Ordinarily, I would be packing and loading my bike this evening, getting ready for an early departure for the West.
My plans envisioned me riding to Topeka, or maybe Salina, Kans. tomorrow, then on to Tim and Linda Balough’s lovely Rocky Mountain chateau in Alma, Colo. Sunday.
The rally ends on Sunday, July 21 and I planned to ride up to Portland for a few days with my son Sean, then down the California coast to Big Sur, before heading back east across the Mojave Desert to Las Vegas to visit my son Steve and his family. From Vegas, it’s a day’s ride to Albuquerque and another day’s ride to Oklahoma City where I thought I might drop in on a high school classmate. I’d take my time about leaving OKC to let the rush hour play itself out, then cruise east through Fort Smith and Little Rock, arriving at home sometime in the afternoon.
That was the plan, anyway.
But I crunched the numbers this week and came to the cold hard realization that the capricious, cowardly, baseless firing of my wife blew my riding season into the weeds.
I made a similar ride three years ago and my expenses averaged $50 a day. They would have been considerably more if I had not spent several nights enjoying the free hospitality of friends and relatives.
I have much to say about the way Maria was mistreated, but I’ll save it for later. Suffice it to say that in the two weeks since she was fired, she is less stressed, better rested, and generally more happy and relaxed than at any time since we moved to Arkansas six years ago. She noticed this morning that she’s losing weight – down a blouse size since June 26.
So my grandiose riding plans, that included the European Riders Rally in May and the BMW RA rally in June, have come to naught. All I have to show for 2013 so far is Daytona. All I have to look forward to is the back-to-back Return to Shiloh and Falling Leaf rallies in October.
In the meantime, I’m cleaning out my closet and selling unused riding gear on Ebay.
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