Saturday, June 1, 1996
Day 21
Gillette, Wyoming
Today's Miles: 0
Cumulative Miles for the Tour: 1275
Degree of Difficulty: Rest Day
Terrain: Campground
Find of the Day: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
It's a cliche to say that books can become old friends, but that's why it's cliche...it's the accepted truth.
I first read Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" twenty years ago while living through a brutally cold winter in Amherst, Massachusetts. I landed in Amherst through a circuitous route, which included Bozeman, Montana, in the fall of 1975. Pirsig taught at Montana State University, Bozeman, before being committed for being insane. All this relates if I can just figure out how the pieces fit.
Shadows playing over the hills of Wyoming
Today's rest day in Gillette, Wyoming was a much needed one for me. I woke at my usual 6:00am and put together the previous day's journal. By 7:30am, I was back in the tent, completely exhausted. The ride this week with the mountain passes and the final century day on Friday, took a lot out of me. I napped until noon, but still didn't get my energy back until late afternoon. It's a little after 9:00 in the evening, now. I'm typing this journal in my tent by the light of the display screen.
As Lee and I rode together through the Wyoming countryside yesterday, the subject of personalities came up. It was the typical dichotomy of the classical verses the romantic that became the center of the discussion.The "classic" personality sees things through its underlying form...the beauty of the form based on its function. The "romantic" is just the opposite. The romantic sees only the object itself, not caring about the form underneath. Neither view is correct. They are just different ways of coping with life. (Pirsig says this much better and in a more complete sense in the book. If this discussion interests you at all, go get the book. You can thank me later.) As the bike tour progresses, each of the various personalities are learning how to deal with their counterparts.
Ken, working on his bike
We tease Ken constantly about his attention to detail. He is a "classicist" in the sense that he understands the form and function of things intuitively. When I woke from my nap this afternoon, I found Ken with his bike completely torn apart, his hands covered with grease and oil as he repacked the bearings on both wheels of his bike. I have no idea how, and have no desire, to do this kind of thing. I paid someone $20.00 at a bike shop in Sheriden to do this exact thing for me earlier this week.That's the difference between Ken and I. I'm going to ride my bike until it falls apart and can't function anymore. The only reason I had work done on it was because the guy at the bike shop said it was needed. I drive a car the same way...you turn the key, step on the gas and steer. I want the thing to WORK, I don't CARE how it does it.A bike tour like this will define your personality for you, if you haven't figured out which you are. It will also let you change or combine the two if you are open enough to let it happen. I can see some of the changes happening in the group just in the three weeks we've been on the road. It's a chance to test out new personas, something we very seldom get to do once we've escaped the socialization process called "education".Lee and I sometimes worry about Ken and Adam. After reviewing "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" this afternoon, I feel much more comfortable with how they perceive this trip and my perception of it. I don't need to worry about whether or not they are enjoying and experiencing the same types of feelings I am while riding through this landscape. Their reality is different because their perception of the underlying FORM is different.I've noticed the changes happening gradually with the Iobst's. I stop a lot...take time to meet and talk with people, compare the different shades of green in a hill full of pine trees, get lost in looking at cloud formations that combine perfectly with a snowcapped mountain peak, when you can't tell where the mountain stops and the sky begins. It's my way of looking at things. I see the objects and don't think about the form.Is the form the mode of transportation, itself, or is it...what? I don't even know. I do know that when we first started the tour several weeks back, I would come into camp each night with stories of what I had seen and done that day. I remember hearing Adam say, "Hey, I WANT TO PISS ON A SNAKE!" after I told him about the one I had pissed on that day. He and Ken are starting to slow down a little, just as I am starting to speed up.I passed Ken on the road outside Gillette yesterday. It's one of the few times I've passed him, so I figured something was wrong. As it turns out, he had stopped to look at the wildlife that was frolicking in the meadow off to the side of the road. Very interesting changes are happening here.I've come to the realization that there's only so much I can absorb in a day's time. I've got to keep moving, keep pedaling, while at the same time, trying not to lose the essence of what this trip is becoming....and what is that essence? I don't know yet. I hope that when I go back and review these journals after the trip, I'll find out what it was all about.
Only in Wyoming... nowhere and everywhere at the same time
I give a sincere thanks to Robert Pirsig for his wisdom and insight within "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". It's going to help as the changes and transformations continue to happen on this trip...especially now that Ken, Adam and Lee have their own copies.
Bike America Tours
dblair@wtp.net
1-800-738-7271