Leaving Cambridge

on motorcycle, for a month

I kicked my motorcycle into first gear and let the clutch out and rolled down from the sidewalk into the street and peeled out, leaving Clara alone on my, well, our, doorstep.

My eyes were misty under the sunglasses, but the warm dry air of a beautiful sunny afternoon dried them out as soon as I hit a trafficless Memorial Drive.

It’s hard to say goodbye to the love of your life. As I drive off I thought of all the cute sappy time I would miss – but there’s many fewer chances to cross the country by motorcycle than there are to have cute sappy time together. This is now or never, that is not now but forever.

I was headed west. The end goal is my hometown, south of San Francisco. But today’s goal is more modest - just a brief jaunt to the western edge of Massachusetts. I’m particularly aiming for a campsite at the Quabbin reservoir. The stretch goal, if I feel up for it, is to head further, and meet up with the Northeast Backcountry Discovery Route.

As I rode off, I was following the path of my first ever motorcycle ride. I rode down MA-117, taking in the ponds and the woods and the flowers in front of the houses, so brilliantly bright in the afternoon sun. My first ride here was on a cold and overcast day in October. The contrast with a sunny May day is immense. The contrast between having a rental that has to be returned in 24 hours and owning a motorcycle that will take me across the country is even bigger.

I passed the point where I got a flat last week. No incident. I remembered Clara coming with a new tube for my tire, after I botched the first repair job, leaving me tubeless and stranded. Thinking about that, I had to pull over for a second, because my eyes were watering. Let’s say it was road debris, or dust, or something.

I kept riding, leaving the greater Boston metro area behind, the forests holding fewer and fewer houses, the green forest more and more wild. But this is Massachusetts, so still not that wild.

I felt cold water on my back and I remembered my last camelbak splitting open while I was motorcycling, drenching me and leaving me thirsty until the next gas station. I was concerned. I pulled over. My camelback was fine. My back had just started to sweat a little. Gross. When I starting riding again, I leaned forward a bit, the backpack moved up, and the sweat started to evaporate.

I rode through Northampton. I wondered if the students at Smith would be protesting. They were, two dozen or so waving signs in the center of a roundabout. Fortunately for me, they weren’t blocking traffic, so I carried on.

I plugged my phone in and it flashed an error message, refusing to charge. I was concerned. Being unable to charge my phone would have put a major damper on my trip, and tethered me to society. Although I suppose needing gasoline every 240 miles is already a pretty short leash. I unplugged and plugged it back in a few times, and eventually the phone realized it was supposed to be receiving charge, not trying to charge the motorcycle.

I wove through the Federated Women’s Club State Forest, beautiful roads in dense forest, a Massachusetts special. Mass does have some natural beauty, even though it’s easy to forget that in eastern Mass where it’s mostly roads and houses and road cuts.

I had been hearing a rattling from the front all day, which was confusing to me because the front doesn’t have all that much to rattle. After a particularly bumpy and rattly set of potholes, I pulled over to have a look. Nothing was obviously wrong, but I was drawn to the fairing and absentmindedly twisted a screw. It had a ton of play, in fact, it was half undone. I tightened the rest of the screws finger tight, because I couldn’t be fucked to get out the tools to do it properly. Two hours later, they had rattled loose again, and I redid them finger tight, again. Fortunately all three made it to camp, where I got the tools out and screwed them in tight. Hopefully that problem won’t reoccur.

Many little things went awry but all of them were easily recovered. Today was all pavement and a bit drab, but tomorrow should be quite a bit more exciting.