Third gear

I’ve left the city some time ago; I have abandoned the combative motorists and tailgaters, cell phone users and all of the seemingly ubiquitous texting that goes on behind the wheel nowadays.

That’s all a memory but still fresh in my mind, those frustrations are behind me, and I can relax on my country road, riding my bike in a peaceful third gear canter. In only twenty miles, life has slowed down a thousand times; the muscles in my neck are relaxing, the aching conflicts have withdrawn. It’s just me, my bike and the Palouse.

It’s all about to happen. The annual flood of wheatgrass, blanketing countless rolling hills and valleys in a mantle of green; by the end of June, these fields will be waist high with ripening wheat.

Dismounting the bike on the side of a hill, I follow a game trail that leads to a cliff, facing west; looking out, far across the valley, I spot the barn that I took a photo of on Christmas Eve.

There is a sympathetic and cool breeze on my face, climbing up from the valley floor below, carrying with it, the clean scent of fresh soil recently turned over by a farmers plow.

I have returned to my bike to write down these thoughts and decide to stay awhile and decompress a bit more on the side of this hill.

This has been therapeutic; living life in third gear for a spell, the greening fields, and the scent of turned earth carried on the wind.

I believe that I will ride the rest of the way home in third gear as well.

Ride well,
Whatever gear you choose to ride in.

E.T.

What can brown do for you?

The U.P.S. guy walks up to my desk a couple of days ago, I think his name is Chris. He knows that I am a pretty active rider and he just bought a Honda CRF450 and likes to share his experiences and ask me questions............I try, the best that I can, to answer intelligently.

At any rate Chris walks up to my desk with a smirk on his face and said, “You looked pissed!”
Confused, I reply, “What are you talking about?”
“I found your blog, and the picture of you on your profile, dude you look pissed off!”

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to place a picture in my profile, I don’t know why, to be friendly I guess. It never occurred to me that I appeared brooding or sullen. Truth is I took that picture last summer at the tail end of a 14 hour ride that took me into the Idaho wilderness in 95 degree weather. Go ahead, you spend 14 straight hours in the saddle of a KLR and step off grinning. I always thought that the picture was a look of contentment, what do I know.

It had been about a week since the U.P.S. driver made that observation about my picture and every time I came over to my little blog here, I thought of what he said. “What can brown do for you?” Well it can give you a little bit of a complex, if you let it. I decided that I should do something about it, lest you folks think any less of my brooding mug shot. I loaded the camera on the bike this weekend and took off into the Palouse to get a picture of myself that was a little more apropos to my personality. I’m really not a bad guy.

So here you have it Chris, a self portrait, Mr. Thomas in the flesh himself. I hope this mug doesn’t scare you off. I think I’ll beat U.P.S. to the punch and say that I look Sanguine not Sullen. I’m not exactly a pretty face so this is the best that your gonna get, and yes that is my girl in the background waiting for me.

Mr. Thomas

Ride Well

E.T.

The Long way home in the soft April rain

With the clouds in the sky not looking nearly as threatening as the weatherman had warned on the morning news, I decided that I would ride the bike to the Gym on Sunday.

I had been without my girl for a couple of weeks while Kawasaki resolved a few of her recall issues (Wiring Harness and Muffler bolts and such) and had felt a strong desire to make up for the lost time with her, whether it meant riding in the cold driving rain or not.

The ride to the Gym on Sunday afternoon was a non-eventful highway ride under cloudy skies. When I arrived, a girl who was walking to her car queried as to whether or not it was a little too cold to be riding today...........I assured her that it was not.

With the workout done and suited back up, I decided to take the long way back home, the clouds had just begun to spit a little, but it wasn't the toadstrangler that the forecasters had warned me about earlier in the day.

"The long way" consists of mainly 20 or so miles of country dirt roads wandering through the more remote areas of the Palouse country; an occasional farm every few miles and that is about it, very little traffic.

There was a building that I had ridden by on this route once before, I didn't have my camera at the time and had promised myself to visit the building at sometime in the future so that I could take a few pictures. Today was a good day for that.

Originally, I had mistaken the building as a church, upon my return, I believe now that it was once a schoolhouse.

Built at the crossroads of two dirt roads deep in the Palouse, I was left to wonder what this area was like when it was originally built. Considering how remote it's location is, the building is huge.

Schoolhouse maybe?

Notice the radius walls, there were no home centers back when this structure was built, I imagine that there were no power tools at the time either. As a carpenter, I was impressed with the attention to detail and the apparent pride that these folks displayed in their craftsmanship.

The Belfry at the top of the structure. This building, whatever it was, once had a voice.

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After shooting a number of pictures, I stayed awhile and kept the building company and imagined what this place must have been like, back when the structure was in it's prime.

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We parted ways a few moments later and I rode the rest of the way home navigating the quiet backroads of the Palouse in the soft April rain.

Ride Well

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E.T.