Sunday was a bit of a somber day for me. A close friend of mine who is dying from stage 4 lung cancer left early that morning for her hometown in North Carolina to be near her children when she finally passes. Saturday had been spent helping her and some other friends of hers get her apartment cleared out and cleaned up and ready for her move and the night before that had been spent celebrating her life and friendship at one of her old haunts.
Thoughts and memories were weighing heavily on my mind and heart so I set out that afternoon on one of the best cure-all activities I know: a motorcycle ride.
I rolled out my Royal Enfield and brought my Amazon player up on my phone and selected the soundtrack for my excursion. The sound or Flogging Molly's lead singer's voice filled my world with "If I Ever Leave This World Alive" and I kicked the 500cc single to life.
It had been a minute or two since I had ridden her so the caf style bars took a little getting used to again. The engine loped along steadily as I rounded the curve in my street that sits just past my house. I throttled through the apex of the curve and out to the stop sign at the end of the road. Down the hill and around up through town I rolled and went on up through town making my way for Z Highway. I throttled over the Spur and down the Old Route and on up to where it widens to four lanes and back down to two. Where 66 runs in to J Highway I turned right and then left onto Missouri P.
Missouri seems to be hit or miss with fall colors. Some years the leaves are great, others it seems like they start to change and then the next thing you know they have fallen from the limbs and have been scattered by the autumn wind. The road to Newburg is one of those roads where you can really enjoy the scenery and take in a lot in a relatively short distance. If you only have a couple of hours that are actually available for ride time, it’s just about perfect. The twisties and turnies coupled with the view are nice enough to keep a more experienced rider interested and more than adequate to push an inexperienced rider to develop their skill but not to the point that they are overwhelmed. Shortly after turning onto Highway P the trees began to stretch up and out over the road, the light from the late October afternoon sun filtering it’s way to the pavement in pools and pinpoints in the shade that spread over the road. I stopped as scenery caught my eye and tried to snap the best photos I could manage with my cell phone’s camera. 
I finally reached my destination of Newburg when Highway P intersects with T Highway and after turning left on to T Highway just inside the city limits I pulled off the road and down to a camping and picnic like area that is situated below the bridge that crosses the Little Piney Creek which flows just outside the town on its way to the Gasconade River. I situated the bike in a decent location and snapped a few more photos before heading into Newburg itself. I crossed over the set of train tracks at the town’s entrance and eased my way through the town with the speed limit jumping from 25 to 35 just after the turn by the old brick plant. I made my way out of the town proper and throttled up to 47mph once the 45mph speed limit sign was in clear visual range. I throttled up just in time to be tagged by a Newburg police officer who was parked in a speed trap 50 to 75 meters or so prior to the sign’s physical location. The officer followed me for some time and then finally decided to flip on his lights.
No ticket, just a warning.
We had a nice little chat about addresses on drivers licenses and where my Enfield was made and other small talk topics and then he was kind enough to shoot me with the radar to see just how far off the notoriously inaccurate Enfield speedometer was off. Mine reads three to five mph higher in the 35-40mph range. Good info to know! We shook hands and said goodbye and I headed home. The ride home was an uneventful one. I stopped and snapped a few more pictures in the fading light of the day and swung into the diner for a quick bite and then stopped my favorite little Japanese place for some tea and conversation before heading home. 
The ride was a nice clearing of the head. Rides always do that for me. My thoughts stop racing and it’s a bit easier to focus on one thing at a time. It gave me a chance to look back over the time I was able to enjoy with my friend before she started getting to bad off to be able to really get out and do things. It’s good to be able to do that. Sometimes it’s too easy to get wrapped up in everything negative that is happening or has happened and miss the really important positive things. Life is short. Sometimes it’s too short and bad shit happens to good people who don’t deserve it, and a good person shouldn’t have to waste away like I have witnessed since January.
Somehow you have to make peace with it all and find a balance otherwise you’re gonna drive yourself crazy.
Keep the shiny side up. ~JP 
