Thursday, March 4, 2010

Relax and Ride

 
I worked all day today at home in the office. I know that sounds pretty good but work is work no matter where you are. Don't get me wrong, I really like my job and I'm fully grateful to God for being employed and for the job that I have.

Late this afternoon I had to get on the motorcycle and relax and ride. One way to do that is to go for a spin in the hill country. This area has the right amount of peaks, valleys, and curves. That style of course gives the right amount of concentration as well as relaxation. It's like a soothing mental salve that makes one forget worries and issues. When I use to play tennis I found that in order to play well you have to fully concentrate on the ball and forget everything that's on your mind. I've found it to be similar when riding through many twists and turns.

 
Not too far from where we live are vineyards where grapes are grown that produce Pinot Noir that rivals what is produced in France. It's been recognized as one of the premier Pinot Noir producing areas of the world.

 
The warm summers with cool evenings give us a long growing season. Of course, this gives you another reason to visit Oregon. We like... no, make that love tourists.

 
Well, the ride was short and sweet, only 37 miles but the results were good. 

I had what could have been a bad incident while coming down the back side of a small mountain through some switch-backs. I saw a construction type truck cutting his corner short and over the center line as I approached the curve. He saw me so he corrected and got back over the line.

Although it wasn't a close call, it could have been. Close calls can bring to the surface areas that need attention and refining. Making myself visible was probably the key to not getting hit. Sort of like a tennis ball in that you want to be visible, you just don't want to get hit.


7 comments:

  1. Very nice write up of your ride Mike, and I like the photos you chose to go along with it. It certainly looks like one of those perfect rides...quiet roads and beautiful scenery. I really like the first photo. Crisp, vibrant colors and a lovely setting.

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  2. Oregon loves tourists. As long as they stay off our motorcycle roads. Repeat after me. Oregon does not have good roads! Just good wine. Glad your incident went well. I have an interesting group of photos about this kind of thing to post when the scanning series is done. You'll be amazed how a van can hide.

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  3. Nice ride, and lovely pictures. @Irondad: I wonder if tourists on bikes would be acceptable on your motorcycle roads ;-)

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  4. Dan,
    Looking forward to more on the scanning series and now the hiding van. As long as we keep having winters like we just had our roads won't get worse. :)

    Sonja,
    Thank you. My feeling is tourists on bikes are always welcomed. Bobskoot likes our Oregon roads and you might too.

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  5. Cool blog and superb photos, really enjoying reading it. I'm a latecomer to the world of blogging!

    Geoff

    New Zealand

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  6. Thank you Geoff! I just checked out your blog... good stuff. I'll be checking back with you. Welcome to the blogosphere - I'm relatively new too.

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