Last year featured a total knee replacement for my left knee, Experienced friends and medical folks offered advice about exercises for strength and flexibility, and the most helpful: stay ahead of the pain with the doctor’s schedule for taking oxycodone. Or, don’t show your toughness by waiting until you can’t take the pain, but follow the doc’s recommendation for time intervals.
Three months later, Rich and I cruised through CO to Taos, NM. I had some concerns and applied that mantra to the ride. My bike has 5 different positions for my legs, and in addition to standing on the pegs. Typically, I would ride…
Read MoreOn our early long bike tours , music played no role. Instead, we spent a lot of time in our minds: thinking, pondering, praying, questioning. A lot of major life decisions got determined to the gentle hum of the bike’s motor. Or, we’d play “Easy Rider,” set our throttle locks, stretch our arms to the side and flap them like birds, singing the tune, “If you want to be a bird.” No bird brain jokes, please. Other times, the four of us pretended slalom ski, curving between the white paint strips. Right turn, left turn, wash, rinse, and repeat. The rhythm of all four of us matching the others and creating a motorcycle serpent, held beauty brought grace.
Later…
Read MoreI’m writing a new devotional book about motorcycles, Easy Riding, on the lessons we learn. About of half of the chapters are taken from Unconventional posts, expanded and revised from the typical 400 to 600 words up to 1,000. One chapter, Addictions, started as the shortest at 300 words, and I struggled to increase it. One option—adding more words to each paragraph merely increased words, not content. Another option of adding a new section didn’t fit the flow. All my efforts merely revealed that what worked...
Read MoreDo you sometimes feel like two totally different, contradictory people? Compassionate at times, inconsiderate at others. Generous and stingy. Spiritual and sinful. And do you wonder which is the real you? Or are both? I share that dilemma. Some anonymous friend, knowing my soul…
Read MoreOur biker crew recently rode through Las Vegas on I-15 with the temp a bit above 100, and in a strange manner, I enjoyed the warmth. I tried to remember that a few days later when we pulled out of Alpine WY with the temp at 30, but it soon dropped to 28, and stayed like that for an hour. In a strange manner, I embraced that too. We drove past a lot of alfalfa fields, many newly mown, and the scent reminded me of the hay barn at our old family farm.Half a mile before we saw the truck, I knew...
Read MoreOur Gray Hog group rode our bikes this last September to the Northwest--southern Washington, pretty much all of the Oregon coast, and all the way down the California coast, hitting the coastal redwoods, Big Sur, Highway 101, and a lot more. Yeah, we caught some rain with the beautiful country. In looking back though, what most struck me was how different the three of us are. Start with...
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