Morning Bliss

Waking up this morning I found myself feeling convinced that after yesterday’s summer shower debacle it would only be prudent to assuage the higher powers of riding and get back on the bike once again. That’s a wordy way of saying that I felt somewhat cheated by yesterday’s ride – while it was fantastic to finally be back on the bike, in truth it wasn’t nearly as fulfilling as I had hoped it turn out. Muddy muck on your face shield has a surprising way of chilling you out… So this morning I bucked the pile of papers sitting on my desk – is there a better feeling in the world on a Monday??? – and headed out to Palomar once again in an attempt to reclaim my ride.

And what a ride it turned out to be… With no rain in sight and a dearth of traffic in either direction, I found myself immediately basking in the glory of the moment to an nth and degree which quite frankly has eluded me for far to long. With amazingly empty roads, relatively manageable temps and wonderfully grippy grinding asphalt flying by beneath me, I couldn’t help but feel like I was finally here – and at home.

It was one of those marvelous days where it felt like the road had been built just for the sole purpose of riding it. As if it was carved into the side of a cliff solely for this one particular moment in time. This exact day. This singular event where everything in life coalesces into one simple and easy to articulate equation that riles the soul. It was the kind of scene that gives me goose bumps thinking about it now and that’s no small thing – at least not in my book – for as many of you know, it has been quite an adventure adjusting to living in this neck of the woods over the past year. It’s been far more challenging then I ever thought it would be and at times I’ve been quite vocal about the ups and the downs associated with changing your riding scene. Yet today all of those emotions seemed to dry up and dissipate. They vanished faster then the puddles left over from yesterdays thunderstorm. Now certainly part of that was the bike – for the first time in countless days it felt like the 1098S and I were connected at the hip. The bike acting as if it were directly wired into my subconscious, plucking movements and reactions out of my mind nanoseconds after my synapses seemingly fired. The results of which was a nearly invincible sensation that lasted forever.

Hours later when I finally returned home, with a brimming smile plastered on my face, I couldn’t help but feel like yesterday’s summer thunderstorm had somehow inexplicably enchanted the air and somehow restored the magic of riding to my soul.

more photos after the jump…