Pretending to be Brave – Leaving the Void for Parts Unknown

On Sunday morning as I rubbed the I think I drank one too many pints from my eyes I wondered how in the world my weekend had gone by so fast. What started on Thursday evening, riding out to State College, Pa. for a pre-rally dinner, moved in to doing the 24-hr Void Rally on Friday in to Saturday and finished with me waking up in Virginia on Sunday morning wondering where the time went.

There is often a bittersweet feeling in achieving your goals. It makes me wonder what percentage of joy comes from the wishing, hoping and planning before the event itself.

Though my rally was over, I was staring down a new journey. With a spark of excitement I began shoving everything into my two travel bags. It’s amazing how scattered everything gets in a hotel room. My rooms often look like a “stuff bomb” went off. And yet it all folds back up so tidily as if nothing ever happened. Kind of like cramming one of those gag snakes back in to its can.

Though I knew I would be shoving off for a week of riding on the back-end of the Void, in the weeks leading up to the trip I did little to no planning. I left home armed with a loose idea of a few things that I wanted to do and see while I had the time, but that was pretty much it.

I had no route and no immediate timetable, just the want to feel something.

I left Fredericksburg under a bright blue sky and set off towards the Blue Ridge Parkway south. It was time to float.

Where do you go when you have nowhere that you need to be? Anywhere.

While doing the Void Rally, I had to cover long distances in a short amount of time. As such, that meant lots of highway miles. Now that I was on my clock, I set the GPS to avoid the slab as I picked my way south and west. I would milk the back roads up until those times I found it necessary to punch out a leg that required fast-paced hustling.

Being on my own, I felt a great sense of freedom. A huge expanse opened inside of me and it seemed like anything was possible. All I had to do was stop being afraid.

The world was there for the taking if I could just find enough bravery to reach out and grab it.

Fuzzygalore

Rachael is the whimsical writer behind the 20+ year old Girlie Motorcycle Blog. As a freelance blogger, she is on a mission to inspire laughter, self-examination, curiosity, and human connection. Girlie Motorcycle Blog can be found on several Best Motorcycle Blog lists.

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5 Responses

  1. Kathy says:

    Yes, it IS amazing how stuff gets scattered. When I am traveling for work or by car, I prefer king-sized beds. When traveling by bike, I have found a room with double beds is best. If I am alone, one bed gets filled with stuff. It with Hubby, we each put our own stuff on a bed so then we’re each responsible for making sense of our own mess before actually using the bed for its intended purpose. 🙂

    Mike said something yesterday that made me giggle. As he was gathering up all the chargers and wires, he said something like, “Remember a time when we didn’t have all these electronics to worry about?” He’s right, but I can’t imagine not having a headset, camera, phone, and/or music player along.
    As for this “…It makes me wonder what percentage of joy comes from the wishing, hoping and planning before the event itself,” I have to agree. As hard as it sometimes is planning trips, I do think the act of planning and seeing how all your work pays off, is a huge part of the fun.

    Though I, too, enjoy not having an agenda and winging it.

    You’re great at pretending to be brave, by the way. I would have never guessed exploring the great unknown makes you nervous/apprehensive.

    • Fuzzygalore says:

      I’m so with Mike on all the cords and cables and stuff. Every time i have to pack them up i think – ‘i should be able to simplify this’ and then add an extra USB cable into the bag. You know. Just in case… 😉

    • Fuzzygalore says:

      I was talking to Kenny about being scared last night. He doesn’t see me that way either, which is interesting since he knows me better than anyone else.

      But he did offer that even when my legs are shaking, I’ll often do stuff anyway because the fear of not trying or letting an experience escape is often worse than finding a way to muscle through whatever it is. For example – when we went up the Aiguille du Midi in Chamonix. My legs were wobbly on the way up. But after being up there a while, i settled in to a comfortable enough space to get on with it and enjoy the experience.

      But.. standing in that little glass box?

      glass box

      That was a hurdle i just couldnt get over.

  2. MarthaC says:

    “All I had to do was stop being afraid.” Interesting … I don’t think “afraid” is an adjective that I would ever attach to my image of you. Inspiring, thoughtful, creative, cheerful, heartfelt, compassionate, inquisitive, energetic, funny, entertaining, uncommon (in a most positive way), dynamic, resilient, cool, courageous, confident, undismayed, passionate, intelligent, introspective … these are but a few of the words that come to mind (in no particular order). Thank you for sharing! I always enjoy reading your posts.

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