What’s Your Excuse?!

Sometimes the best excuse for a ride is no excuse at all beyond “I felt like it.” I may have used that excuse with my mom and dad – once. I have plenty of excuses for today’s ride, one being that I needed some material to write this post, another is that I needed to scout a scene for one of my stories, and still another is that I needed to break a little pattern that was blocking production. The nice thing is that if none of the excuses pan out I’ve still had a nice ride.

Today’s ride was fairly well unscripted with only two prime objectives of the ride; get to the Santa Monica Pier to reconnect with my PAR character and ride up coast and by Point Mugu. After an early morning men’s prayer meeting I decided that I’d get business done in Pasadena (Credit Union ATM deposit) and then go down to the pier and I’d do it without using a freeway; partly to avoid rush hour on the freeways and partly just because I felt like it. I won’t bore you with the route other than to say that getting to Pasadena was a delight using my old bicycle route and the route from there to the pier was a grind. Interesting, but grinding.

Mugu Lagoon Vista Overlook - A favorite stop

I observed that a lot of LA is under construction; new buildings on vacant lots, remodels of old stuff, and rebuilds of stuff that wasn’t as thought out as it might have been. Lanes were closed, streets were torn up, iron plates had to be negotiated, construction vehicles clogged the roads, and I also found that there are a lot of people avoiding freeways when they can during get-to-work days. Still, it didn’t seem to wear the smile off of my face. I had plenty to think about; my Kids’ Hope kid and how to approach reading with him (the object of a side prayer), what next to do with the bike (lights and chromishness mostly), where to take my writing projects, what next to do with the house…you get the picture.

I spent some time sitting at the end of the pier listing to a whistling guitar player. It was beautiful and made me smile and I made him smile when I thanked him with a healthy tip in his jar. Once I hit the Pacific Coast Highway, US 1, I spent some time visualizing a ride PAR will take early on his search. I also outlined a new item for my to-do list, ride the US 1 from its northern-most point to the southern-most point as one trip. The first item is to determine what those points actually are; next is to figure out how to get north so I can have the coast on my right without a lane between me and it. How many days will I need for the whole shebang? Then figure out other logistics like tents vs. hotels and such. What’s my excuse? Because it sounds cool to do the whole Pacific Coast as one journey.

I have other ride excuses:

·         It would be cool to do (see above)

·         There are awesome things to see over there…

·         There is an event in the middle of it like Sturgis or Street Vibrations

·         I can demo bikes and have a good ride on my own

·         I haven’t seen my ride-buddies in way too long…

·         Those twisties have been calling my name all day long

·         Half Dome whispered to me that it wants a ride-by

·         Because I feel like it!

What’s your excuse!?

Y’all keep the iron side up.