I’m at a crossroads in my trip, so to speak. I’m currently in Sedona, AZ and have decided to cut my route short. I will not be continuing East, instead, I will start meandering my way home to Portland after another night in Sedona.
I am disappointed only in not seeing my friends and family that I had hoped to visit in the South and East. I could come up with dozens of excuses for cutting the trip short but the honest reason is that I don’t enjoy the gypsy lifestyle. I do enjoy the journey but I enjoy the destination, as well. The past couple of stops on this trip has helped to illustrate this to me. I’d rather travel to a location and stay for a little while to truly experience all that it has to offer but my budget and time will not allow this.
Ultimately, when planning the trip, the enormity of this undertaking escaped my grasp. If I were to continue along the original plan, I would have another 8500 miles to travel and, at the end of the trip, I fear that I would be completely burned out on motorcycling.
As it stands, now, I have ridden about 2000 miles and have about 1500-2000 miles to ride to get home, depending on the route and stops along the way. A total of 3500-4000 miles.
In my travels thus far, I’ve visited 4 national parks, ridden through countless national forests, crossed the Sierra Nevadas on a snowy mountain pass, seen sights that I’ve dreamed of seeing since I was a child, and experienced parts of the West Coast and Southwest in the most amazing way possible, aboard a motorcycle, self contained and self sufficient.
Some of you may be disappointed but, at the end of the day, I set out on this trip for fun and adventure and have achieved both. I have learned some things about myself and feel that I have met most of the goals that I had set for myself.
To paraphrase a saying that I’m particularly fond of, It’s not the miles in your adventure but the adventure in your miles.
Portland, I’ll see you in a week or two.
Stay tuned to read about the second half of my trip.
The Adventures of SidewaysTim 