Unless you’re retired, work takes up a significant amount of your time. Many of us want the weekdays to hurry by, so we can leave work behind and enjoy our weekends. We make plans, which allow us to get the most enjoyment, possible out of life during our days off work.

We spend quality time with our families, which is of the highest priority. We also spend some of our off-time doing community oriented things, such as going to church, volunteering with the local fire department, helping around school or coaching sports programs for our children. All of these things are a very important part of our lives.

After all of this, if we have a little free time for ourselves, we’re lucky. I spend most of my free time with my lovely wife, riding motorcycles. Over the past ten years, we’ve been blessed with uncountable memories shared together as we traveled the country on our Gold Wing. We’ve made many friends in the process and feel like we’ve enriched our quality of life tremendously.

A large percentage of the time we’ve spent riding has been with our Chapter “B” family. After all, our chapter members are the closest motorcycling friends we will ever have. We have taken vacations with them, numerous weekend trips and day rides. We have gone to many Poker Runs and shared their company of ten years of weekly Tuesday night dinner rides.

With limited quality time for ourselves, we often try to plan “too much” into the trips we take. We want to see and experience EVERYTHING in one weekend or in a two-week vacation. I’ve been on many of these trips and had a hand in planning most of them. I’ve chased many miles of interstate highways; rushing to get to an event where we would spend a few hours or a few days, then hurry back home. We’ve taken vacations where we rode hard for two weeks, taking in a lot of sights along the way. We’ve looked at a lot of roses, but only stopping to smell a few.

Now it goes without saying that we saw many places and things along the way. e saw places we thought we would never see again. Such as Niagara Falls, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, The Atlantic Ocean, Canada, Mackinaw Bridge, New York City, Boston, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, dead skunks in the middle of the road, and the list goes on and on.

The older I become, the more I realize that it’s not the quantity of things but the quality of the things we do, that brings enjoyment into our lives. I have to say, in all of the rush, I did enjoy most of every trip. However, I would like to think that on all future trips, I will take back roads, enjoying life to the fullest, venturing only as far as time allows, making the most of every trip, and absorbing everything along the way…

BUT IT AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN!

I will ride back roads seeking the quality of life from each trip when time allows. But! Sometimes the call of the open road burns inside of me to go to the far off places I daydream about. As I sit and write this article, I’m making plans for a late summer trip, to ride a long distance, and see places I haven’t seen before. I will have to chase many miles of interstate highways, but I WILL smell a good many roses along the back roads when I get there. I will soak up the sights and log them into the memory of my mind. I will try to enjoy most of the trip, but I WILL enjoy all of the time off with my wife and my friends.

I am a motorcyclist in every sense of the word. This is what I do. I will travel great distances to see spectacular places, all for the adventure. After all, when you ride with us; it’s not JUST a ride, it’s an adventure. Perhaps the adventure of a lifetime!

Throw away your schedules and your Palm Pilots and enjoy life for what it is today. After all, there’s:

So Much Life To Live and See,
And So Little Time To Do it!!

Travelin’ Jack

P.S. When I grow up, I think I’m going to be a “Motorcycle Gypsy.”