2ridetheworld.com : diary

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30-09 to 01 -10-2008

Sure, I could write about the riding, the delicious curves and the seductive cambers we’ve enjoyed in the last few days. Or maybe the dry ochre and ruby red leaves that floated to the ground, torn from their delicate perch by our passing vacuum.

It’s been a good couple of riding days. We went to bed last night after have ridden full 8-hours and feeling slightly buzzy. We were that wonderful mixture of tired by elated at the same time. No silly conversations, just solid mile pounding riding, where everything else gets zoned out, tunnel vision becomes secondary and the boundary between where ‘you’ end and the bikes begins gets blurred.

That what’s I was going to scribble about, but then I got to thinking. I was thinking in particular about the intimate conversations we’ve had over the last few weeks, not with each other but with strangers who within minutes of meeting us have shared personal details.

We’d left BMW of Northern Carolina after dropping in and making the usual introductions and had headed over to a local eatery for a couple of starters. By the time we’d left we were on a first name basis with our server jenny, we knew she had a business degree, a 7-year at home, was working this job part time to pay the bills and was utterly and absolutely bored with her life. No, that’s not an opinion come to through presumptive conclusion via nifty insight, but simply because that how she phrased it. “I’m utterly bored with my life and I have no idea what to do with it...isn’t that sad”, Jenny commented in a casual way.

We were actually feeling a bit sorry for ourselves, tired and our windblown dry and red eyes were sorer than usual. Jennie’s comments slapped that right out of us. We have no right to feel anything less than blessed.

Why do people share these intimate thoughts with us? It’s easy to think that maybe they perceive us as emotional trash bins, who once their done with, will be whisked away by the bike fairy. Or is that they just don’t have those ‘close connections’ we presume everyone has to at least one other person? I’m not sure.

I like the idea that we bring no agenda or expectations to the encounters we have; we’re pretty open and are often the first ones to make fun of ourselves. We don’t know them and they don’t know us, we’re a safe bet. Complete strangers can unload and waive us off down the road 10 minutes later. We’re nomadic psychologist, without the 60-minute deadline or the hefty bill at the end, shit we’ll listen to anyone for a warm coffee and a doughnut. Crap! That makes us sound like Starsky and Hutch?

The idea that people are so disconnected from each other so as to have no one else to share themselves with other than two dusty and often disheveled biker’s scares me. Can that happen to anyone? If so that could be me or you at some point down the road.

A week ago we’d pulled into another small gas station on the road to somewhere and had sat down to drink a coffee. A young guy had come over to us and deliberately pulled up a chair next to us and had kicked off with ‘cool bikes’. By the time we were sipping at the dregs in the bottom of our Styrofoam cups he’d shared his life. His name was Danny; he was 23-years old and had a 7-year and a 3-year old. He was recovering from a biking accident where he badly hurt his back. He’d just had surgery that he can’t pay for and his wife had just left him and taken the kids.

Danny continued...”Yeah, she left me and took the kids. She left me for someone better”! Lisa looked at me and I at her. That last comment had taken the wind out of us. The guys 23 and his telling us ‘she left me for someone better’. This guy didn’t just have his tail between his legs, he was crushed. The idea that at that age you could have the life that beaten out of you is sobering, actually it’s friggin' horrific. Again, it made us analyze why he’d chosen us, out of everyone else in that gas station to pull up to and unload?

We’ve become ‘transient emotion sponges’ soaking up the stories, the highs and the lows of thousands of people we’ve met, bumped into and spent time with. Sure we’ll say goodbye to each and every one of them and maybe that’s the point. We know it, they know it and so we’re a safe receptacles for their 'little shared' secrets and whispered truths.

02-10-2008

Got to Greensboro last night and stayed in a very yucky motel - would prefer the tent! Arrived at North Carolina BMW. Did presentation. Laura and Wayne were nice. Jason was a bit strange. Presentation went well – more people there than we thought would come.

03-10-2008

In order to get to Nashville today we needed to leave early. However we had to return to the dealership as Jason needed to go to the bank for us. A bit of a longer delay than we had hoped. We didn’t get to leave until almost 12 noon!

This meant a mad dash down the Interstate 40. We both hate the Interstates at the best of times. We have found that the driving is weird in the last couple of states. When we go to overtake a slower vehicle it speeds up so we are all going the same speed. So we have to speed up if we want to complete the overtaking….when past they go back to their slower speed. Or – we decide not to speed up and move back behind them again and this is when they slow back down again! It’s just downright dangerous and daft.
On approaching Knoxville there was a bad accident on the highway but a little further on we get madly flagged down by a couple in a Land rover – not sure what was wrong we pulled over – the driver gets out runs back to us and says “fancy a cuppa?” We needed a break as we had been sitting in traffic for a bit too long- not fun at all.

Jason and Virginia Homeward. He had traveled for a while on KTM – all around South America, Central America, and Far East etc. They'd Met Virginia in Bariloche in Argentina where she worked in the clinic that Simon had visited with his return of malaria! Small World.

We were going to have a cup of tea, a bite to eat and get back on the road; however, we ended up staying the night after Jason persuaded us it would be better to travel in the morning.

04-10-2008

After a cooked breakfast we got back on the I-40 heading West. It didn’t take long to reach Nashville. Got to Bloodworth BMW – met David and Virginia.

The Motel we were booked into was quite literally across the road. Checked in and sorted ourselves out then back over to the dealership to get things ready for tonight’s presentation.

Food was outside, good atmosphere. Once again more people that we had thought. Stayed and chatted to David and Virginia afterwards. Didn’t get into bed until 2:30 am – very very tired.

05 to08-10-2008

The last few day seemed to have blurred and without real reason. Hours have passed by and felt like minutes and darkness descended when we thought it was just the afternoon. Time seemed to have warped?

We’d enjoyed breakfast the morning after the presentation with David and Virginia and were all a little bleary eyed after the late night. But the last few days have seen us both bone tired. May be its some kind of a bug going around or maybe it’s the last few weeks, months or years...take your pick, catching up with us.

But it’s been a while since we felt sick with tiredness. My head has felt full of confetti and not the good, fluffy tic-a-tape parade stuff either but the dirty , pulped black and greasy type that you see in the gutter long after it was thrown at the town hall wedding. I’d lost my glasses (off my bike at 60mph) some months ago and so the constant eye strain that was now building up wasn’t helping matters much either. The idea of more endless highway slab was a debilitating thought. Hours upon hours of thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud,…as the joints between the concrete hit your front and then rear tyres was truly horrible

We’ve meandered aimlessly around the local mall and felt disjointed from those around us as they stare back confused and puzzled by our MX-boots and rally suits. The bright and shiny lights bouncing off the polished marbled floor of this monster shopping complex was simply making us feel worse. It all seemed a bit pointless. Perhaps we’ve overdosed on all the commercialism. What was enthralling and exciting when we first entered the States now seems dulled, shallow and more than a little self serving. “You are what you buy, you are what you own, and you’re only as good as your last cool purchase”, is the constant media barrage under which I know we’ve suffered. We’ve been crushed under foot and spat out by the consumer capital of the world.

My guess is that our social filters that we all employ each day, often without even realizing, have been malfunctioning. And we’ve just become constipated with it all.

We were due to leave a few days ago and had planned to invigorate ourselves riding into the Smoky Mountains. Camping and walking sounded like a remedy to whatever this is that’s ailing us. The weather was to stop us in our tracks. It’s decided to rain here, for the first time in 3 months and not just a little but torrential deluges with thunderstorms for good measure. I’m starting to believe in conspiracies theories.

Oh yeah, Tinkerbelle has been acting up, I’m guessing she’s caught whatever we have. The battery had been draining over night and the started motor is now also giving up the ghost. We’ve been grateful for the hours that David has given us whilst we’ve worked on getting the big girl right.

09 to 10-10-2008

At last Tinkerbele was feeling a little healthier if not complety cured and after all of David’s help and the purchase of a new battery we could hit the road.

Even the head of confetti has cleared a little.

It had taken us two days of easy riding to find ourselves in Atlanta and that was really only because we’d made a conscious effort to avoid the highways, which have now become nauseating. Hour and hour of slab pounding laborious mile without a real bend in sight was turning our days to shit. That and of course the anal retentive twats, who sit in their cages oblivious to the outside world and the motorcyclist they’ve just run off the road. Yeah, it’s getting to us a bit?!

We’d been in contact with Bob and Lynda Wooldridge now for a few months and after a few hours at the dealership we’d readily agreed to base ourselves from his home. Well, the mention of large garage, deck and Jacuzzi may also have had something to do with the decision making process.

11 to 16-10-2008

Life is just a blur at the moment.

The diary has taken a back seat again, there's just not enough hours int eh day. We thourougly enjoyed our tie with Bob and his wife in their beautiful home in Atlanta and the presentation went well. A really fun corwd and a fun night.

Lisa and i even finally got our act together and started running every toher day. We're both out of shape and now that sooner rather than later we needed to do something about it. With Siberia dn Mongolia coming up we're going to need to be in good physical condition, or we'll be asking for trouble.

So our plans have been turend on their head. We spent the last few days riding...North, yep all the way back up to New York. We had an email from Laurence (head of Marketing) and they've asked us to run our presentation at the North American BMW Head Quarters, which is also the HQ for Motorrad. We've done our best to make the most of the ride up and had two lusciuos day riding what many describe as the tar the USA has to offer. The Blueridge Parkay.

The Parkway is a national parkway and runs for 469 miles, mostly along the famous Blue Ridge, a major mountain chain that is part of the Appalachian Mountains. It is the longest, narrowest National Park in the world and is the most visited unit in the United States National Park System. All that aside it's a turning, twisity snaking piece of motorcyel heaven. That'lll make you grin insode your helmet until your cheeks hurt.

Riidng higher into the parkway, the views are breathtaking. Thick swaths of forstation fall away from the roadside down deep hillsides. Ruby red and purple foliage weigh heavy on the burdoned tree line and the appalachians roll and fade into the distance.

Check out the photos you'll get the idea.

The Parkway lead us through Virginia and Northern Carolina and the highway took us back up to New York. By the 19th we were pulling up into the parking area of the 'Marriat Residence', a swanky looking set of self contained appartments that had been covered on our behalf by BMW. Well, c'mon we may as well make it worth our while for what will be a 2,500 round trip that ween not planned.

The mornign of the 20th saw us both a littel nervous. Sure, we'd run the presentation countless times and can now do it in our sleep...but! This was different, I'd spent hours the night before in the hotel/appartment slicing and cutting new video for the presentation. We wanted the show to really have more impact. After 8-years of trying to contact BMW Motorrad, this was the first chance we'd have to show them what we're about, who we are, and of course prove to them that we're not a bad representative of thier brand and thier bikes. We never set out to do iether, that said we could really do with a littel support. In all honesty our expectaions of what would come form the meeting and the show were little, that didn't stop us from hopeing, desperatly for something.

Well, we certainly got something.

With the bikes pulled up and parked right outside BMW's huge HO, Laurence Kuykendall strolled through the tall glass doors and welcomed us like old friends. "Glad to se you made it last", Laurence smiled as the words came out, we all knew that we'd been trying to commincate with BMW USA for a while. I could feel a smile begin to creep across my face. While shaking his hands I remember my nerves vanishing, it suddenly struck me that all we could do was have fun and share our ourney via our presentaion with exactly the same enthusiasm and verve as we had been doing with the thousands that had seen our show so far. We don't need to impress, the journey aready does that.

Up on the second floor Laurence showed us into oneof the auditoriums and we set about getting the computer and projector set up.

An hour and with lunch grabbed BMW staff were taking hteir seats and the hands shaking mine and Lisa's was none other that Pieter deWaal, the new President of BMW MOtorrad USA. We'd been hearing Pieter's name for years, he'd always been spoken about with the highest regard. Originaly from South Africa, it was Lachlan Harris (VP BMW Motorrad South Africa) that had first mentioned Pieter.

Pieter's conversations and questions struck Lisa and I as genuine. He was sincerely interested, as much as on a personal level as a business one. Pieter was instanlty likeable, but then again we have a soft spot for anyone from South Africa. They're a different breed, straight talking and sincere. There's no messing around. If they like you, you know and if they don't you going to know that as well.

We kicked off the presentation and with the new video inserted in place of me (Simon) talking insesinatley, we ran only just slightly over the hour. The round of applause at teh end giving us a clue that our audience had enjoyed their time with us.

So now to the good bit, from which Lisa and I are still in shock.

Laurence approached us at teh end of teh show and with Pieter present, shoock our hands and confirmed that BMW Motorrad wished to get directly involved with supproting our venture. Laurence has promised to overhaul both bikes for us, top to bottom, at a dealer of our choosing. Wow, we'd hoped for a little but this is beyond our expectaitons. It's still not sunk in. We'd had a number of firms and friends who have offered to help us over-haul the bikes prior to Mongolia but to get the work carried out by a dealer, in one place at one time. Holy shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

Good things do come to thsoe that wait.

So tp Pieter, Laurence and everyone that attended our presentation at BMW HO, thank you so much for being part of our continuing journey and especially to Pieter and Luarence for you amazing offer of support. It means the World, literally.

21 to 23-10-2008

Metuchen down to Fredericksburg.---

Fredericksburg to meet up with Christa tommorow---

Dull, wet interstate for two days straight,t his is like chinese water torture.

24-10-2008

After a later start than we’d intended we’d ridden into Winston Salem and followed the easy directions we’d been given by Christa, the owner and editor in chief of RoadRUNNER magazine, which we’ve agreed to start writing for in 2009. We were passing the door pretty much en-route South to New Orleans and it seemed a shame not to go and say hi and to get a better feel for the publication and of course the staff that produce it.

We’d popped into the office, met the staff and then been whisked away to enjoy a Japanese style lunch with Christa and her son Florian. All in all a pretty relaxed affair. This was just a chance to confirm the warm fuzzies we’d all felt months ago when we’d first started talking about getting our chronicled journey together with RoadRUNNER. It seems we’re all on the same page when it comes to riding and writing styles. What turns us on when it come to biking and the message we’re trying to get across.

On the down side we were with Christa a lot longer than we’d imaged and it was almost 3:00pm before we left and of course it was chucking it down and rush hour was kicking off with avengence.

Right now we’re holed up in one of the dirtiest and dingiest Motel 6’s either of has ever been in. Bit depressed actually. Not that it hasn’t been a good day; it’s just more money on a hotel, and the day and area is just grim to look at.

It’ll be better tomorrow.

25-10-2008

Rode down to Valdosta. Weird area. Felt like we were really out there and definaely felt more than a little ‘Deleverance’..."I love my uncle dad"!!!