Thursday, July 30th, evening.“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost” J.R.R. Tolkein.

I do not cease to enrich myself, try to anyhow. I know I have readers here, I cannot deny it, even if as daily I am surprised. As I am, truly. Who am I really to be read while being another student of Life. So often the depth of words send to me as above is the weight that allows me to seek deep and enlightened come up beyond the surfaces I was skimming on in recent pasts. These days, as I cannot help it, Ron’s Journey has penetrated my bottomless desire to cultivate my Soul, as every day filled with thoughts allows me to enhance further, as Ron would say, “the grades within this classroom” we are all in. It is a “good feel” to feel good… of course. It is more, it is growth. I feel increasingly as the doors are opening wider letting brighter sunshine in. A bit rusty, a bit apprehensive, two steps forward sometimes followed by one step back as “much” can be suddenly overwhelming.

We took a ride back toward Ennis again this morning as I had never seen the “camp” with it’s horses rolling down the road. And was it ever, as we were ahead of a hill I found out later he rated amongst the 5 steepest throughout his 26 years on the road. Living on the road. You just had to be there to understand, to even start realizing the conception of the progress of these horses pulling this wagon which stands out like a beautiful sore thumb. It makes me smile, laugh, dream, think and so much more all at the same time, specially when passed by the 80 mph other vehicles. It is as running an old movie superimposed with the latest. I am still smiling as I write these words watching Ron handle those horses as something so normal, him totally separated from today’s fast moving World surrounding him.

He takes on sometimes the busier path because he has to. There cannot be any guard rails, this is not the first time within this circle he takes on every year. Nice horses, I pet them on the side of the head, always the same side as I learned that each horse is two horses not having the vision we have. They are sweet, they are sweet because they like treats! Don’t we all… They worked hard up that hill, Ron takes excellent care of them even giving them a shower when resting after their grand effort. The man definitely knows what he is doing as much as I know what I am doing with Old Faithful and Spirit. But these are big animals. Much care, shoes, grass, 50 gallons of water per day… and yet, there are never any failures throughout their days. The whole situation is just amazing to me.

I was thinking, as suddenly the image was clearer, a wagon from years past, vehicles from the present days, drivers on their relentless cell phones talking and texting, the haze, the blue haze from the good exhaust fumes lingering upon us, all fast and faster. Wishes to go backwards? Too late for that… Is there a right or a wrong as to how we have come ahead? probably not, it is the way of the World, but what I am questioning is “have we really come ahead? us…”. Are we really that well better off or is this only our peripheral notion of it all that makes us think so. No one knew better years ago, sure, many issues where at stakes, but today, are we only loosing ourselves within these 24 hour days trying to accomplish what one did in a week. And the question is really “why?” when the morality has not itself taken any steps forward, only as I can see it and hear about it quite “backwards”, such was that reality show “1000 ways to die”!!!.. as I am sure of many others.

From an Antique Cars Junkyard we stopped by the other day…

Saturday, August 1st, daytime. We will most likely move base camp to Ennis in a few days. Incoming packages we are waiting for right now, as at times we are at the mercy of the mail. Last week was a motorcycle tire, a front one and as I cannot mount it myself because of the bead popping scenario, the experience to have it mounted locally left me, well, upset… it was not a good experience. Gone are the old days where a ten minute job would take ten minutes and just do it instead of finding excuses not to do it taking themselves twice as long. My first stop was at Summit Motorsport. The scene? 3 technicians behind the counter, the script?.. “it will be a couple days till we can get to it”. The front wheel is off the bike, here is the tire… The time it took conversating was long enough to change 4 tires! Thank you guys… as I looked for the imaginary four wheelers on the parking lot from out of town they were expecting to work on… and had not yet arrived.

So the next stop was Team Bozeman Motorsport. Ah! Finally friendly people, a dedicated technician that changes tires all day… and why did I not ask how much it would cost? As the bill is pushed in front of me, as again the wheel is off which I removed in the parking lot, and a tire which I provide. $54!!! $54… oh! but I already wrote that. As I am told, my expression probably giving away my almost passing out… look at the building, we pay high rent here, our balancing machine alone costs $18,000, look around you… I know my blood pressure dropped only to realize there was not much I could do about it, again, file it under under “learning” I told myself. So, next time I will park by a gas station where often around here the air is free, change the tire and use their pump to pop the bead as needed… And for those who think I am going to do the lighter fluid trick, as lighting a spoonful of it in the tire to blow it up, I will not.

The good news is the addition of a new Sponsor. “Racer Parts Wholesale”. It happened in a funny way as I had written them to inquire about the weight of Red Line Oil Heavy which I have been using for years. I received an e mail back from Jack, the General Manager, writing as he has been reading our Blog for a while now and would be happy to sponsor us with our needs. Red Line Oil makes a huge difference in the running and shifting and I have turned on many other riders to it in the past. What I did not realize is that the Company carries a whole line of more needed accessories. I can only wish we had a sponsor for fuel now and the sale of prints would be above null… 

So it was another slice of Life, some kind of a reality show which I can only hope will not have any reruns. The fun part came later on when we stopped at an Antique Car Junkyard. I had noticed it a couple times passing by, northbound on 85 about 15 miles north of Belgrade, and I thought sundown would be a good time to play in the field with the camera. I asked permission, we chatted a while, of course, as I learned business here also is not very good lately. These are toys that need to be restored from ground up, most have no engines, a couple do run, but not profitable times right now for such a hobby. It turns out it was not a great time of the day. Much shadowing when shooting eastward, learning I thought of course every day these different conditions and objects for the camera. I end up having better luck with the hood ornaments, it is I feel quite a collection, as actually they are already on my Smugmug Gallery along with more of Ron’s photos. The upper right hand window can be set on a “slideshow”.

Some strange names I had never heard of before. Resting place here they are. They were “gold” I am sure for many in the past, as today their glitter is gone till someone, if lucky enough, will come and reapply the long lost luster they wore as they rolled out when born going through the assembly line. Where have they been? If only those old battered springs could talk. What stories had been told, what laughter had been heard, what conversations took place, maybe proposals, maybe break ups, maybe some shady business deals and some happy ones. Life they had as now their parts and breath have been set to rest in this field while I walked around and wondered about it all.

I thought and looked at “Old Faithful” when it was time to leave. I almost heard her trepidation of being alive amongst this lifeless family surrounding her. I assured her she will never end up in such environment even if the day came she herself worn out beyond her ability to go on as she has these past 212,000 miles.

A new month I noticed is upon us, always the hottest one of the year, they (who are they?) are saying it will break a 100 tomorrow. Another day it will be as I will try with Sprit’s help to track Ron to wish him a Happy Birthday, maybe try to take him out for Cake and Ice Cream!!!

Be well… always.

Merchandise on Smugmug, Photos and Free “e-card” on my new Zen  Gallery…

Your support will help us continue these endless chapters you read. It will be more than greatly appreciated.

Ara & Spirit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 at 8:15 am and is filed under travel, spirituality, pit bull, sidecar, motorcycle, cooking, photography, riding, homeless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.