We bought a motorcycle. A real, big, fast motorcycle no less.
After going to one shop, looking at only a handful of bikes, we put a deposit down on the one we thought (hoped, prayed) could take us from San Francisco to Key West all the way down in Florida. A distance of about 5,500 miles (after all the zig-zagging around to see different things).
The bike of choice? A glowing white 2014 Suzuki V-Strom 650 with just under 3,000 miles (see Luke's first ride above). The only negative was an ugly Punisher sticker on the front - which we quickly replaced with one of a pine tree.
Jumping in head first like this was not new for the two of us. A month before our lease ended on the first apartment we lived in together, we decided to forgo getting a new apartment and instead bought a van off of Craigslist for $3,400.
But a motorcycle is not a van. A motorcycle is all sorts of dangerous (as everyone kept reminding us). Motorcycles scream UNSAFE. It didn't help that Luke, the designated driver, had maybe 1,000 miles of motorcycle experience under his belt (most of which was done using a small moped). But that didn't stop us from just going for it (as usual...).
Jump forward one month later and all of our stuff is packed, our last days of work are a week away and we are finally trying out the new bike. First stop SAN FRANCISCO!
No joke. First ride was 1) on a major, super fast freeway 2) in the dark 3) into a major metropolitan area. Sorry mom. In the end it wasn't too bad. Plus, after that first nerve-inducing ride all others seemed like a walk in the park (a very windy park).
While I am sure most of our friends and family would have liked it better if we just stuck with the van and NOT bought a motorcycle, after a few hundred miles on the back of Shadowfax - as we have deemed her - we couldn't imagine any other form of transportation.
The wind, the cold, the intense feeling of the different landscapes. Riding a motorcycle puts you in the thick of it - you are a focal piece of the story, not just an audience member like you would be hiding behind the windows of a car.
We don't know how long we will be on Shadowfax, we don't know if we have officially converted to being motorcyclists. What we do know is that the decision to buy a motorcycle was not one we regret. Sometimes you just have to dive in head first and see where it goes. And for us, it seems to be going pretty great.