The 2018 Adventure: It's Almost Time to Ride

Helen Keller said, "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all." I like that. Annette and I have viewed our lives together... our marriage, our family, and our ministry... daring adventures, and we've had, for the most part, the time of our lives for a pretty long time. We're getting older, but we're not slowing down. It seems we're always peering down the road in search of the next adventure. We enjoy living our lives this way.

I was reading a book to one of our granddaughters recently (we have TWO of those little treasures now!!), and I found myself reading this to little Ruth:

So be you - fully you -

a show-stopping revue.

Live your life in full color,

every tint, every hue.

Discover. Explore!

Have faith but love more.

And learn and relearn all

that God made you for.

from God Made You

written by Matthew Paul Turner

I read that page over and over to my that precious 13-month-old girl, thankful for the opportunity to imprint a couple of things on her little heart... thoughts that (1) God made her, and (2) life is to be lived in full color. I love that! For years, Annette and I have said we would live loud and live large. Now I've added "in full color" as a descriptor of how we want to experience our love and lives together.

This is me - Papa - with Lorelai, left, born in
November, and Ruth, born in March.
These are the best of times, for sure!

So before we get to motorcycle adventure things, let's consider a couple of other roads Annette and I have traveled since the epic adventure that took us to Nova Scotia a year ago. First, we've fallen in love with the role of being grandparents. We have a second little grand-blessing in Lorelai Mae, born November 27, 2017. Two granddaughters born in less than a year has just about caused our hearts to explode with joy. Our lives are forever changed for the better!

Here's another: A road that all too familiar to us is one that had us navigating health concerns. I'll spare readers the details. After several months of care and treatment,  I find myself feeling great and optimistic that we have those physical challenges in the rearview. We are thankful for the work of healing God has done. We've learned to be thankful for every day. And we are fully trusting that God is holding us tightly. Amen!

Enough of those "adventures". We're bearing down on a whole new journey - and I can't wait to get started. For those new to our crazy riding habit, a bit of history is in order.

• In 2012, we embraced a challenge to ride all 48 contiguous states. We nailed it, riding the Southwest in '12, the Northeast in '13, and the Northwest in '14. We stopped to get a quick pic just over the Kentucky state line as we covered the 48th and final state. And then we said, "Now what?"
• In 2015, we revisited the southwestern United States, which happens to be my favorite part of the country so far.
• In '16, we thought we'd stay close to home, exploring the Ozarks, and then decided we needed more adventure and went north to Pennsylvania to visit the Harley-Davidson factory.
• Last year, our destination was eastern Canada and the Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia.

And that brings us to the 2018 adventure. This year, we're going big - just under 10,000 miles - riding to the Canadian Rockies to explore the Columbia Icefields Parkway that runs north from Banff, Alberta up to Jasper. The pictures we've seen are simply stunning. Along the way, we'll ride Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain Park, spend a day-and-a-half in Yellowstone National Park, and then ride through Lolo Pass. From there, we'll tackle some great roads on our way to Seattle, then head north into British Columbia. After several days exploring this region of western Canada, we'll end up in Banff, where we'll spend three days on the Icefields Parkway - one night in Banff, then a night in Calgary as we pick up our wives, a night in Jasper, and then another night in Banff. Finally starting home, we'll visit Glacier National Park and ride Going to the Sun Road. Finally, as we start the long ride home, we'll visit the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore National Monument, and Badlands National Park.

Whew! That makes me tired just typing it all!! But if God grants favor in the way of safety and absence of serious mechanical challenges, I believe this ride will be the most epic of all. Did I say I can't wait? We're weeks away from blastoff and I'm already packed!

Here are a few things about our trips:

• We don't camp. The closest we come to "roughing it" is staying in a hotel that is not part of a national chain. We stay in Hampon Inns most nights, but we'll find an IHG or something in the Marriott family if we can't locate a Hilton property. We'll grab a Best Western reservation when necessary - and only stay in a local mom-and-pop hotel if necessary. No camping for us! We like a hot shower, a clean bed, a hot (and free) breakfast, and, in a perfect world, a hotel staff that understands we like to clean our bikes up a bit.
• We eat pretty well. Breakfast in the hotel... a break at lunch... a nice dinner that lets us enjoy the depth of our friendships as much as we enjoy the food. We try to avoid national franchises, choosing instead to research the best local fare in the towns we frequent. We don't camp and we don't cook over an open fire. Nope! That's fine for many - but not for us.
• We ride hard. Pretty much every day is a 12-hour (or more) day. We're typically in the saddle by 7 AM, and are often rolling into our hotel close to 7 PM. We don't always ride for 12 hours, though. Our day in Yellowstone, for example, is less than 300 miles - but we're off of the bikes a lot, celebrating the wonder of God's creation. Conversely, our longest day this year is 820 miles. No, that's not a typo. We maximize our time away, then push hard when it's time to head for home.
• We visit a lot of national parks. Each park is a treasure of creation and history that has been preserved by our government in a wonderfully wise move. More on that soapbox of mine later...
• Our trips are more about relationship than riding. I'll address this more in another post - but suffice it to say that my life and riding experience is enhanced in an indescribable way by the friendship of our little band of brothers.

Our little band of brothers, last summer on the famous Cabot Trail
Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia

That's enough for now. We invite you to ride with us. To live vicariously is "to live in a way that is experienced in the imagination through the actions of another person." So ride with us vicariously as the journey begins on June 14, and we'll be sure to keep you posted with words and images that describe the adventure. C'mon June 14. I'm ready to ride!