That’s a question that has been rolling around in my head since I set off. It’s been long planned – like 15 years planned – though those plans have changed over time. Originally I was headed to the western third of the US. Arizona, Utah, California etc. I’ve always been fascinated with the US and been energised when I’ve visited. I’ve toured there too. We rode from Washington to Nashville some years back and had a great time. Ridden up the Florida coast as well, viewing manatees and tasting wine in an artists’ colony, and loved it.
The original plan was to spend 10 weeks exploring. It had a clear purpose. It would mark the end of work and the start of something new. The time was intended to allow the carapace I’d grown over 50 years of work to drop away and let me see what was underneath. It was a seriously transitional trip.
I booked to go too, though the rationale was already changing. Flights bought and paid for, routes planned, Alaska to begin, then down to Portland and points Southwest. Covid though had other ideas and the plan, as with so much else, ended.
Now I’m on the road, 5 weeks, with the potential for more if I want to. I’ve got complete support personally and professionally, from those I love and those I know – even from those that know me only a little. I have only heard encouraging words, which is amazing and I’m beyond grateful.
Italy though?
America has become toxic. It’s politics are rank and it’s bipartisanship and double standards stink. I think once the scales start to fall they fall a long way. My vision of American was moon rockets and rock and roll, Cadillacs and Harleys. Plenty. Optimism, Disney, Kennedy. It wasn’t a backstory of apartheid and a devil take the hindmost economy, of millionaire preachers rejecting the Sermon on the Mount as “good for then but not for now”, of guns over children. Of Trump.
That meant finding a new venue and, not to be deep about it, Stanley Tucci has a lot to answer for. That and the beaches of Sardinia. Mr Tucci has a way of presenting that is to Italy, and particularly Italian food, what Attenborough is to the mountain gorilla. Sardinia has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world and I love swimming in the sea. Italy it is then, though an earlier experience of Rome had failed to impress.
That’s the where. What about the Why? That’s why I was struggling. There’s been many a morning where I’ve thought of turning back. Part guilt at doing something so extravagantly selfish, but a large part due to not having a purpose to it. As I said, the last plan was a transition. This isn’t. But if it’s just a big jolly then the guilt kicks in. Without a purpose it’s just an indulgence. And I can hear the comments; They’ve already been made. “You’ve earned it”, “you’re a long time dead”, “if you can afford it, why not?” I wanted it to be more.
Then this morning, the Austrian lady who runs this beautiful B&B in Anzio gave me an ammonite and a crystal as gifts after we had spoken about this trip and my past year, which also has background relevance. The ammonite is apparently a symbol for movement and growth, the crystal, in her words, harnesses energy. Now those who know me will understand that in my world view, it’s a fossil of a dead thing (in this case a handmade model of a dead thing) and a rock. But. But. They were given with genuine warmth, and in her belief system they mean more – and that’s the more relevant part. It’s about what she gave, not what I got.
I’ve looked back at what I’ve done so far, Verdun, andouillette, a street festival in Cromer, the passes, Florence, swimming in the sea, but in particular, meeting people, like the owner of the hotel in Switzerland who gave me tips for riding hairpins, like the Russian/Latvian/Geordie couple I met yesterday at a motorway services, like the lady today. It’s about adding rings to the tree, about experiences, fundamentally about living. And that’s all it needs to be. So, what’s next?!
peteryder2003 
👍😊❤️
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