Up@dawn 2.0

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Tanner Everett's 2nd Installment: "It's Not the Destination, It's the Journey"

It's Not the Destination, It's the Journey"
(Or perhaps just who you share the journey with...)
Here is a link to my first installment: 

Building off of the ideas that I presented in my previous installment, I want to continue to emphasize that though riding motorcycles is the context in which I am finding happiness, the bikes themselves play a surprisingly small role. Not only am I more interested in the company in which I find myself on these trips, I also find myself quite invested in the more visceral sensations that one experiences when traveling in this manner. There is certainly a more primal connection with nature when one is traversing the Smoky Mountains on a motorcycle. 
This is reminiscent of the talk of "flow" that we had earlier in the semester. When I'm on a motorcycle, I'm always in the zone; everything simply fades away.

There have been many occasions when I have been out riding, both solo and in a group, that there has either been no destination decided (intentionally), or someone just makes the decision to scrap the decided destination altogether because they realized that a different road looked a lot better. Or they were just "following their gut" as it were. In fact, our spring trip earlier this year, we were in Kentucky and had made the decision to venture all the way to Hot Springs, Virginia. An 8 hour drive if we stuck to the highways, easily 10+ hours if we were to take "fun" roads.

We begin our journey, and about 4 hours into it everyone realized at about the same time that we were already really tired, and after stopping for a small break it was unanimously decided that we were going to get a hotel and sleep, and to scrap the Virginia plan altogether. However, later that evening we were all eating dinner together, and one of the members of the group noted that they were having much more fun spending time with everyone than they would have been with a sore butt still on the motorcycle! Another person chimed in with "Yea, I only really agreed to Virginia in the first place because I just like to ride; I didn't really care about where the hell we were going!"

The next day we did decide to go to Virginia (but not all the way to Hot Springs) and it was beautiful. But anywhere we went would have been beautiful. The destination has never been important...

Except for one: Waffle House. It's one of those traditions that was certainly never intended, but is absolutely a highlight on every trip. We make it a point to eat a Waffle House (preferably one we have never been to) for breakfast at least once every trip, though we often end up eating it for breakfast most days. I would argue that Waffle House is a place that only truly happy can eat at and feel comfortable in. These places are always objectively bad, but it is up to each person individually to create their own happiness here. And it is always an interesting experience; there's never a shortage of conversation-starters at a Waffle House.

We will settle for a Huddle House.

And that's it. Never be afraid of your destination, because you never know if you'll even make it there. You'll probably have a much better time on the journey anyway. And don't forget to stop and smell the waffles.

Here's some bonus pictures from past trips:




Comments:

2 comments:

  1. The nectar IS in the journey. Happy trails, Tanner!

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    Replies
    1. https://osopher.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/the-nectar-is-in-the-journey/

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