May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face;

• Old Irish Wishes

Stretching your limbs of life to touch that first colorful ball before it rolls away, you think "If I could just reach it, stop it, hold it, that would be the  finest happiness and contentment of my day."  Then finally after much struggle it happens, and life is good.

Another day goes by and another quest burns to ashes once accomplished. You feel an unending surge of ideas to test, filing some away, poking at others, and dismissing the easy boring ones for days when nothing comes to mind.

Years wash by the curtain of time when it hits you, "I've seen all this city has. There must be more to the world." Laying awake in bed a night you may wonder if other cities are so different from yours. If other people lay in waking dreams of you and your city. What is out there, over the hill, far away, past that magical state line, into the void of the unknown.

Such are the thoughts of a teenage boy, trying to find out the answers for life's questions. Why am I here and what should I do with my life.

There is only on way to grasp hold of these ideas, on the handlebars of a motorcycle.

Here now begins the saga of a 19 year old with a head full of questions and a vague plan.

1972 Triumph Bonneville 650, Ready to Ride

The Plan:

Save $500
Pack light, but follow the Boy Scout's motto: Be Prepared
Tune up the bike
Take a leap of faith

-- Don Cohoon; July 1975.

Next: Long Black Ribbon