the desert. Camping and visiting Ara and Spirit.
Camping either at Possum Kingdom Lake or down on the Colorado River at the state park. November or December.
But abso-freakin'-lutely happy.
We were tired, not so dirty, and also happy. I've fallen in love with riding the mountains, and forest roads and trails. It's been decades since I've been out in the woods doing just that. When I limboed Sherpie and myself under that tree, I giggled remembering when I had to haul a 125cc over a huge tree that had fallen in the logging road I was riding. When I sat down on the boulder in Cherokee National Forest, gazing out over the trees, moss, rhododendrons and ferns, I felt as though I had been transported back in time and distance. And everything else in between was a dream I had had, or a book I read. There was only then. And now.
I'm back here in this contrived life and artificial environment and, as usual, the post-journey depression sets in. I don't want to come back. I just want to keep riding on. To new places, stop for awhile and get immersed. I don't want to ride by and see everything like a tourist. I want to ride through it, into it, be it. But I don't have enough life time left to do as much as I want. Go all the places I want. So I try and grab what I can, go when I can.
I don't want to stop; I can't stop. I'll stop when I'm dead (and maybe not then either).
I am posting photos and stories as I go through the photographs that I took on this trip. I'd rather be living in the photos then looking at them. But that is the way life is right now.
Click on Tennessee to conjure up the posts thus far. I'll finish one of these days soon enough.
Upcoming trips:
Palo Duro Canyons, November Turkey Weekend. Dualsporting on the Sherpa. Camping in the canyon.
Big Bend, Texas. X-mas time, December. Hiking the Chisos Mnts. and riding the Sherpa in the desert. Camping and visiting Ara and Spirit.
Camping either at Possum Kingdom Lake or down on the Colorado River at the state park. November or December.
Labels: Adventures
