Tuesday, July 23, 2002

You know I was over at the river park the other day just enjoying the day when I noticed some nice motorcycles in the parking lot. Now I love motorcycles the feeling you get when your out riding on one is wonderful. One of the riders had a Suzuki Katana 600, it was in very good shape. The rider however was complaining about it. He said he wanted to do a little touring but his bike was too small for it. He wanted a 1000 cc sportbike to tour on. Now here this guy had a nice bike but wasnt happy with it. all he could see was its percieved faults. It reminded me of a motorcycle ride I was on a while back. I was out just enjoying a day of riding on my 86 Honda 250 Elite scooter ( yes I said 250cc and Scooter) I had a big box on back for storage and had gone a little over 200 miles that day. I stopped for a while to rest and have a cold drink. when this guy rode in on a little 180 Yamaha scooter. He had a windshield on it as well as some soft saddlebags and a trunk on the back. Oh did I forget to mention, he had Idaho license plates!!. I had struck up a conversation with this gentleman. He was friendly and happy as most who are in the middle of a nice road trip are. I found that he had indeed ridden the scooter clear from Idaho and was on his way to Washington. to visit family and start collage. He spoke of all the wonderful sites he had seen along the way. the nice people he had met. How the longer he had ridden the more alive and happy he had felt. We both talked about the adventure of a long downhill, a loaded scooter and the little drum brakes they had on them :-) , but you now the one thing he never mentioned was that he wished he had a bigger bike. Instead he focused on the what the bike had to offer rather then what it didnt have, and he was having a great time because of it. Now if more people looked at life that way how much better and friendlier would this world be... I wonder.