July 18, 2008


The Motorcycle I Rode Halfway Across the Country

In this picture it’s 1970, and I had just turned 17.  The motorcycle is a Honda 450. I was 15 when I rode it from Dallas to California, through the southwest and into the northwest and back again.

posted by Daryl Scroggins in education, memory, travel, war 

comments

14 Responses to “The Motorcycle I Rode Halfway Across the Country”

  1. Deron Bauman on July 18th, 2008 at 7:59 pm

    goddamn, Daryl. That’s incredible on about fifteen different levels.

  2. Steven on July 18th, 2008 at 8:02 pm

    Oh wow, that picture’s a keeper! Look at you…all bad-ass with your motorcycle and John Lennon-esk glasses and hair cut! Don’t worry, that totally would have been my bag too, if only i was born about 40 years earlier. :P (I’m 13)

  3. Cindy Scroggins on July 18th, 2008 at 8:02 pm

    This makes me weak in the knees.

  4. Rick Neece on July 18th, 2008 at 8:38 pm

    In 70 words or so, by my reckoning, this story accumulates such power that I totally associate myself with it. I’ve done this. I haven’t done this. I wish I’d done this.

  5. Kris on July 18th, 2008 at 9:02 pm

    With Steppenwolf as the soundtrack in your head?

  6. Sheila Ryan on July 18th, 2008 at 9:06 pm

    Sometimes I wish I were a boy.

  7. Mike D. on July 18th, 2008 at 9:30 pm

    It’s a mixed bag, Sheila.

  8. Sheila Ryan on July 18th, 2008 at 9:45 pm

    That’s certainly been my experience.

  9. Daryl Scroggins on July 18th, 2008 at 10:26 pm

    Thanks everybody. And Kris–”Get your motor runnin / Get up on the highway….” I definitely had Steppenwolf playing in my mind through many a night ride. They didn’t have iPods then, or any portable music that would just play in your ear, but I was hearing it anyway. There’s nothing like the way, on a hot summer night, you cross a bridge over a river bottom and it gets all cool suddenly, with frog sound rushing over you, and then you think–damn it’s hot; might be a good time to go drink some beer.

  10. Brandon Hobson on July 18th, 2008 at 10:42 pm

    Daryl,
    Did you ever run out of gas?

  11. Michael Grant Smith on July 19th, 2008 at 6:27 am

    Thanks, Daryl, great picture. Purpose, pride, nobility, denim, and fine machinery.

    You’d better not think about going without Cindy next time out.

  12. Mary Jeys on July 19th, 2008 at 2:01 pm

    Huzzah! especially to the denim uniform. This looks like the DVD cover to a film about kicking ass across America. Congrats to the memorabilia.

  13. Michael Dougan on July 19th, 2008 at 6:49 pm

    So cool!

    I have similar pictures of myself on a Z650 but it was 1986.

  14. Daryl Scroggins on July 19th, 2008 at 7:45 pm

    Thanks again, Mary, and MGS and M Dougan. The bikes kept coming after the one pictured–a BSA 650 I bored to a 750 (my favorite) and then an electric start Harley Sporster I built–but, sad to say, in a way–machines don’t age in ways that can’t be fixed if it means enough to you to do so. Now the only thing that restores me is Cindy and Clusterflock friends; without them I would as soon see where rust takes a bolt when a universe gets hold of it.

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