Free Wheelin'

It can be most frustrating and befuddling when you suddenly feel like you are lost.

This happens less frequently for most of us these days. The advent of Global Positioning Systems and ubiquitous smartphones keep us, more or less, vectoring in the right way.

Some of this is good, some not so good. I begrudgingly use my phone… it's more a camera that can talk and make phone calls than a phone that can take images. Personally, I think smartphones have wedged their way between people, couples, and marriages.

I have seen some follow Waze blindly – even when a quick glance at a map or road signs would clue them in on their folly.

Not that folly can be all bad. Some of my greatest rides have been when what we thought would be a route suddenly morphed into something different.

Over the years we have been blessed, some say cursed, with routing programs.

I am a BaseCamp kid. Sure, there may be some other mapping and routing programs out there, but I am familiar and very comfortable with Garmin’s BaseCamp, even if the Olathe, Kansas Company has given up on it. There are other riding friends who have never seemed to be able to wrap their minds on how this works.

To twist around a great break-up line (it’s not you, baby, it’s me) … 

In truth, it's not BaseCamp, baby… it’s you.

The routing system works, but how you apply and use it can differ. Some of us seem to have no issues with Garmin at all, and Basecamp Routing, like many things - piano, guitar, or motorcycle riding - is a perishable skill. I know if I have not made a route in a bit – let’s say during the winter - I need to run through it all in my mind as I go.

Sometimes routes have to be created with deftness and attention – especially when routing through bigger towns and cities.

Although some routes work out as planned, some do not. Closed roads, gravel where pavement seemed to be promised, construction and municipal rerouting can SNAFU the best-created routes.

Some riders seem to have an ease at route creating… if not the most adventurous road, ones that will get you to your destination in a safe and timely manner. These riders were and are solid with this – and most importantly they were happy to share.

I will speak of one particular rider, who, with his wife Diane, came on so many of our Backroads’ rallies and rides.

Paul was a GPS maven – always on the cutting edge of what was new, or about to be new, and was always happy to share that knowledge.

So many of our readers depended on Paul – usually to make pre-planned Backroads routes (made by yours truly) a bit more concise, easier, and with fewer surprises (or what I call, the Adventure part of Motorcycle, Travel & Adventure).

I would be far less than truthful if I didn't say this drove me a bit batty more than a few times… but like my brother, son, and some others in my inner circle, that I have a real fondness for, who does not make us batty at times?

But those of you who have been around our rallies for any amount of time knew that if they needed a route, Paul would be happy to create one for you.

He once told me it took him longer to create a .GPX route than to ride them sometimes. Me – 10… 15 minutes and done.

But maybe that’s why my routes went over Mount Yourgonnadie, and roads filled with angry natives and rabid dragons.

Paul rode his final ride west a few months back, and many of us are sure that if there is a better way into Heaven, Paul will certainly find it and send it our way.

So, in the future, when one of our routes goes sideways, and you stop and have to get your true bearings, you can think of Paul and give a silent nod to a wonderful man… and carry on, my wayward son.