Saturday, March 27, 2010

Riding into the Sunset

Because I live within a mile of the Pacific Ocean on the Northern California coast one of my favorite things to do is to ride "into the sunset" so to speak on my Kawasaki KLR 650 Dualsport Motorcycle. There is just something about riding along wearing an "open Helmet" with only sunglasses with the wind on your face around 30+ miles per hour on a country road along the ocean. Everyone is there waiting for the sunset and the waves crashing "golden" in the light upon the shore. Today was a particularly nice day for this as the weather is getting warmer where I live and I didn't feel cold at all today because of the sunlight as it began to set into the ocean.

I used to live in the Mountains in Mount Shasta, California and then I rode my Honda XL 250 1974 through the many mountain roads mostly dirt or gravel then that encircle Mount Shasta. But I found as I grew older that the really cold winters that one gets in the mountains were not for me except on vacations skiing there and visiting old friends. I found that I loved from when there was enough snow to ski there starting about January and I loved it there until about Halloween but from then until January when there was enough snow to ski and sled in was very difficult when I was in my 20s and 30s but as I moved into my 40s I found  that my muscles started to hurt a lot in the colder winter weather  there than on the California coast. Where I live now( on the Nothern California coast)  the temperature range is from about the high 30s (only once or twice a year) on the coast where I live and about 85 or 90 Fahrenheit during the summer. So most of the year the daytime temperature is between about 55 and 80 with an average of about 60 year around in the daytime. Whereas in Mt. Shasta it can be zero in the winter and 115 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer. I like living on the ocean more now I'm older. (I'll be 62 in April). So now riding along the coast on my dualsport motorcycle during a sunset and driving up in my car a few times a year to ski with my best friend in Mt. Shasta I'm pretty happy. I miss feeling like I did in my 30s when I finally felt I had the world by the tail and still had the amazing health and feeling on top of the world like one can in their 30s if they are happily physically active and eating right. But by the Grace of God I'm still pretty happy with my life now I'm almost 62. Who would know that 30 to 37 and 50 to 62 could be the happiest times of one's life? I guess I wouldn't have believed that as a younger person under 30.

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