Guy Boutin's Motorcycle Touring and Travel Pages

Adventures in Sport Touring with the Honda ST 1100, 1300 and the BMW 1200RT

Exploring North America...One Road at a Time

The Lure of the Cross Country Ride
June 3, 2002

In 8 days I will depart on my 3rd cross country trip.  The excitement and months of planning peaking.  I fall asleep each night in virtual reality.  Soon, I will have real time images of the places that before were only names, or dots on a map.

Places such as Lisco, Nebraska, a tiny speck of a town on U.S. 26, 60 or so miles east of Scottsbluff.  I picture a small row of businesses on each side of 26, which I can almost guarantee, will serve as Main Street.  A few blocks off Main Street will be a water tower. A post office and library will be close by.  

I see Milner, Colorado on my map.  I will pass through it on my way Steamboat.  You will find it on U.S. 40, west of the city.  A community just outside the heart of the Rocky  Mountains.  Townspeople rise each morning and are treated to spectacular mountain vistas outside their kitchen window.  Perhaps I will stop for gas there, perhaps a butt break, or perhaps I will just idle through, never putting my feet down.  Just have to see.

I will visit Glacier, Crater Lake, and the lights of Las Vegas.  Places and things I'm yet to witness.  I think about the empty highways ahead, the loneliness of a isolated campground on a dark night, and the joy of reuniting with close friends and brother riders.

A rider can take a variety of trips and tours.  But the cross country ride, is held as the ultimate.  I can ride north-south and have fun, but that ride is very different from a cross country ride.  A guy can ride from Georgia to Maine, and the landscape does not change dramatically.  The ubran sprawl of the northeast the only thing that signals you are in another region.  But let a guy ride from Georgia to the Hotel California, and he will ride through several geography changes.  The greenery of the Southeast gives way to the Plains. After the Plains its up and over the Rockies,  the desert comes next (depending on your route), then the Sierras, and finally the Pacific Ocean.  You will pass through 3 time zones. Heck, Miami and Bangor, are in the same zone.

Riding cross country breaks a guy away from his tether to home.  For most riders, tether length will be a days ride.  A "day's ride", varies from rider to rider.  For me it is 800 miles.  Circle Prattville with a 800 mile radius, and that will be my rope length.  Like a dog on a runner.  When I am in that circle, I am in my comfort zone, if anything happens I can get home quickly.  Not so in Oregon.  That far from home, if anything happens, I must be resourceful. 

The call of the road, and the itchiness of wanderlust are tugging at me.  As the ocean calls fisherman and adventurers, the road calls the long distance rider and tourer.  It is a seductive lure.  Trips that begin with optimism and the promise of great adventure, can turn into rain, cold, and misery, causing the rider to curse himself for ever undertaking such a folly.  The only promise on a cross country ride? Obstacles.  Weather, getting lost, money, loneliness, to name a few.  All of us need to confront fear, to challenge the unknown, in order fulfill our potential. To see if we have the "right stuff."

I vision a day when the road no longer calls me.  When my son marries, and brings grandchildren into my life. If that happens,  I can't see myself being away from them for 3 weeks.  I have NO idea if and when that day will ever come.  But if it does, I want to say I did the things I wanted to do.  I will be content with the memories of the places and adventures I experienced, as I live out my life quietly, surrounded by with those close to me.  

Maybe I will have a grandson, and will be called back to coaching duty, and will no longer have time to take 3 weeks off each summer, for a cross country ride.  If so that will be ok, because tucked away will the captured moments of past rides.  Something that no one can ever take away.

Could it be I will return to marathon running?  The training and commitment will dictate I give up cross country riding.  I am seriously considering celebrating my first year of retirement with such a endeavor, but I am a long way from any marathons right now.  I can take refuge from the rigors of training by taking my bike out for short day trips.  Keeping the fires burning till my marathon is over, and the road calls for my return.  Even so, I will never forget this stage of my life.

One thing I've learned over the years, never say never to anything.

Long distance riding brings a lot of joy to me.  The hold it has is tight.  I am hooked to its lure like a bass on a Bill Dance spinner bait.  The open road reels me in, and I am helpless. I have no choice but to ride out June 11th to places unknown.

I have planned and researched my upcoming trip.  I have my objectives sorted out, along with the roads I wish to ride.  I am sure I will change stuff a long the way, that's the beauty of riding.  I can be my own boss.  Another lure in the cross country tackle box.

I am looking forward to it.