I went on a very relaxing ride today on the Ducati. First, I made good decisions from the start. Do I want to look sporty or feel comfortable? I tried on sporty but then chose comfortable clothes. Then I listened to the thoughts that came to me. Just go north. No, don't get off on 84, yes get off on 92. Result? A ride I don't usually do in comfortable riding clothes on a beautiful day. I stopped for breakfast at lunchtime at Alice’s Restaurant and then walked around the bikes and cars in the parking area while my food went down. That's when I met Greg.
Greg is one of those people who can't seem to help speaking philosophically as he speaks about other things. He started talking to me about my Ducati. He has a newer Ducati and was admiring mine. We also talked about how he was hanging around for a couple of hours as the support vehicle, in a car, while his wife road a bicycle to the coast from where we were at Skyline and 84. He was just hanging out until it was time to drive down and pick her up at the beach. He had me laughing at one point, thinking often, and completely enthralled in my own words, of course, when he asked questions about my Ducati.
We talked about several things but one of his comments that stuck out for me was “...and we're looking for the same thing, chasing the pretty, looking for those perfect trees and beautiful weather and perfect experience-moments to be in.” Referring to he and his wife he went on, “that's what we do, we go places, we ride, or we drive, we stop, and we look to be in those moments.”
Chasing the pretty. I like that.
He paused when I told him that he had a good philosophical perspective. We spoke of several things over a period of time and when I was getting ready to leave I said thank you for the interesting thoughts, I am going to put those away in my mind to ponder over in the next few days. We shook hands and parted. Before I got on my bike, helmet on and ready to go, Greg comes back to me and says:
“There's more to this. At 43 I know that I am not going to be at the perfect level for everything every time. There are two times a day when I am really at peak and I do things then. Then at night but that is more mental alertness for thinking. It sounds cool to be doing somethings but that is not always reality and I don't need to be riding a mountain bike 85 miles. I don't need to rush in to the cafe and get back out there again to get somewhere. If it’s between 65 and 75 degrees we ride, otherwise we don't, we look at the temperature first. And I ride to a cafe and I sit and enjoy until I am ready to leave again. I don't want to be at 80 percent or 50 percent as I would if I was always trying to get somewhere next. I want to be at 100 percent, I want to always be at peak when I am doing something. So I do it when it is right and I rest in between. Well, this is what I have been working on lately.”
I have some things to think about. Greg is a neat and interesting person.
After riding off, I stopped at Skyline and 9 just to take in the weather. A friendly couple were hiking the trail and the woman asked me if I wanted a picture with me on my bike when she saw me taking photos. So she took the photo at the top of this post. You can see her in it, that's her finger in the upper left. Which I think is cool in this case as I really like the photo otherwise and today was a day for interacting with kind strangers so discovering a blurry addition from one of them in my photo when I got home was kind of neat. I returned the kindness and took pictures of the couple on their camera. I suspect my thumb is not in their photos but perhaps my reflection in their sunglasses is there should they ever zoom in.