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Hail, Colorado
Scene: a pair of middle-aged dads staring into the blue glow of their laptop screens from opposite US coasts. One is in California, the other Connecticut. They’re on Zoom. It’s late in the evening on a cold winter night, early in the second year of the global Covid-19 pandemic. They are plotting…planning…a journey? An escape?…
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State of Love
Cal, I couldn’t agree with you more. President Calvin Coolidge was a native and prodigal son of Vermont, whose affections for the Green Mountain State were as authentic and deep as the granite veins running through Mt. Mansfield. I, too, fell in love with Vermont, though not quite as far back as the Coolidge administration…but…
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Alone, Stinking, and Trying to be Unafraid
Before undertaking an eight-day, 2,000 mile moto-camping adventure into the wilds of Quebec this summer, I consulted Reddit about the one aspect of the trip that was gnawing at me. Bears. Here’s what one kind Redditor had to offer in the way of self-preservation: “When setting up camp, don’t eat, brush your teeth, or pee/poop…
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Oh. Canada.
As an American, and not unlike many other Americans, I have this weird spatial/cognitive relationship with our great northern neighbor. Obviously, and just like any other American, I’m aware of the fact that a half-continent-sized land mass looms north of my own country’s controversial and troubled borders. Rationally, I know that it’s a sovereign state…
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Getting Your Ya-Yas Out
Since I’m the proud owner of a 2013 Yamaha Super Tenere, I guess I’m a data point in Yamaha’s CRM database, which would explain why I received an email invite to their “Demo Days” at Stamford Motorsports last spring. So on the appointed date—an otherwise grey and drizzly Saturday morning—I threw my riding kit into the…
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Starling on the Slipstream
What the hell do starlings have to do with motorbikes? Here’s what. From Wikipedia: Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds; the species familiar to most people in Europe and North America is the common starling. Starlings have strong feet, their flight is strong and direct, and they are very gregarious. From the band Pavement: I…
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Idiots’ Delights
Before we get to these two idiots, a brief meditation. It will help make this ride report make sense. Like many other suburban New York eighties kids, I grew up listening to Vin Scelsa on WNEW-FM in New York. And after hearing just a few of his shows (usually at the kitchen table over unfinished homework in…
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Tenner Lube
Oil changing. I’ve had the dealer do it for me before, which involves schlepping up Route 7 to Danbury and waiting…waiting…waiting. Ordinarily, it’s also an excuse to indulge in some fantasy bike shopping and gear fixation. But since I have a New England road trip coming up in less than a week, I decided it was…
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March Mapleness
When in March, most people’s thoughts turn to Madness. Mine turn to Mapleness. Not that I’m a basketball hater or anything. It’s just that there’s something about maple sap running down collection tubes—nature whispering about winter’s looming demise, and a sure harbinger of spring—that’s more exciting to me than a bunch of college guys running up and down…
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Ski and Ride
Skiing. Riding. Riding. Skiing. With the possible exception of surfing, eating Twizzlers, or doing the New York Times Sunday crossword, they’re easily two of my favorite things to do on this green and white earth. Some of these life-loves can easily be enjoyed in the span of a single day. But not skiing and riding. Twizzlers and crosswords? Easy-peasy—I…
Longitude & Gratitude 