We used to ride so much more—in the 15,000-ish miles per year range. Mainly because we were traveling a lot to rallies and whatnot.
But the new normal seems to be in the range of 6,000 miles a year. Pathetic, I know. Granted, that’s more than we were getting in during the pandemic but it’s still pretty lame.
Even so, we bookended 2025 with New Year’s Day and New Year’s Eve rides. It’s nothing more than symbolic but it felt good regardless. Or at least, conciliatory. Especially since we only got in one short trip on the bikes. The rest of the rides have been of the maintenance variety.
As for 2026? We didn’t even get our first ride in until two weeks into the new year. All due to life, work, and obligations that are incompatible with riding (like say, a colonscopy).
Happy riders on New Year’s Day 2025Happy but chilly riders on New Year’s Eve 2025
Hard-earned first ride
I wish I could say getting out the door for the first ride of the year was smooth. It was not. We got a late start thanks to some work fires that needed putting out. And once we finally saddled up and were about to dive into our throttle therapy, my dear man’s bike wouldn’t fucking start in spite of the fact that he leaves it on a trickle charger in between rides.
We had to dial back and go through the rigamarole of jump-starting his bike before we could set out. We originally planned to have a brief stop visiting with friends over coffee before the ride. By the time we finally had sidestands up, there wasn’t time.
And, of course, we needed to get some miles in to make sure his bike was adequately charged so it would restart. So a quick stop for coffee after only a mile in the saddle wasn’t in the cards.
Once we were on the road and settled in though, it was a pleasant ride, if nothing technical or demanding. And after two weeks off the bikes, that fit the bill to refresh our skills and at least tick the box for the first ride of the year.
My dear man’s bike has a slight aversion to cold temperatures that proved terribly inconvenient on our first ride of the year.
The moto year ahead
The good news for our slow start to the new year is that it’s still early days. We have time to correct our course. But fuck, I really hope all of this challenging beginning isn’t a harbinger of our saddle time this year.
The hopeful spot on the riding horizon is our new Southwest Art Towns project. We need to cover a lot of ground throughout the Southwest this year to promote it. And we should be able to do a lot of that on the bikes.
Stay tuned to see if we can get in some moto adventures to redeem ourselves as motorcycles travelers in 2026.
Cheers, friends. See you in the saddle. I hope.
We did manage to get the bikes washed for the new year. That’s something, right?
This year was not a particularly prolific one on the blog as I took on other projects and tried to unravel the mess I made of things here on New Year’s Day. Even with the dip in my personal productivity here, there were posts that seemed to resonat with y’all.
So in case you missed them, here’s your chance to catch up as we close out the decade. Seriously, the decade! Yikes!
#10 – Vignettes of Cuba
The first post in my Cuba series. Visiting Cuba has been my dear man’s dream for over 20 years. And we finally got a small taste as a birthday celebration for him back in February.
#9 – What Motorcyclists Want You to Know – Part 3
Another episode in my quest to help non-riders understand what we face out there on the road. We’re all in this together and understanding the unique challenges of motorcyclists helps everyone get home safely.
#8 – My Best Photographs of 2018
My annual recap of my previous year’s work. Of course this means the 2019 version is just around the corner.
#7 – Firsts and Lasts
Looking back to my New Year’s Day post has me feeling a bit misty about all the firsts and lasts I’ve had in 2019. I can’t possibly resolve all of the swirly thoughts about the year here but this post captures how I think about them.
#6 – Stop the Bleed
Thank you for taking first aid and safety seriously enough to read a post I consider to be one of my most important. It really falls into the “don’t be a victim” category. There are so many ways we as laypeople can help ourselves and others handle our own crises until trained professionals arrive. This training is a big part of that.
#5 – Doing Things That Scare Me
Apparently you enjoy my life terrors. I’m not sure if that’s commiseration or “Hey, let’s see what shit Val’s gotten herself into now!” but thanks for your support. 🙂
Who knew my tales of fumbling through life would be so interesting. I wish I could say things are resolved but I’m still deep in the process of cleaning up the mess.
#2 – Overcoming GS Block
Bike choice is a very personal and often complex decision, especially for women. But boy howdy do I love this motorcycle.
#1 – The Wisdom of Walt
It seems my chat with Walt Fulton won the year. I’m good with that. I have nothing but admiration and respect for Walt. He’s a perceptive, considerate person who is supremely knowledgeable about the industry.
Thanks for following along again in 2019. Let’s see what I can get into in 2020, shall we?
Another year has come and gone. Today we all start a fresh calendar full of possibilities. New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day make for tidy bookends to the year, don’t they? Unlike celebrating our personal new years–our birthdays–the new yearly calendar we enjoy collectively has an energy to it that infects us all.
There’s simply something about that clean, fresh calendar ahead. The potential for opportunity seems bigger. Our hopes surge for what the year may bring. We put the disappointments and challenges of the previous year behind us and move forward. The truth is, though, that every day on the calendar represents the same opportunity for hope and progress. We all know it but the clean slate intoxicates us. The new year makes it easier to compartmentalize our experiences.
Bookmarks
Within the bookends of the year are the stories—the books themselves—filled with chapters, pages, and words. As we consider the obvious first and last today, I’ve been thinking about all of the firsts and lasts that litter those pages like little bookmarks. Because a year is filled with them, isn’t it? Firsts and lasts of all kinds–intimately intertwined yet quite different beasts.
The funny thing about firsts is that they’re more obvious than lasts. It’s much easier to notice a “first” of something. Firsts are exciting! We celebrate firsts with joy and anticipation. Our little neurons and dendrites light up with stimulation as our brains process a new experience.
Lasts are a bit different. They are often wrapped in more somber emotions–nostalgia, melancholy, sadness, or relief. Those emotions are amplified when they are unexpected and have to be processed from hindsight. There’s extra mourning when we didn’t didn’t realize that something in our lives was a “last.”
There are exceptions to all this, of course, but largely we deal with firsts and lasts in very different ways. They are intimately connected yet they are quite different experiences. That’s where we reconcile lasts and endings. Because we all know that “firsts” often can’t manifest themselves without a “last” preceding it. That’s where change and progress lie in waiting—in those transitions. That’s where we grow.
Happy New Year
As I dig into 2019, I’m reminding myself that every day is filled with micro-sized firsts and lasts where that growth can thrive—from the first time I open my eyes that morning to the last time I close them for the night. I’ll be channeling the ancient wisdom of Heraclitus as I go about my days and moments that only seem less noteworthy than the flamboyant bookends of the year.
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
Heraclitus
With the arbitrariness of the calendar duly noted, I still embrace the chance to be a part of the positive collective energy we share on this day. So from the crew here at Val in Real Life HQ, we wish you the greatest depths of love, kindness, and peace as you fill your pages with firsts and lasts of all kinds in 2019.
In a few short days, we will say goodbye to another year. We humans have a propensity to get nostalgic, as well as hopeful, in the course of ushering in a new year. It’s natural to take the time to look at where we’ve been in the last year and where we are going in the next.
As you go through those mental cycles, I have some food for thought for you. It’s that comfort zones are perishable. All the work we invest in expanding our horizons isn’t permanent. We must tend and nurture them.
When we talk about skills that deteriorate, we typically think of obvious use-it-or-lose-it skills like languages, math, or even muscle memory skills involved in sports. This year though, I’ve come to realize that the adventure comfort zone is just as perishable as any other skill that has been built over time. Neglect is a common culprit. It can also creep in through the disease of comfort. Or, more dramatically, it can take a sudden plummet if you’ve had a traumatic experience.
Shrinking
Whatever the source of the decline, when we lose that ground we become smaller. That regression is tied to fear. Fear is insidious and relentless. It’s always waiting in the wings to take advantage of vulnerability. If we don’t diligently keep it at bay at the edges of our comfort zones, it sneaks back in. That’s especially true for smaller, less-well-established comfort zones. They are less secure and have less buffer protecting them.
In the process of my personal year-end review, I’ve revisited a couple of my posts related to comfort zones: What is Adventure Travel? and Self Reliance. In looking back, I’m considering the areas I’ve lost ground knowing I’ve gained ground in others.
Is that ok? Maybe.
My reassurance comes from knowing I’ve traded one comfort zone for another, not sacrificed my adventure comfort zone as a whole. It will take some soul searching to decide which comfort zones are most important to me at this stage of my life. That will allow me to shape my adventures on my terms over the coming year.
Tomorrow marks my forty-fourth birthday. I view birthdays as personal new year: a time to reflect, assess, and consider the previous year. Birthdays are usually safe from the turmoil of other holidays so it’s easier to be more thoughtful. This year, more than ever, I’m grateful for the amazing support of the people who love me. And for a fabulous therapist. Just keeping it real, y’all.
Sitting down to write this annual birthday post and looking back at this particular year, I go a bit numb. I like that better than the flood of emotions that still overwhelms me some days. This year has been one of extraordinary pain. And stress. It has been a roller coaster of raw emotions that run the gamut between hope and despair. Navigating those extremes on nearly a daily basis for almost a full circle around the sun so far has taken its toll.
But let’s back up
I never wanted to be the person who woke up one day realizing she’s old and didn’t really live her life. Or develops a terminal illness before trying to live a life in earnest.
When I was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor just before my 40th birthday, I realized I wasn’t being true enough to that mindset. I wasn’t achieving the balance I wanted. The tumor was a highly treatable situation, if still difficult and unpleasant. It felt like I’d dodged a bullet and I didn’t want to squander my reality check. With careful attention, I’ve managed to strike a better balance in my life since then. As a result, I’ve had some incredible experiences.
I can tell you I’m very glad I did some epic things in the time between the tumor and the crash. Unfortunately, now that I see what my permanent limitations are, I will simply never be able to do some of those things again. Certainly not in the same way or at the same level. Even daily tasks present new challenges.
Since I resolved to be more deliberate in directing my life’s path, I also created and nurtured the mindset and lifestyle that has helped carry me through this ongoing recovery. I’ve needed every drop in the bucket.
Eat the Cupcake
A recovery of this magnitude takes a lot of time. I’m still working on both the physical and emotional aspects of that. And I will be for a quite a while longer before I entirely recalibrate.
The day before Halloween, I was having a very, very bad time dealing with the emotions that come with life-changing trauma. But I needed to pick up a cake at a local bakery for a friend and I was trying to keep moving forward with my life in spite of being overwhelmed.
Another woman was there picking up a cake as well. She was having an amusing debate with the clerk about whether or not to get a cupcake for herself. With a bit of wink and nudge, she looked at me and said:
“You never know, I could get hit by the bread truck tomorrow.”
I uttered one of those ironic, involuntary, guttural laughs. I had to summon every ounce of composure and strength I possess to hold back the tears, grief, pain, and frustration that wanted to surge forth like a wildfire. After a moment (or maybe ten…) I smiled at her and said:
“Trust me, eat the cupcake.”
Afterward, I went to my favorite outdoor respite and sobbed helplessly for I don’t know how long, consumed by all the emotions of everything about this ordeal up to that point. When I relayed the story to my therapist, even she winced at the thought of this little exchange, knowing how difficult it was for me.
The woman, of course, had no idea she’d just said that to someone who’d recently actuallybeen hit by a car. It was simply an off-hand remark expressing something we all know but don’t necessarily honor in the big picture of running our lives—that it can change or end at any moment.
The bigger picture
In spite of this, you might be surprised that I’ve never been a fan of the “Live every day like it’s your last!” message. Let’s face it, that’s not realistic or healthy. We all recognize in theory that our lives are fleeting but we still have to do the laundry and pay the bills. Not every day can be epic. A life well-lived has a rhythm. One that requires you to protect your future while not banking on days that may not come. That’s the challenge.
I do believe in keeping your bucket full, though. That’s the emotional savings account for hard times.
So eat the cupcake. Maybe not every day, but when it makes sense to get your life back in balance.
Live large and adventure on, friends.
The Birthday Series
Fifty-four: Using My Powers For GoodFifty-three: Wake Up CallFifty-two: Full CirclesFifty-one: The Messy MiddleFifty: Leaning Into LifeForty-Nine: Keep Moving ForwardForty-Eight: Be Where Your Feet AreForty-Seven: The Most Important QuestionForty-Six: GratitudeForty-Five: Celebrating with AdventureForty-Four: Eat the CupcakeForty-Three: The Depth of LifeForty-Two: Another Year of PerspectiveForty-One: Another Notch on the Birthday BeltForty: Getting Real
