A Widow's Ride

Whoo-hoo…next week is the annual Horizon Unlimited Travelers Meeting http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/events/california-2014 which is the premier overland adventure travel event for motorcyclists.  This year it will be held at Mariposa Fairground in Yosemite, CA starting on Thursday, September 25^th through Sunday, September 28^th.   At the event, we hear inspiring stories of travel around the world; get tips and tricks on preparing for our own journey, navigation, first-aid and photography.  I’m so excited I can’t wait to go.

The first time my late husband and I went was last year which was held in Cambria, CA.  Yep, we rode our little TW200 bike to the event and proudly assumed our rightful place amongst the 251 or so assembled adventure bikes in attendance.  Probably 75% of the bikes present were of large displacement, high-priced variety but there wasn’t a trace of elitism at the event.

It was at this event where I first met Carla King www.carlaking.com, an amazing women motorcycle rider and travel writer who wrote a book about riding around the USA as a test rider for Ural America, “American Borders”.  She interviewed us about our little cult bikes and the homemade accessories we use as tools and gears for them.  She was the one who hinted that we should start a blog about our bikes and our frugality of traveling.  If it wasn’t her faith and constant encouragement, I would have never have had the nerve to begin this blog.  Writing for this blog has been a blessing in disguise in multiple ways, it has given me confidence in my writing and it has also been therapeutic to release all of my bottled up emotion onto paper.

We also met the Borden family; Terry, Sandy and Jack www.adventuretrio.com at this event as well. An amazing family, it’s a husband and wife team along with their teenage son who has been traveling all over for the last seven years. Now they’re getting ready to go another adventure down to South America for 18 months.  I’m looking forward to meeting up with them again and wishing them a safe journey.  Wishing that I was starting my journey as well but I still have probate to deal with so in due time, I will eventually get to begin mine soon.

There are many other inspiring travelers, too many to mention here that will be presenting or just hanging out at the event.  I’m looking forward to rub elbow the among the elite riders and hopefully learn many tips and tricks for my future travel.

This post is taking me awhile to write, in the beginning I was so excited to share about the event that I am going to next week but I kept writing and rewriting the same thing over and over again. After stepping back for a while, I just realized why, this event was the last vacation that we took together.  My late husband was reluctant at first about going but in the end he was so happy that we got to go.  At first he seemed so rejuvenated when we got back from the trip but in the end he kept getting sicker and sicker as the days went on. So once again this will be a bittersweet event for me.  It will be a reminder of the last good time we had together and the stepping stone toward the next chapters in my life without him at the same time.