Day Eight: No Mind

So I am thinking about the fact that I am not thinking.

But before I get into that I should explain the photo.  Summer 2010 I was working security at an all day concert on the beach in Santa Barbara – basically a reggae and blues festival. I didn’t recognize most of the bands but that probably has more to do with the fact that I am not that cool. Another band shuffles on the stage as I stand in the barricade day dreaming.

The band starts playing and has a southern rock blues sound. I am intrigued. Each song pulls me in more. Then the band does Lochloosa. It is a song about missing their home town that they wrote while touring in London. It instantly became one of my favorite songs. Over the next week I downloaded every song I could find from JJ Gray and Mofro. Imagine my surprise this morning to stumble upon Lochloosa just 42 miles north of my parent’s home! I have driven past 30’ tall saguaro cactuses on this trip and did not take a photo. But see a road sign that I am entering Lochloosa and I pull over immediately! Go figure.

Today is the first day of my trek back to California.  Last night my sister was going on about how she worries about me making this long trip. I responded that I am not making a long trip. I am just making a bunch of short trips back-to-back. I like thinking about it that way. That helps make every day an adventure.

The trip I took today was to the sunshine! The original plan was to leave yesterday morning. Then I was introduced to Debby. That would be Tropical Storm Debby. That bitch really dumped her stuff on central Florida. It rained heavy most of the day yesterday around my starting point. It was looking a bit better today so I set out. The first hundred miles were covered under very heavy clouds but virtually no precipitation.  The second hundred miles made up for the rain that I didn’t hit on the first hundred! There were only a couple spots where water actually was up to an inch on the road, but there were no ditches that were not completely filled. I saw flooding over many miles of the trip and even had to take a short detour around a huge sinkhole that ate 2 lanes out of the highway. My goal today was to get north of the storm. That happened somewhere between Savannah and Macon, GA. Suddenly the sun was beating on me and I realized how much I was going to miss the cooling effect of the rain over the rest of my trip. I was completely dry within 30 minutes.

Now about that thinking about not thinking thing. One of the things I love about motorcycling is the fact you are all alone with your mind. Nobody to talk to. Just sit there and sort things out. Today I realized I haven’t sorted anything out – haven’t even thought about it. I am just watching the world change around me; totally intrigued with how the countryside morphs into these ever changing landscapes and climate zones. Is this what the drug-crazed philosophers of the last quarter of the 20^th century called “no mind” or “live in the moment?” Perhaps I am just getting old and my thinker has stopped thinking. Whatever; I was just amused to suddenly find myself thinking about the fact that I was not thinking…