Buenos Aires, down to Ushuaia then up to Alaska, all in 9 weeks, March to May 2010. Bonkers. This is the story of the trip. It’s more ‘bog’ than ‘blog’ I’m afraid but I hope it can give an idea of the trip. This one was quite difficult for many reasons. I’m sure you’ll see so I won’t pre-empt your thought patterns by telling you yet. A long way to go and not enought time to do it in really. Did we make it? Ready? Here we go….
Tick, tock, tick, tock.. Self destruct, armed, ready, steady, go.I bought a little cheap laptop out with me on this trip that I was going to use. I was going to stick my hand into the velvet bag of words in my skull and lay them in order on the screen. Turns out my thoughts are happier to run at the speed of ink so I’ll let the words fall from my head, down my arm and onto the page instead. Putting words to paper is dangerous though. An open book is…well..an open book. One of my two faces will write this account while the other outward facing one will filter my thoughts and present only those deemed acceptable by the audience at the time.
Back to the front. It’s quite a big group of riders – 20 bikes and a few pillions and crew. There is bound to be a complete cross section of people amongst them, there always is. [Hang on a minute, I just have to get something off my chest. I’m in a hostel in Buenos Aires. I’m sitting at a big table in the kitchen. It’s lunchtime and the freaks are out. Travellers. Fucking big stupid dreadlocks but never been anywhere near Jamaica. Speaking with Australian voice inflection, assaulting my ears as he tries to chat up a sleepy blonde. Jesus. “Do me a favour mate” I ask him. “Here is a big scary knife, jump onto it will you please”. One less oxygen thief in the world. Face 2 wipes the blade of blood and I’m back in the game.]
So we all turn up at the airport and the willy waving begins. The 11th commandment dictates that motorcyclists take part in this ritual whenever they meet for the first time. I’m never going to win one of those. Perhaps if there were a weener waving contest I might stand a chance. Whos going to be fastest/first/biggest/best? Who’s got the newest shiniest gadgets? Face 1 plays the game while face 2 starts the categorization process. I’m bad. I know it. I’m the current ‘quickest to judge’ world champion. No second chances. No reviews. No shit. It’s the same with everything I encounter. Sometimes a touch is enough. Drag a finger along a button in a shop and its like reading a barcode. Bleep, crap, move on. Cars, bikes, holidays, cutlery, food, TV, audio all assessed and categorized immediately. I look at people and I like to think I can read their characteristics like words in a stock ticker running through their veins. I try not to look at mine. I’m not sure I’d like what I see.
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