Before every bike trip, I pop on Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild.” Loud. Quite loud. The first lines prep my spirit, “Get your motor runnin’, head out on the highway, looking for adventure…” My soul needs adventure, to test myself, to move beyond fears. Riding comes with risks, but few choices match the selfishness of adventure seeking. As we grow closer to Jesus, we face that tension—how can we feed our souls and touch other’s lives for the kingdom?
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image taken by Murray Pura
Designed--Magnificently!
On August 30, 2017, intense lightning sparked the Kenow Fire near Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, and soon moved into the park. Orders to evacuate the Waterton townsite arrived September 8, but control didn’t come until September 21, and the threat continued until the shorter days of October brought snow and colder temps.
By then, 38% of Waterton NP had burned, and when including fires in nearby Glacier NP, 65,000 acres were blackened, impacting 80% of the trails. This last April a good friend and delightful author, Murray Pura, who lives close to Waterton, posted this pic of a tree scorched in the fire. An interesting juxtaposition of death and life-giving snow with the Canadian Rockies in the background. Likely, the tree won’t recover, but …
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Bad People Exist--Know That
Our church fellowship had a huge gathering each summer at Newport Dunes, a lot of activities and an evening service with music and a message. I rode there on my Honda 350 from my home in Long Beach, and Ken asked for a ride back. Then at a light in Seal Beach, the bike stalled, short on gas, just as the light turned green. I quickly turned the valve for the gas reserve, started right away, maybe taking five seconds. But that exhausted the patience of the car driver behind me. Honking, then…
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Look Closer
At Mount Hermon, walks through the redwoods not only reveal God’s love of beauty, but they enhance the spiritual tone of the conference. So, like always, I carved out some time to take a trail down to Bean Creek. And loving the art of trout fishing, my first thought at seeing the pool shown above was, “Dang, wish I’d brought my fly rod!” The hole held at least six likely homes for hungry trout.But I quickly calmed down, knowing…
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image by trevorthorpetravels
Latched Up
Thursday of this week, I’ll head up the CA coast on Hwy 1, the classic route through Big Sur, to teach at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, and hang with some witty writers. A couple of years ago I did the same route, and must have seen two dozen Mustang convertibles. Rentals, I guess. And no better way to enjoy that stretch than a convertible—unless rain descends. But seeing several Stangs on that clear blue-skied day shocked me—their tops were up and latched, like the one in the pic. Rather than basking in the openness of God’s creation, they chose…
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Easy Riding
I’ve been a Riter all my life, a motorcycle rider for 49 years, and a published writer for 25. So when Todd Hafer, an acquisitions editor at Harvest House Publishing, asked if I had a book idea for bikes, I hopped on board with a grin and a silent shout of joy. That became the book God, a Motorcycle, and the Open Road, with an earlier working title of Easy Riding. Yeah, an allusion to the old film Easy Rider and my name. That book unofficially releases tomorrow, April 1, and officially on Tuesday. Obviously, I’m excited to blend my loves of
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Image from Motorcycle Philosophy
Adapt, Don't Quit
Somewhere on the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park lies an otherwise nondescript turnout, much like above. No monument marks it, tourists don’t drive by to gawk at a historical site, and honestly, few would care to see it even after this story. But asphalt can teach a lesson. I’ve known Jerry since high school daze; he’s one of my best friends and we regularly take long rides on the bikes each year. But his very short legs have led to…
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Walden Pond by Literary Hub
Risky Business
This hippie biker, shoulder length hair and a beard uncut for several months, pulled his semi-chopped Honda 750 with an Easy Rider paint scheme, into a parking spot at a Howard Johnson in Massachusetts,as a family with a dad and mom and 5 year old boy pulled alongside in a sedan. They struck up a conversation, intrigued by a trip with no set destination, just a desire to see America, so they asked me…
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