Travel plan idea blog

Motorcycle traveling

Traveling by motorcycle is getting more popular:

It's a whole different way to travel, suggest their friends Danny Prentice and Debbie MacKenzie, who also live in New Richmond.

"If you're going with a car, if you're going to Charlottetown (for example) you'll hit the fastest highway to go to Charlottetown. When we're on the bike we'll hunt for all the old side roads and see a lot of different things we wouldn't see if we were in the car," explains Prentice, who works for Via Rail. "On a bike you'll try the longest way, find the longest way to get there. You're in no rush."

Kind of reminds me of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:

You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other. In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it, you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer, and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.

On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on. It's right there, so blurred you can't focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness.

Now I haven't ridden a motorcycle since I was a kid on the back of my Uncle's Harley, but all this talk about freedom, and relaxation makes me want to learn how to ride. I doubt my wife would be happy about that.

Posted by James Trotta at August 29, 2004 1:57 AM