Life's Been Good To Me So Far: Ole Blue

Tomorrow Lisa and I are headed to Gunnison to pick up a (almost) new Yamaha FZ1. If you've been paying attention (I won't hold it against you if not) you'll know that I love to ride my '02 FZ1. Just a little. I'm looking forward to getting the new bike. I took a spin on a co-worker's '08 model which is similar to the '12. It was more comfortable on the tailbone and had better wind protection all around. The decision to get it is what has made me think this huge mid-life crisis tour is possible. We'll see how I feel after riding it for awhile but I think I can go much further on the new bike.

As excited as I am to be getting the new ride, I was feeling a little misty eyed while washing Ole Blue (the name I gave the old bike just now). Almost everywhere I've been that bike has been. I know guys like motorcycle journalist Pete Egan go through bikes like a lot of us go through t.p. but I'm one of those people that holds on to something for ever.

Just for my own benefit a list of the places I've rode the bike include a cross country trip from San Diego to Zanesville Ohio when I bought the bike back in 2003. That was a long almost crippling ride but a lot of fun. Some things I remember about that trip were almost getting lost somewhere in southern California around Death Valley. Freezing my tookus off in the early morning hours through Flagstaff. And a particularly painful conversation I had with a woman working at a gas station about my mesh Joe Rocket jacket. She seemed unable to grasp that the jacket was for protection while keeping the rider cool. Of course the fact that it was about 50 degrees and raining didn't help my cause.

I also remember kicking myself ever since that ride for staying a day in Terra Haute Indiana. Of all the places I could have spent an extra day in why I picked Terra Haute I'll never know.

Brian, Bud and me, Durango CO 2004

Back in 2004 I had the bike with me when I met Lisa, my wife. I rode all over Colorado that summer and that's really the year I took my riding abilities to the next level. Riding the roads through the Rockies was an experience I'll never forget. A buddy liked my FZ1 so much he got the black and yellow model. Another buddy was so inspired by the fun we were having riding, he took the MSF course and bought a Harley. After Colorado we all went to California and rode the Pacific Coast Highway and around central California together. I usually don't like to ride with people but that was the best year of riding ever.

There have just been some many wonderful rides I can't begin to list them all. Actually that's not true, I just listed two of them a minute ago. Truth is I could list them all but you would get bored awful quick.

To conclude I'll just post some pictures of past beautiful rides.