Saturday, September 3, 2011

Day One: Happiness is Not Reliant on Circumstance

Our trip started at 8:30 this morning.  By our first stop I knew that my boots were too small.  The boots were fairly new but I had ridden in them quite a bit already.  I had ordered my actual size instead of the size larger that my previous boots were.  I should have stayed with the same size.  Speaking of our first stop, that's where I met my enemy.  I was in a grungy little bathroom in Hearne, TX.  When I walked in I saw the huge cockroach in the corner.  "Ok," I thought, "you stay in your corner and I'll stay in mine."  Yeah, that didn't work so well for me.  The little jerk bum rushed me.  I stomped my foot at him trying to scare him off and he  just ran faster.  This left me screaming and jumping around the bathroom with my riding pants around my knees.  I finished everything as fast as  I could and ran out of the bathroom fastening my pants as I went.  Mr Man had a good laugh and I discovered that in my haste I had ripped two of the teeth from my zipper.  This would be the second set of pants I broke a zipper on.

The ride itself, I have to say was beautiful and the heat was not as bad  as it could have been.  We did get stuck behind a truck hauling a rickety old house (I kid you not).  It was blowing insulation all over the road.  We also had a moment where Mr Man was distracted by a plastic bag blowing around the road about the same time I was distracted by....air maybe.  He looks up to see a truck stopped in the middle of the road waiting to turn.  He brakes quickly and I actually stood up on my back brake and grabbed a handful of front brake.  My brakes work and I didn't even hit Mr Man.  However, the whole experience was....invigorating and called for another stop soon after.  That was the stop where my boot got pretty uppity with me.

We had already decided that my boots were not working and that I couldn't ride a week with them like this.  They were simply to small across my instep and toe bed.  We had planned on stopping at Wal-Mart in Paris and picking up something, anything else.  They would not be optimal riding boots but they also wouldn't be crippling.  Our last stop before Paris was in Sulpher Springs.  I got off the bike and headed inside for water.  Two steps and the sole flopped off my left boot.  The glue had melted from my heel to my arch.  Ok, really?  I think that's overkill.  I had already decided to replace the boots, there is not need to get dramatic about it.  Mr Man Duct Taped the sole back to the boot.  All I could do was laugh.  And that's when it hit me.  I had been laughing though the whole day.  Through my feet hurting so much I wanted to cry.  Through insulation flying through the air.  Through the Attack of the Killer Cockroach.  Through my boot attempting to escape me by ripping itself apart.  I had laughed.  Because I was on my darling bike Nightingale.  Because I was with Mr Man on our first trip alone together in five year.  Because happiness comes to you despite your circumstances.  Not because of them.

We are finishing up our evening relaxing and trying to shake off the stress of the day.  Because it was stressful even if I was smiling through it.  Tomorrow we are going to putt around Paris and have some coffee, maybe shoot some pictures and plan the rest of the trip.  I'm not worried about it.  We are together on on our motorcycles.  I will be a good trip.

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