NIght Rider Big Blog Big Ride.

Riding in the day has been tough, so to not miss any miles I've been riding at night lately. It has its good points as well as its bad.. Cooler, less rain, less traffic, but harder to see and be seen,
can't take as many pics, your a target, might have to fix a flat in the dark, can't see what you may be running over, the music sounds better and the ride is more stimulating, it's a death dare that makes you feel like a spartan without a sword. The route can't change much, get on the River at Williams, ride the river levee to Audubon Park, take a break, St Charles to Canal, Bourbon and Royal Streets, the River Walk, take a break, Canal St to the Cemeteries , either the Park to the Lake then home or Metairie Road to West Napoleon, home or back up the levee to Williams to home. Dusk is a great time to ride , the world is shutting down around you ,
I get to experience day to night differently from getting off the couch, looking outside and noticing it's suddenly dark ,sitting your ass back on your secure couch. When your 20 miles from home and its dark your committed. Eyes scanning all around wondering whats behind the next dark shadowy object. The music has taken me away by now, the chemical release in my little brain has me feeling like one of the characters Joseph Campbell talks about, an adventurer left the village to slay the dragon, finding the journey is his dragon and must come back home victorious or face self inflicted demise . Dishonor is what the orientals call it. A dragon lies in wait around every corner, I must turn the corner, face the dragon, slay it , if we don't face our dragons we are dishonored and the fear of death rules our lives, how can we attack life's fullness with fear of death seated at our side, self induced prison to die never feeling the high of walking to the edge of life , balancing on the ledge and laughing all the way home that you did not fall.
On the Bike you have no defenses, your naked to the elements, all the night contains and hides, lurking and waiting for you to misstep. Wayne Dyer says to live the Tao you must relinquish all cherished things, the things that make us feel secure, walk life with no shoes, that's not for me but I feel that way on my bike at night in the city. My favorite writer Henry David Thoreau says a "mans true worth is in proportion to what he can afford to do without", I take that as humility, living without a sword, sword being all the things that make you feel like you, complicating your journey to slay the dragon, fostering a fear of death. I cheat death by acknowledging and accepting it's power, running up to the line that separates it from life and running back.
Captain Ahab knew he couldn't kill the white whale he sought obsessively, his own fears created an obsession so powerful he took a crew down with him, just another Dragon, a journey to life or death. Starbuck knew all along what the future had for them. Joseph Campbell knows why we have to die, cause in our death there is life, sound familiar, everything on the planet must die so another can live, it's just a matter of when and how, I'd like to live to a ripe old age, but if my calling is to get run over by a bus on a journey to slay the dragon then so be it. What does all this have to do with bike riding on the street at night , it's a high that's worth the risk, I come home being a dragon slayer, a death defier, a life liver, a hero. Just as this thought hits me the player blast "In the Wee Hours" by Buddy Guy and Junior Wells from the album "Hoodoo Man Blues", it'll take you to places in your mind you've never been , may not go back to, and might never leave. In the "Art of War" by Sunzi, Sun Tzu, I learned that the only War you win is the one you never have to fight, you do this by being positively prepared for the possibility, I accept that for others to live at sometime I'll be taken. Not by a White Whale but maybe a white bus. I 've been fortunate in my life to talk to and learn from Truman Gandy and Valdaslav Colangelo, two remarkable men. Forget Leo Trotsky, Karl Marx, Mohandas Gandhi, Goldring, I'm starting to write like Richard Brautigan except I don't have a muse at my side. Remember instead what the 3 Amigos had to do when they were confronted with El Guapo , do what you have to do then go home a hero.........
Live on the Edge,,,
gary.

ckick on the pics for enlargement and the last one is a video .