About The Trip

The back story of this trip is, I think, a little complicated. So, here goes...

I have always loved a good road trip; the open road, the freedom to do as I wish, getting to an intersection and flipping a coin to choose directions, all of it. I have an intense fascination with people, and with things. I want to know how things work, and what makes people tick. Of course, these are not things that I will "figure out" or "discover" on a trip, but every observation helps, and the most interesting observations are often made outside of one's normal habitat.

On top of that I have wanted to ride motorcycles for many years, and I decide to learn about 3 years ago. I took the Washington State Safety Course because I knew that if I learned from anyone else I would pick up their bad habits. I had been on a bike once, in 1996, an spent a good 15 minutes stalling it before giving up. So I went into this safety course without any idea about how to ride a bike, but a few ideas about how not to. When I left the final riding day I was confident that I could ride safely, and was itching to get my own bike. I was lucky to have a friend sell me a 1983 Honda CX650 cheap (Thanks, Hi) and with a little work I was on my way. I rode as much as I could on that little thing, and I was hooked. The following season I knew that I was never going to be able to ride the Honda much farther than 50 miles from home without having panic attacks about making it home, and I didn't feel comfortable enough with it to take a passenger...so...it only made sense to go out and buy a bike that weighed almost three times what I was used to, and had at least double the power. The result was a 2002 BMW R1150RT, there are more details about the bike here.

Now, we have established that I like to travel, and I like to ride motorcycles, so why this trip? Well, there are several parts to it I suppose. First, in 2008, my mother died unexpectedly of a brain aneurysm, and it shook my world like I never knew it could be. My faith, such as it was, nearly vanished. My friendship with my family, blood and otherwise, strengthened. And for the first time in many years I thought that taking a drink might be a good idea. The result of all of this is that I found myself in a place that I didn't understand and with new thoughts and ideas that didn't make sense. One thing that I knew for sure was that I had to keep getting to meetings and being around the people that understood what I meant when I said, "a drink might help." At some point during this time I was reminded by an old-timer that 90 meetings in 90 days wasn't just for newcomers, and so I committed to it on Jan. 1 2009. I kept at it, and I didn't miss a day in the 90, and still go to at least 5 a week. Several interesting things happened in that year, I began to feel a connection to something outside of me again, I began to smile again, I began to feel like I fit again, I began to worry less, and I started spending less time in the mopey my-mom-just-died state.

It was during the 90 meetings period that I met Mandy. Cliche as is it, when I saw her I knew that something was special about her and that I needed to investigate. As I got to know her I started to see that her spirit and mine somehow knew each other, and that something magical was about to happen. Mandy was the person who began to remind me that there is more to this life than just getting by, that there are other things that need to be seen and experienced. She gave me a spark and showed me of a lot of the things that my mom had taught me about being, seeing, and creating.

After Mandy and I had been together for a little while I began to ponder the idea of a long motorcycle trip. I started to formulate some ideas about what to go see and do. And Mandy supported all of this! She would listen to me talk and she would give me other ideas. Not once did she say, "I wish you weren't going to do this." (Thanks, Babe) I also began to talk to other people about it and gather other people's perspectives. Out of all the people I talked to I remember one comment word for word: "I bet if you walked through the graveyard and asked all of them they would say you should go." (Thanks, Dennis) That sealed the deal, and I knew that if my mom were still alive she would think it was a great idea and my friends reinforced that idea. (Thanks, Antonio)

So, now I have a bike, a girlfriend behind my decision, and my own confirmation that it is a good idea. Now what the hell am I going to do on the road for 2 months? I pondered all kinds of different ideas about a way to frame up the trip so that I could write a book that would be interesting, and so on, but I kept falling back on this idea that the trip was going to steer itself, and that the purpose would only be clear after some time on the road. But I kept thinking that there had to be some reason for doing this. One night I was in a meeting and I remembered what the old-timer had told me about 90 meetings in 90 days. Now, 90 days is a long time to be on the road, and I am sure that I would run out of money before I could do that, but 60 days isn't so bad…So, I decided on 60 meetings in 60 days in 60 different places. I figure that most areas have schedules online and that I could just plan a day at a time. Then I remembered that the biggest meeting on the planet was going to be happening while I was out and about, so I had better make it to that one. So I will be in San Antonio at the beginning of July. Then I wanted to figure out a way to share some of the trip with Mandy and decided to have her fly to Buffalo, NY in mid-July so that we would ride around somewhere up there together for a few days. Other than those two points I have no plans other than getting to the next meeting.

So that's why I've decided to take the trip, but I am sure that the real reason will be revealed later on.