By now, readers of this blog know the drill.

You should.

After 15 trips, hundreds of blog posts, thousands of pics, and half-a-million words, you know how I roll. My life is predictable, and I like it that way.

Every year, I go on a big motorcycle trip, terrorizing the American West and occasionally parts of Canada. Five thousand miles, or more. Three weeks, give or take. 

I blog. You read.

A Change in Pronouns

When the spring weather warms up, I pack my saddle bags and get ready to leave town. Generally, within a few weeks of the summer solstice. 

I rumble out of the driveway, by myself. With enough clothes and toothpaste and Cinnamon Bears to last a few weeks.

Just me and the 850-pound beast, my 2016 Harley-Davidson Street Glide Special. As I write this, it’s the night before this year’s departure.

From a selfish and honest perspective, it’s me time.

Tomorrow, the pronouns change.

She Said Yes!

What?

Tomorrow morning, I head south and begin this year’s epic journey.

But it won’t be just me.

It’ll be us.

Us. As in, me and Sarah.

She Said Yes!

We. Us. Ours.

I’ve always been fortunate that Sarah gives me my space, and plenty of it. This summer marks 25 years together for us. Who knew office romances at aerospace companies could turn out this well?

Sarah allows me, even encourages me, to take these trips. I’m lucky that way. Her patience and tolerance for my annual absences are unconditional. (Well, she does have one condition: I have to come home in one piece, or, she says, she’ll kill me.) These rides are good for my soul, and she knows it.

Starting tomorrow, she won’t have to wonder or worry about where I am or what I’m doing. She’ll be a passenger on my Harley, seeing all I see, doing all I do, feeling all I feel. Being one with the bike. A full participant in the experience.

The pronouns, as of tomorrow: We. Us. Ours. Not I, me, mine.

For you grammar geeks, those six words are subject pronouns (we / I), object pronouns (us / me), and possessive pronouns (ours / mine).

Grammatically, pronouns function much like nouns. They can be used both as subjects and objects. They refer to people, places, and things. They can be singular or plural. And, they can be modified by adjectives.

Gender pronouns have gotten a lot more confusing in recent years, with the rise of non-binary constructs that go beyond he/she. Guys wanting to be referred to as “they/them,” not “he/him,” for example. It’s complicated. Especially if you’re of the Medicare generation. As I am. Apologies, in advance, if I’ve offended anyone.

The point is – She (Sarah) Said Yes! – and I now have a riding partner for the next five days.

Hopes and Dreams

Sarah has had a somewhat complicated relationship with motorcycles.

When I got my first Harley in 2005 – meant to stave off whatever mid-life crisis I was otherwise entitled to at age 55 – she immediately took a liking to it. She seemed to enjoy riding on the back, with me in the driver’s seat. Until she didn’t.

Unbeknownst to me, Sarah soon began planning her move to the front seat. It was the inevitable next step in her biking evolution. I am woman; hear me roar. Something like that. Vroom!

Within a year, she took a rider safety course, got her motorcycle license, and bought a brand-new Harley-Davidson Sportster 883. It was a beautiful, Sierra Red opportunity for Sarah to show the world she could be one of the guys. Totally badass. The woman had taste in two wheels.

I had such high hopes for our riding time together.

Sadly, her fling with the Harley world was short-lived. Turns out riding safely is considerably harder than it looks. So, the Sportster disappeared from our La Quinta garage, and Sarah pretty much said good-bye to motorcycling.

Sure, every once in a while, she’d join me for a short ride. Around the neighborhood, to the store, but nothing longer than an hour.

It’s Finally Happening

That almost changed a few years ago, when she was all set to fly to Rapid City, South Dakota. There, she would join me for five days of riding in the Black Hills, then visit the world-famous Sturgis motorcycle rally. But a road closure in Colorado’s Glenwood Canyon caused her to miss the flight from the Eagle airport. As a result, our long-overdue “us” journey didn’t happen. Not that year, anyway.

At that point, I began to think this tandem riding thing, this “Us-on-a-Harley” fantasy, was cursed. Not meant to be. I was destined to be a solo artist.

Until last fall, when, finally, after all these years, She Said Yes! And, meant it.

She said yes, to what exactly? I asked if she’d like to accompany me for the first five days of my 2023 journey. “Yes”was the answer I wanted, but hardly expected. Sometimes, dreams do come true.

As a result, we leave Carbondale tomorrow morning. Together. Us.

For Sarah and me, it’ll be a two-day ride to Page, Arizona, where we had planned to meet up with the posse – including two other wives who also said “Yes!” That was the plan, set in wet concrete, since October 2022. We’d all arrive on motorcycles. That’s how we roll.

Unfortunately, plans change. Life happens. “Yes” is not a permanent condition.

So, instead of four riders from southern California and southern Nevada arriving on two Harleys, a Ford pickup truck will bring the Bowman and Donaldson families to Page.

Two other riders are along for this year’s journey. Jim Ingraham, from Glenwood Springs, will meet me in Moab, Utah, a week from now. And Mark Mark Thompson, from Woody Creek, will join Sarah and me as we depart Carbondale tomorrow morning, and head toward Page.

I’m a Grammar Geek

From Page, we’ll visit the Grand Canyon (North and South rims on separate days), stay in hotels way nicer than anything the guys ever inhabit on their own, and end up in St. George, Utah – where Sarah will grab a flight home following five days of two-wheeled bliss.

After that, it’s back to the “I, me, mine” pronouns for the rest of the trip (unless referring to the posse, in which case it’s “we, us, ours.”)

As a journalism major and grammar nerd, I’m looking forward to the challenge.

If “She Said Yes!” sounds familiar, you may have read the Misty Bernall memoir by that title, or heard the Rhett Atkins song from his 1995 album, A Thousand Memories.

The phrase, idealized in popular culture, refers to the answer men hope for when they “pop the question,” usually regarding a matrimonial lifetime request.

Here are Our Plans. What Are Yours?

Every night for the next three weeks, you can anticipate – or not – my daily blog posts.

I give you the “or not” option, because the posts will happen whether you want them, or not. I’ll write and post, whether you read them, or not. It’s what I do when I’m on the road. You know that by now. I’ll be documenting what promises to be a pretty epic journey. It’s been in the works for nearly a year.

The fun begins tomorrow (Saturday) morning.

Over the next three weeks, I / we will visit 5 states, 11 national parks, and ride 30 major mountain passes, each 10,000 feet or higher. One of them takes me / us to 14,130 feet – a true Colorado Fourteener.

We’ll cross the Continental Divide 11 times, experience 22 Scenic Byways, three All-American Roads and many of the best mountain ski towns in Colorado.

That’s what we will be doing between now and the official start of summer, when I’m scheduled to arrive home in Carbondale.

And you? If you read my next 20 blog posts during that time, I guarantee you will consume a shit-ton of interesting, informative, and occasionally useful stuff about the American west.

As I always say at the end of my trips, if by chance you learn anything along the way during the consumption of my blog … well, you’re welcome.

Daily Summary

At the end of each ride over the next 20 days, I’ll include a link to that day’s route, offer the day’s “Takeaways,” and provide a trivial connection to something you should / could / might / may have learned in that day’s blog post. Something like this.

Today’s Takeaways:

1. It never hurts to ask. She might just say yes.
2. Pronouns are tricky. Pal up with a grammar nerd.
3. Riding is hard. Blogging is easy.

Today’s Trivia: I Me Mine.

If “I Me Mine” rings a bell, you’re probably old enough to remember the song of that name by the Beatles. “I Me Mine” was Track 4 on the Beatles’ Let It Be album, and was the last new track recorded by the band before their breakup in April 1970. When George Harrison wrote the song, he was inspired by the teachings of Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda. The lyrics are about his revelations regarding the human ego, discovered through LSD use.

Harrison titled his 1980 semi-autobiographical memoir, I Me Mine, after the song. The book illuminates the inspiration and meaning behind many of his songs, including “Here Comes the Sun” (from the Abbey Road album), “My Sweet Lord” (from his solo All Things Must Pass album), “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (from the White Album), Taxman (from Revolver), “Within You Without You” (from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album) and “Something” (from the Abbey Road album).

The “I Me Mine” waltz-like recording, produced by George Martin and Phil Spector, included vocals by George Harrison and Paul McCartney – accompanied by 18 violins, four violas, four cellos, three trumpets, three trombones, and a harp. During the recording, the Beatles (minus John Lennon, who had already left the band and was on holiday in Denmark with Yoko Ono), there were 16 takes of the basic track. The song’s verses are in the key of A minor, and its chorus is in A major.

“I Me Mine” lasted two minutes and 26 seconds. Fifty-three years later, we’re still talking about it.

And now you know.