This actually will be the title, insert appropriate emoji here! So yes, here it is, I’m sitting down, at a computer, using blogging software and actually typing… Long ago I had predicted that soon everybody would be a writer, you’ll be able to self publish and print out your own books even if it’s crap! Furthermore, with this upcoming speech to text technology, any braggart or loud voice out there can be an author! Well, despite my predictions, I never wrote a thing… But I thought a lot about it. When you have long moments to yourself, like when you’re riding your motorcycle for hours on end, or when you swim, or before falling asleep, you’re by yourself, and all those thoughts are coming at you, you know this is the time when your inner voice takes over, that’s when you go: yeah, that’s what I’ll write about someday…

Well, that someday starts now. How appropriate that the new year is coming! This is not even a New Year’s resolution since I’ve already committed years ago! A couple of weeks ago I’ve told a good friend “I’m going to write” and since I proclaimed it, I now have no choice but to go thru with it I explained, just like when I announced I’m going to stop drinking for one full year, or when I said “I’m going to take a ride from California to Brazil” that’s a commitment you can’t get out of, otherwise your word is no good, now that I’ve told you, I gotta do it… His bemused and witty reaction was priceless “what a concept he said! Actually doing what you said you would do…”

The thing is, I’ve got something to write about, well yes, I’ve got The Trip coming up. Yes, that’s how I refer to it, The Trip, capitalized in my mind and in my notes on my phone, emails, folders on the screen…. The whole consuming affair dictating my life for about a year now. That’s all I’m thinking about, not really though as I’m still enjoying my leisurely life to the max and procrastinate a lot, too many times. In my brain allocated time, any vacation from working on The Trip is goofing off… But damn it! I’m still gonna go skydiving next weekend! But this will be time away from working seriously on The Trip. I should be reading blogs of other travelers ahead of me on their way to South America, or studying border crossings, or getting serious on researching and booking passage to bring the bike home, or getting the packing down to the last inch… So many things to do, so little time, 2 weeks only now before departure, and here I am, playing pétanque and neglecting my self imposed duties… I’m actually giving myself a lot of slack, I’m easy on me! Anyway, it all works out in the end, it always does… I know and expect to be born lucky, so there…

I think I should name my bike, this beautifully outfitted Ténéré, an Adventure motorcycle, for the non-initiated, like I was 6 months ago, its a sub-group of bikes that can go anywhere even when there are no roads… Yamaha, they make everything from saxophones to speakers, Laughing Emoji here, irrelevant but fun… Anyway I was thinking of giving it the name “America”… A famous blogger, a video guru of Adventure Motorcycle travels named hers Alaska, she was on a trip from South America to Alaska, so I guess it was aptly named. I came across her videos on Youtube at the recommendation of my travel buddy, let’s name him Steve, that’s his real name! Anyway, even though it’s a little corny, America is a great name for this bike, after all, it’s bound to go from North America to the whole of Central America and all the way to South America, see the pattern there? Plus I guess it’s my theme, after all I emigrated here in America, all this lifetime ago, more than 40 years ago, and I stayed, so I really wanted it… I’ve crossed the whole of it so many times, yep, I’ve been to all the states, and more than once, in all seasons… Who else has been to New York or Miami or the Grand Canyon or South Dakota more times than they can remember? But that’s for another story time… I have not so far given a name to any vehicle, I suspect it’s a common thing among young girls to name their cars, never known a guy doing so, but what the heck!? From now on reader, you’ll know what I’m talking about when I’ll say: America is very dusty today after we’ve crossed this canyon…

So that’s the premise, I will commit to write about the Trip, for now, that’s a good start. The idea of going to Brazil on a motorcycle came to me slowly but naturally. I’ve always been travelling far and wide, my whole life has been the pursuit of new landscapes and adventures… I made a career of it, building a travel business, allowing me to be gone weeks at a time. This gave me the excuse to travel to my native France or European great cities to search out new clients, while having the best of fun times, another story to write someday…

And now I have the time to travel just for the fun of it! When people ask me why do I want to do this, my answer is always: if not now when? I’m not going any younger… They say, well I say, Sixty is the new Forty… But I kinda worry that the stamina won’t be the same in a few years when I’ll be seventy… It’s tough to grow old, so I’ve got to cram as many experiences as I can before I can’t anymore.

So I made up my mind, and somehow things fell into place, beautifully and so smoothly… At first I wanted this to be a solo trip, some sort of mystical search for pushing myself, but as I was proclaiming high and far I’m going, I’m going, voices of reason tamed me… Needless to say my lovely wife, my kids and my close friends were relieved when I found Steve to go along with me on this crazy journey. Yes, safety in numbers of course. I came to realize it might not be a bad idea to have someone who could pull you out of a ravine in Peru for example…

I feel so lucky to have found this guy, a little younger than me, but retired and able and willing to take this trip that I initiated to start at the beginning of this year. We met online, on a “world adventure motorcycle traveler” forum, and finally in person when we gauged each other and confirmed our intentions. Steve is a pro at this, he’s done this kind of travel before, went to Europe and the Balkans on a bike, heck his garage is full of adventure bikes, he’s got one awaiting for him when he returns to Bulgaria some day!

I’m not ashamed to say, even though I should, I am definitely not mechanically inclined. But with Steve’s guidance, and his tools, I participated in the upgrading of America, there, first time I refer to it by its name, see that’s easy to understand right? So America is now perfectly outfitted for anything that we’ll throw at it. We put storage bags and protecting bars on him, or her? In the French language a motorcycle is female, don’t ask me why! So she’s officially a she now, just like America the Beautiful… I hid in its crevices tools and spare tire tubes and extra spark plugs and everything my new friend recommended. It’s done, she’s perfect for the trip and waiting impatiently in my garage, like a young horse at the races, ready at the gates… Now if only her owner finished what he has to do in the next 2 weeks, we’d have a story….

Ok that’s it for now… I will post this on social media, my first readers will then be some of my 353 friends! That’s laughable to claim that they are all friends, but I have some family members in there, a few really important friends and a lot of nice people who share passions such as skydiving and petanque, my two other hobbies as I like to say… I personally know or have briefly met almost everyone on there, only a couple people on that list I have not met in person yet, but I intend to someday as we have common interests and future travels in mind.

In any case, this is the first draft of just an episode of this crazy and wonderful life. Nobody is forced to read this, but for those who will follow these travails, hang on for the ride! May we all have a great and phantasmagoric New Year!