Spirit of Adventure

I remember lots of people trying to teach me how to ride a bicycle circa 5 or 6 years of age: my uncle, my parents, or even a neighbor. I just wasn’t ready. The fear of crashing or getting hurt was greater than my spirit of adventure.

That all changed one day.

I grabbed my bike and told my mom I was going to ride it from the shed to the end of our yard, which was several hundred feet.

And, I did, too!

That did not stop me. Eventually, I wanted to try my uncle’s Kawasaki MT-1. I rode that, too. One day, the chain popped off, and over the handlebars I went!

I’d imagine that was probably worse than the fears I had concocted mentally.

Fear works that way sometimes. It keeps you where you are, often looking back or sometimes looking so far ahead that you can’t see what’s directly in front of you. It blinds us to what we already have and keeps us stuck. We can’t progress because we’re knee-deep in the mud of fear.

Eventually, I tried my cousin’s Honda dirtbike. I believe it was a 100 but not sure which or what year. Unlike the Kawasaki that had no clutch, this had a clutch and definitely more power at the hand’s of a roughly 8-year-old in summer.

I remember trying to spin out. I had the front brake held tight, stopped in our driveway. I had the clutch. I had the gas revved. I let out the clutch and spun out for a bit . . . until the bike tipped over onto my leg, burning my calf.

That was definitely worse than what I had feared earlier.

It took some time for my calf to heal. It’s funny, though, because that injury didn’t stop me, either.

Eventually, I got a Honda Aero 125. I rode that thing all over the area and then some. In fact, if my parents knew just where all I went, I probably would not have had it long. I visited places and people. I enjoyed every moment of it—well, almost. I did not enjoy a wasp flying into my shirt and stinging my clavicle.

In 2017, that same cousin was on Season 2 Episode 2 of Norman Reedus’ Ride. He rode motorcycles with Dave Chappelle and Norman. (He’s the one who introduces himself.) That got me thinking about motorcycles again.

Obviously, years later, Covid-19 hit, which gave all of us various opportunities. One such opportunity was the ability to watch some shows I might not have watched otherwise, including the Long Way____ series with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman.

These days, my family gives me quite a bit of grief, deservedly so, for watching a lot of motorcycle videos. I’m daydreaming of owning a bike and having my own adventures (which you can so donate if you feel so inclined on this page to that dream).

Now, your dream or spirit of adventure may not have two wheels or even any! That’s okay. That spirit of adventure lives inside of us all at one time or another. For some of us, we squash it. For others, it gets squashed.

I’m here to challenge us all to find that spirit of adventure and pursue it somehow. Push past the fear. It may very well be worse in your heads than the reality is out there.

If you’ll excuse me, there are motorcycle videos to watch and adventures to plan!

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