Backroads

July 1, 2009 - Wednesday

Summer's back like it should be. Temperatures in the high 20s, sun, blue sky and dry roads. I dragged myself through work until 4 p.m., when I turned off the computer, donned my gear and headed home. Walti was waiting for me up on the Buchenegg parking lot. We stopped y Vögeli really quick so I could change from capris into my leathers, and then he led the way, following his nose, as he said. It ended up being a six-hour tour - dang! - including a one-hour stop for supper around 9 p.m. And it was great fun. For one thing, I'm a huge fan of the Conti Road Attack tires the Beastie's wearing at the moment. Their curve quality is my favorite so far. I'm still not sure about them on wet roads. Even though the critiques said they had a dubious character in rain, I think they'd hold just fine if I had more confidence. And for another thing, Walti knows just about every backroad from here to Appenzell, and we drove a whole bunch of them. Aside from the Hirzel, the Sattelegg, and the Schwägalp in the end, I'd never driven any of the roads he led us through. And there were some really great curves along the way. Walti drives at a comfortable pace for me, and I could concentrate on emulating his smooth line of sight. It's a good balance to United, where I'm have to be fully focussed on just keeping up. (I hope Roger and Fabian have some sort of Black Forest outing planned this weekend. Haven't been on those curves in too many weeks.) Conversation over dinner was quite enjoyable. We exchanged stories of driving various machines dry, tire critique, and other shop talk. Somewhere in there we got on the subect of work and I mentioned how I'd rather not sit in an office all day and answer phones, if I had any specific idea of what I would rather do. Walti promptly offered a suggestion I'm surprised never crossed my mind. And since he's said it, I keep considering it. I could write articles for motorcycle magazines. Fairly obvious, no? The suggestion isn't even new - years ago Grandma already suggested I submit travel articles or fictional stories to magazines. Stef is writing for online magazines. So I looked up the magazines Walti mentioned. There are plenty of articles about daring tours. But most are done by men and practically all are done on BMWs. How fun would that be - paid to drive all day and write about it in the evening. For a round-the-world tour I'd probably be better off buying a XB12X Ulysses than putting my little Beastie through that sort of school of hard knocks, but for shorter expeditions, it'd definitely different fare for readers. A girl on a customized streetfighter instead of a middle-aged man on a regular production BMW... Here's what I'm going to do. On the next multiple-day tour, I'll make a point to take more pictures and write a report of it in German and submit it to these magazines. The tour down to Varano would have been perfect for that... Oh well. And then we'll see what happens. My efforts to find a job I love keep going in circles and coming back to writing. Maybe this time I'll have enough gumption - and the proper style - to make a bit of a break.