Southeast Wyoming

There’s an old Peanuts comic strip in which Charlie Brown and Snoopy are playing a game of checkers. Neither of them says anything throughout the strip, but in the first three panels you can see what Charlie Brown is thinking.  He’s worrying about what devious move Snoopy is about to make and what elegant strategy it’s all a part of.

“What’s he thinking?!” Charlie Brown finally stammers to himself, as his dog concentrates even harder on the board. And in the final panel, Snoopy’s own thought bubble says: “Now, am I the red checkers or the black checkers?”

I thought about that just the other day when I remembered what a friend said when he heard about my trip. “You’ll have all that time to think!” he said. “That’s perfect. You could write a book while you bike!”

Well, not exactly.

To tell the truth, my thoughts while riding a motorcycle across the country so far have had a  lot more in common with Snoopy’s than Steinbeck’s. They aren’t very complicated or especially profound. Mostly I think about not doing something stupid. And beyond that I think about trying to ride smart.

That means not allowing your mind to wander off the road for very long. Not even for as little as 10 seconds. Twenty seconds of inattention? On a motorcycle that’s moving down the highway at 60 mph (with the pavement just inches away) that’s tantamount to falling asleep.

So whenever I suddenly realize that my mind’s been off somewhere else for too long — even though I’ve not taken my eyes off the road and there is nothing approaching — I snap myself out of it as fast as I can and proceed though a self-styled all-points check…

First I glance in my side mirror to see what’s crept up behind me. If there’s a big tractor-trailer rig bearing down, preparing to pass, I brace for the blowback of the airmass it forces to the side

Next I glance at the pavement for cracks, or bumps, or oil or gravel that can easily knock a bike off balance.

Then I look off to the side for anything — machine or animal — that might be preparing to pull out in front of me. Because so very often something is.

And not least of all, I check myself.

Have my fingers grown numb from the vibration of the handlebar grips? If so I remove one hand at a time and massage it against a pant leg — and in about three seconds the circulation usually returns. Are my arms tense from battling the wind or other vehicles? If so I try to straighten my posture, relax my hands and arms, and control the bike more with the strength of my chest and core.

Then I repeat that whole sequence again and again.

In other words, I try to be constantly mindful of what I’m doing. When motorcycling across country, it’s best to bring your A-game.

Still, truth be told,  it’s hard to keep the mind from wandering … where it will go (as the Beatles used to say). So I also want to talk about that in one more post to follow.