My Biker Bucket List
Whether you know it or not, you have bucket lists. The cars you’d like to drive. The jobs you’d like to have. The vacations you’d like to go on. All products of the basic human trait we call ‘want’. The want to succeed is inherent in our nature. The want to achieve and to feel accomplished. The phrase “bucket list” is the product of modern popular culture. A recent moniker applied to an age old concept. All those things we wish to accomplish in a lifetime neatly listed, theoretically tossed in the proverbal bucket. Each waiting to be plucked from the rest, planned, executed and remembered as “DONE”. By checking off items dreamt in theory and executed in reality we engage in a timeless quest. That quest to dream dreams, set goals, accomplish feats, and move on to the next dream. To be pulled from a bucket or scratched from a list matters not. The accomplishment is the goal. In its simplest sense, in the basest of terms, ones “bucket list” is that compilation of ideology that we as human beings wish to aspire to complete. A compartmentalization of our inner most desires. Listed for some on an Excel spreadsheet for others in the whimsy of fleeting imagination. I must admit that I have had a bevy of bucket lists in my life. Places to visit with my children – Shakespeare plays to attend with my wife – ski resorts to conquer – cars I’d like to own, and so on. My actual bucket list of bike rides is as fluid as a river. Ever changing course, sometimes overflowing, often murky, always cool. The ones I’ve kept through the years appear on a cork board in my garage. Simple index cards, some dog eared, some yellow, some brand new. Some with a check mark, some without. Here is my “Biker Bucket List”:
The Amalfi Coast, Italy…………………………….…….. √
Tunisia to Cairo in Northern Africa………………………___
Pan-American Highway, Panama to Nicaragua…………. √
Machu Picchu to Lake Titicaca, Peru…………..…………___
Pikes Peak, 14,110 feet, Rocky Mountains, CO, USA….. √
China (Tibet in particular)…..…………………………….___
Pacific Coast Highway, CA, USA.…………………….… √
French Alps – “Col de L’Iseran Pass”, France……..……___
Italian Alps – “Dolomite Mountains”, Italy………..……. √
Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah……………………………….___
A1A ‘top to bottom’, Florida, USA……………………… √
Trans Siberian Highway (Ural sidecar rig), Russia………___
German Autobahn Darmstadt to Munich (In October!)… √
Brooklyn Bridge on a Panhead (at night).………………. √
Kakadu National Park, Northern Australia………….….____
Nova Scotia (with a female).……….………………..….. √
Paris to Dakar, France/Africa.…………………………..____
Key West (From Anywhere)…………………………….. √
Switzerland to Austria over Innsbruck pass……………. √
There are more, however I’ve but 1 page here.
There you have it. We all have our dreams. Some amble through life with little hope of achieving them. Some plan with laser focus. Some dreams blossom into achievements, some dreams wither and die like November begonias. To thrust forward towards that next achievement to be ‘checked off’ our bucket list, be it cuisine, baseball stadiums, art, money, or moto-travel, at least start with a wish list, a “bucket list”. A wise man once told me, to know where you are going, you must remember where you have been. My bucket list helps keep me grounded, checked or not! May God bless you with the creativity to formulate your list, the fortitude to put thoughts to action, and the fortune to see your list accomplished, checked off 1 by1 until your list is done before you are. Well, signing off for now. Remember, ride hard, ride safe, and in the end, make sure you ride home. Written by Steve Murrin, The Original Biker Lawyer.