Trips and Trials

This past month I’ve had two very different trip experiences. The first one was a family vacation to Perdido Key Florida. My wife, our two kids and I loaded up the mini-van with everything we would need, plus things that we wanted to bring. We brought the normal load of clothing, and swim wear, sun screen and beach towels, toiletries and such. We toted toys, and stuffed animals, a CD player to help the kids sleep and fan to help us sleep. We carted an entire bag full of crafts and games to fill our time in the condo. And we outfitted the van to be as kid friendly as possible, we put the DVD players in with a collection of the kids favorite movies. We purchased hand held V-Smile(educational video games for children) systems, of course one for each child. We had snacks, books, magazines and toys within an arms reach – some things for the kids and some for my wife and I. We loaded up and headed out.
The trip itself was a “win” for us. The kids are getting old enough to behave well in restaurants, to enjoy the pool and the beach, and to keep themselves entertained. We had a great time at the beach, after all the beach was the destination, that’s why we went. The goal of getting to the beach was why we loaded all that stuff up, it’s why we drove nine hours. The Martin family went to the beach, we got their safely, we enjoyed our time and we came back. It was successful.
The second trip was starkly different than the first. The second trip was a motorcycle ride to Dallas with two of my friends Kirk and Rob. We had a goal in mind; we were going to Dallas to attend the Catalyst one day conference. But the conference quite honestly was secondary to the journey. As I loaded up my bags, being light and nimble where in the forefront of my mind, and as I thought about what to take, my decision was based on the journey not the destination. I had to think through what was absolutely essential to take. To be completely real about it, I choose to pass my bag off to one of our car driving co-workers, but I packed in such a way that I could have taken my bag and strapped it to my bike with no problems. On the bike, I had no CD player, I choose not to take my I-Pod, I have no windscreen, no floorboards, no super comfy seat. My bike for lack of a better word is simple.
My journey to Dallas and back was my first trip on a motorcycle, though I’ve been riding for four years now, I just had never had anybody to take a trip with until a few months ago when both Rob and Kirk converted and became motorcyclists. I learned a lot about motorcycle touring, and myself on the ride.
During the ride I learned very quickly that it takes the human body time to adjust to life on a motorcycle for miles of high speed riding. Our destination in Dallas was about 270 miles from our starting point. And 30 miles in to our trip I was confident I wouldn’t make it. The sky was grey, the wind was blowing hard against us, and my rear was already hurting. Our first scheduled stop was still 60 miles away, and I wanted to quit. I sucked it up, partly out of pride (I didn’t want to be the loser who couldn’t hack it) and partly out sheer determination of wanting to accomplish this ride. I was relieved to learn upon our first stop that my companions were experiencing the same level of discomfort that I was. We rested a bit, complained a lot, and got back on our bikes headed to the next stop.
The sun finally came out, and the wind either stopped blowing as hard or I got used to it. I found my grove, the rhythm of the bike, the road and the body and arrived at check point two much better off than check point one. I still hurt, but was much more confident that I had done the right thing in sticking it out.
We made it into the Dallas area with little problem, and after a few wrong turns eventually found our way to the hotel, thanks to a battery operated GPS system my friend Rob brought with him. In fact we made it to the hotel earlier than expected, and waited for the rest of our group, which arrived about 45 minutes after us. We slept hard that night, got up in the morning and headed to the conference. That evening we made a trip to Wal-Mart in search of ways to make the ride more bearable. To make my ride a bit better I bought a pair of gel shoe inserts for my boots, the insides of them felt like they had been chewed up. I also got a pair of earplugs to help with the wind noise, some superglue to keep my mirrors from coming loose – which they had on the way up, and some foot corn pads for my shifting toe, which felt like it had been beaten with a hammer. A bit more thought put into it, and I should have bought a second pair of gel inserts and used some double sided tape to put on my saddle. I have to say that each item was well worth the money spent on them, where would our country be without Wal-Mart?
The trip back to Houston was considerably nicer. Good clear weather, gentle breezes and most importantly we added two more stops, and took a bit more scenic route. Don’t get me wrong, by the time we pulled into Houston I thought my tail bone was going to need to be surgically removed from my seat, my ear plugs had lost their ability to conform to my ear and I was exhausted. It was a success.
I will do some more day trips in the future, with some slight modifications to my bike and gear. I’ve started my list: a good set of custom fit ear plugs, a gel seat cover, floorboards, highway pegs and more luggage space.
Two trips, two definitions of success and two great times!