Anatomy of a friendship: Let's be careful out there

[Bruno Valeri <bvaleri@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Warning: long.
It's with some ambivalence that I'm writing this.

I'm sitting here at the keyboard with a gamut of emotions
running through me. Interspersed with searing clarity and
painful haze. Flashes of memories, of life-intense moments
streaming by.

I'm typing this, driven by some need to maybe find some
healing and resolution.

On the surface, you could not find 2 more different
individuals.

I was related to Allan. He was my brother in law. But
neither of us initially felt much affinity for the other.
Different worlds, different apparent values, different
perspectives.

Maybe part of that had to do with some Alpha male thing
coming into clash. Probably.

This went on for a time.

And then Allan bought a motorcycle. He was getting back into
riding after a long hiatus. Soon, he began riding it on some
solo week-end tours where he'd go off camping.

Over time, the motorcycle element gradually brought us
closer in conversation. One day, on pure impulse, we set up
a ride. It was late in the afternoon, but no matter. The
weather was great and I needed to get some air. We ended up
riding well into the night.

Good ride. Felt good. There was some apparent affinity in
riding styles and personality. This led to more and longer
rides. Again the pacing was comfortable in a manner that you
don't notice it.

He was a solid, reliable rider. Learned quickly and had an
affinity for riding a motorcycle.

Allan showed an appetite for life, exhibited a life energy
that had me stand back and notice. In comparison, my
approach was more reasoned.

I smiled inwardly as I noticed how people reacted to him
whenever we stopped. If you've read Zorba the Greek, you'll
understand.

More recently he had read an article in a local riding
magazine about riding 1000 miles in a 24 hr period and was
intrigued by the idea.

I told him that we could do better than that. We could set
up a ride that would allow us to do slightly better than
that on the way down to a rally, ride some great roads in
the area for 2 days, and then repeat on the return ride
home.

There were a couple of rallies happening in Missouri on the
same week-end, about 25 miles apart. We could ride down to
Arkansas, enjoy some great roads, work our way up to
Missouri for the rallies, and then head back home.

I began researching good roads for our destination. The trip
itinerary that was shaping up was going to make this one
very memorable ride. Too many good roads. Too little time.

This would be a great trip.

But first we needed to set up a training session that would
serve to develop some endurance and also be a good shake-out
for gear selection. A reasonably long ride that would enable
him to go through the different parts of the riding day and
weather patterns. This would allow him to sort out his
equipment. Find out what worked and what didn't. It would
also give me a sense of how much endurance he was capable
of.

On Sat Oct 2nd, we pushed off at 6am for a stroll down
rte. 100 in Vermont. Great day for equipment shake-out. We
had an early morning gamut of cool weather, fine drizzle,
and fog.