Father’s Day 2017
4 hours of riding through North Georgia.
A quick stop for a terrific smoked pulled pork sandwich and a sweet tea.
Arrive home to both daughters and my wife.
Grilled rib-eyes, baked potatoes, sweet corn, and carrot cake. 
Watching the sun go down as I sip bourbon and smoke the cigar I’d been saving for a very special occasion.
God, if heaven offers even more than this, how will I be able to stand it?
I just read that before going on a road trip you should pack everything you’re going to take the night before, then unpack it all, and throw away 25% of it.
I’m not sure about the percentage, but based on my hiking and camping experience – it’s not far from being on target. If I’m honest (and I’m trying) I’d have to admit that the same thing that thrills me about a long road trip is the same thing that strikes a chord of fear for me. The same wish for the freedom of an open road where the only agenda is to keep rolling wherever the moment takes me is the exact same thought that makes me wonder if EVERYTHING is going to be okay.
Okay, let me have a conversation with myself that I’ve already had a few hundred times. You can listen in. We don’t mind.
Um, Self. Can you…Can you stop looking at WebMD for a minute?
SELF-Hmm?
It’s about the trip.
SELF-Oh, am I still going on that? Do you know how much that is going to cost? And I don’t mean just money. It’s time. And who knows where you’re going to stay, and how you’re going to feel, and what about work? And our wife? What if she misses us? What if she doesn’t? What if you come back and they’ve replaced you with a robot or something?! I mean work, not your wife. Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.
I think you need to know that EVERYTHING is not going to be okay?
SELF-Shut up.
Now listen. Everything is NOT going to be okay for this trip.
SELF-It’s not?!!!!
Nope. There are going to be some things that will not go as planned.
SELF-So we’re cancelling? Oh thank goodness. I need a nap.
We’re not cancelling. We just have to face the fact that some things will not be ideal.
SELF-We have to plan some more! We have to take along a medicine chest. Where are my winter socks?
Hold it! It’s okay.
SELF-You just said it wasn’t!
No, I said things will go wrong, but that’s okay.
SELF-That’s like saying down is up.
No, it’s like saying the price of freedom and adventure might have to be paid with a little discomfort.
SELF-Oh, right.
So you see?
SELF-Yes! Discomfort.
Yes!
SELF-Aspirin. We forgot to pack the large Costco bottle.
I’m not listening to me, am I?
themotorcycletourer 