Home sweet home after what I like to call a three day motorcycle meditation trip! My husband and I took our Road King Classic on it’s first trip out to Sturgis. It was…. An interesting trip. From where we live it is about 356 miles one way. We braved it on the bike. Took us about 8 hours on the way out and about 9 1/2 on the way home (we took a detour to check out Devils Tower in WY).
We ventured the beginning of the trip with excitement and adventure. We decided to stop every hour or so to rest our bottoms. Our rest stops were planned as coffee / caves along the way. It was quaint and cute and we were having fun. We arrived in one piece,a little stiff and sore but overall we were pretty impressed with ourselves!
Now…on this ride, being a passenger, my only job was to stay on the bike and not mess up the synchronicity of the ride. Sounds easy…well it’s harder than it sounds. First off being a passenger means giving up control of the ride and putting full trust in your driver. It also means that you need to stay awake!!
I would like to say I managed all of these with no problem, however that was not the case.
Basically I spent 6 hours in silence, with my thoughts. During these hours of solitude, I tried to contemplate different areas of my life. What procured though was odd, even frustrating at times. The more I would think on something and focus on it (whatever I was thinking at the time) the more my thoughts would go blank. During these blank time spans I would fall asleep. Or that is what it would feel like…sleep.
During these moments I would become completely unaware. It would be like an altered state of consciousness actually. During this reverie of such I would hear voices. It was a bit frustrating. I would strain my ears and try and figure out what they were saying. I would wonder, are they talking to me, or are they just talking? No matter how hard I tried I was not able to make out what was being said. And then, out of the blue I would hear someone yell my name. Instantly my eyes would fly open and I would once again be aware of being on the back of the bike.
I would wake with a jolt. And the first thing my eyes would see would be a deer in the meadow on the side of the road. I would focus on staying awake and again my thoughts would wander.
I would look around, and see a hawk and that’s when I knew I was being watched over. They would either be soaring in the sky above me or on a fence post…watching me pass.
I would then again cycle through the process of thinking about a topic, or grounding myself and running my energy. In all these bursts of altered states of consciousness, they would end with me frustrated.
I would feel like I was either watching some event unfold, or listening to someone else’s conversation all of which were in a foreign language. Always only hearing bits and pieces of the conversation. It was as if i was tuning into some kind of radio or tv station. Never really connecting fully. Looking back I don’t know how important the conversations really were. I think that what was really important was learning that when i let everything else go, I can hear, I just need to listen. I also reminded myself that you cannot force things to happen. It’s a process. A beautiful one at that.
As for Sturgis…my connection was not there really. I expected to be shocked and in awe of what I would see. I think I am starting to see people more for their potential then what face they wear in a crowd. Things seemed normal.crowded…but normal.
On our way home we detoured to Devils Tower. Now this place was magical. I have my research cut out for me this week (in my spare time). The energy there was very magnetic, intense, yet very beautiful. I got really frustrated entering the park so I started a bit rattled. I took an amazing amount of pictures there, that I am looking forward to using in upcoming posts. Immediately when we got there upon getting off the bike, I realized my phone was locked up. It was not working. Some how it was locked in camera mode but frozen. I freaked out…upset that I would miss all the beautiful photo ops, I started to cry. I stopped myself and thought whose emotions are these. I felt slightly overwhelmed with sadness…a feeling of loss. It then switched to a feeling of reverence.
We hiked to the base of the tower. The ground is sacred, and I look forward to learning more of it’s history.
All in all I feel like my first trip to Sturgis
was one of internal growth which did nothing but increase my appreciation of both my wonderful husband as well this land we live upon. It overall was a beautiful journey.