Last night Chama, NM was filled to the brim. Moved on town-to-town staring at the spectacular San Juans until I found great little old motel. No brand. Just honest folk in the office and in the rooms.
70-year olds on motorcycles everywhere. They bought the Beemers before the crash.
Fall asleep in an amazingly silent town.
Awake at 5:30. Too much attention (see earlier post on ADD).
OK….so this is going to be one of those trips I never know if I’m going to take, even as I am a week or so into it.
It will be a stream of moments in which I will be – simultaneously – ready to turn around and go back and equally ready to try the next 200 kilometers to see whether they might provide an answer to ‘how many more days?’
Why would anyone leave wonderful family and friends to get into a 1960’s type vehicle….or on a motorcycle….or on a bicycle….and ride ‘alone’ for thousands of miles exposed to the elements…sleeping on the ground….with only a vague purpose and no tangible value at the end?
Searching for reasons before dawn….
Well….compared to when I was inarticulately trying to signal my parents from the crib that I was hungry at 2:00Am….I don’t have much life left…so might as well see it.
Or, 20 years ago I could argue that I was prowling North America – I called it ‘driving grids’ – looking for a place to move for retirement. But now I know pretty much what I can afford and where I will be for those years of my life. (Won’t be retired. Will be working. Will be in places where taxes are low.)
I do have a reason…the kind of reason that doctors call the ‘presenting’ problem…..what the patient says is the problem. The rational part of this trip is continuing a string of years watching how new entrepreneurs create superbly innovative businesses at the “edge of electricity” all over the world. I derive tremendous hope for the world and the future by seeing first-hand how economic growth has shifted from North America and Western Europe to “less developed” economies (which 3 men in a room made up that silly phrase?). I would normally do this outside North America, but this year I already did it in Arctic Scandinavia (with my wonderful family), and in India, and a couple of other places…….so might as well do it here.
The rational method – the ‘plan’ – is to ride to towns that are being revitalized by global (Chinese) cash lighting up their mines. The search for raw materials to fuel the now largest manufacturing economy on earth in Asia has led to pockets of wealth in remote locations all over the world – in places most economists would never go, or even see in their aggregated data. These pockets of wealth create internet and wireless phone access, and that means some of the poorest musicians on the planet can get connected to Myspace and start selling their music online, instead of in front of their hats on a sidewalk someplace. Etcetera.
But even that passion of mine is not enough to motivate me when no larger purpose appears on the ceiling above the bed at 5 AM. When I can’t think of any reasons to ‘justify’ why I do this to friends at home. When I’m thinking, “wouldn’t it be great to share this with _____, or ____, or ____?”…..the people I love and am missing at this moment.
So, I know I will do the morning drill….
Which way is the wind blowing? Find a weather map and check out the next 1000 kilometers/600 miles. Pick a line that has either mining towns or the apparent absence of electricity….and no thunderstorms.
Coffee (my little camping coffee press is kicking in at this moment).
And then ride around in something that has no sheet metal and foam insulation separating you from the world. The exact opposite of a Lexus.
When one rides a motorcycle, a bicycle, or a stripped Jeep (this year’s experiment) several things happen:
- You smell life all around you. This is far more meaningful than most people imagine.
- People all feel they have permission to approach you and talk to you (this is good). You are never alone. If you want a window into the social architecture of a town, park your vehicle in a gas station convenience store, slowly eat a snack, and 9 times out of 10 someone will approach and start a dialog. (Do this cautiously in urban areas). Rank order – from highest social conversation device: bicycle, then motorcycle, then stripped Jeep…….all the way down to Lexus at the end of the social solar system.
- You lose the addiction to TV and even the daily news. Real life takes over all your senses. When you do see TV, it stands out starkly as something extremely coercive and narrowly intravenous. It is also clearly killing polar bears….why would we burn so much fossil fuel to create electrons telling us that poor Paris Hilton is bummed out in jail?
For me…..on these rides I get a place to use my excess supply of attention. I’m a country boy. My brain is geared toward very messy ‘analog’ sound and sight. When locked in a ‘digital’ urban environment the messiness goes away and I end up with an oversupply of attention.
I’m on this trip for some visceral reason that goes far beyond the present.
My ancestors sailing long boats to then unknown Iceland had this same 5:30 AM experience….before clocks were invented.
I am not alone today. When I walk out the door of this motel….I will join a 1000 kilometer parade of others on motorcycles, bicycles, four-wheelers, tractors, and foot….and we are all part of a global nomadic community.
We are all ready every moment to turn around or go on. We don’t exactly know why. It’s much larger than today.
Which way is the wind blowing?
