Night

It was one of those evenings where you are not sure if you need a jacket or not, and it would be that way through out the ride, sometimes wishing you did and others glad you didn't.

The constant thrum, that V-twin just chugging along, both cylinders firing at a constant rate, not one of haste or craziness, not one of no place to go and not caring when you get there, just a constant melodic tone, a tone you feel in the bars, you feel in the pegs and you feel in your soul. 

On the road by yourself, cruising along, the pavement passing below at a smooth pace, residential neighborhoods pass by with the smell of fresh cut grass and the stars hang above you lighting up the night sky like a window to other worlds. The air is cool and wraps around you, cool but comfortable as you dip down a hill and cross a cove with the smell of salt air and marsh grass, the engine churns. The bike climbs back up hill, rolling and climbing through curves, the forest wraps you up inside, the stars are blocked away and the smells of wet leaves lying deep in the dark of the forest awakes you to the natural world around you. Pine needles and leaves lying where they fell, year upon year, holding moisture, sprouting life. The smell of the earth continues it's hold as the pavement unfolds before you, small stretches, illuminated by the glow of your headlight, then snatched away as you climb a hill only to light up again as you drop down the other side, the engine thrums on. You pass through an area where you wish you had a jacket, the chill night air assaults your skin, then you roll into an area which has warm soft air, through corners, over hills, the thrum of the engine carries you along.  Moths and Millers flick into view in the headlight only to disappear again into the night, the smell of fields and pastures as you cruise past farms, or farms that once were. The sky is open wide above you and the smells of straw and fresh cut hay, a horse farm, a dairy farm then back into the darkness of trees as the forest again closes around you and the melodic song of the engine continues. 

On this night you can ride and ride, it seems forever, wrapped within the world, under a blanket of stars and the thrum continues. Ponds pass by, as do lakes, streams and brooks, each with it's own smells that call to you, they call with the lure of natural things, and smells that come back to you from when you were a kid. When you were a kid, back when 6 weeks seemed an eternity and Summer seemed to last forever, the engine noise is like a wave, carrying you on into the night....ride, and keep riding, there is no tomorrow, there was no today, there is only now... and...it goes on forever.