It’s as if at a youthful and vulnerable age one will latch onto the meaning of something, and become it. Perhaps this is how we can see the growth of professions and we can see the success of the human expansion by way of how many professions there are. Cycling was the meaningful venture that I attached to. To be on two wheels, for life. That’s what the commitment seemed to entail; and in fact that is how it has played out. I committed to motocross first – my first two wheeled love, and then mtb and then road racing… or, that was the evolution of the career effort beginning in my teens; there was enough success to want to pursue it in accordance to the commitment. And then there was the culmination of Baja. That’s what it was. A culmination of my entire cycling experience/career/hobby. Proof alone to me of everything the bicycle can be – that it can be lived from, and eternally pedaled – Once Baja was over my desire to ride was satiated and even now, nearing three years since that journey, I do not ride for hobby at all. When I do ride, it is to run errands or go to work, and I do it at such a slow clunk pace that it seems all competitive nature is extinguished from my mind. Beyond the daily commute to the bike shop job, my investment in bicycles is as a mechanic.
That is where the meaning of a two wheeled life continues – at work. After Baja ended, I was adrift with only the inkling of U.S. format which is to work a 40 hour full time job per week and I knew bikes so my regression was as a bike mechanic, intentionally. So I saw the ad and I was an old college friend of Mike’s so I settled into Sedona for a while and worked at Thunder Mountain Bikes. Regarding the cultural nodes that can be apparent when participating in “Shop Life” it was nothing short of orgasimically MTB at Thunder Mountain Bikes. Mikey, Seth, James and so many others. Between the homies that had coalesced there with me and the long standing members of TMB in Sedona, it was one of the most sublime wrenching experiences of my life following a format of service to kooks on the daily, then maybe riding, then beers after work often, and time spent at the Sundowner, and time spent with humans I would grow to love. In this way TMB was a dream. Dreams are always short lived aren’t they?
I spent 3 seasons on the back lot of TMB living in my van and it was both paradise and homelessness and I wasn’t ready for the paranoia or sense of loss that I developed in response to it. I was ready to be home from Baja yet I had no home to return to, only the van. And during Baja, my mind was occupied to where I didn’t have to acknowledge the loss of home and possessions the year prior. In coming to park on the back lot of TMB, the feelings of failure began to validate. On one hand I was as free as I wanted to be (intent). On the other hand, I had nothing (foreseeable) and after a lifetime of chasing stuff and prosperity, to have given it all away and have only what was in my van struck a heavy chord in my soul. Meanwhile, I was just fine. I had a great job at a great shop. I could eat. And I could travel down to the Cottonwood Community Center for showers. I didn’t see it that way, however. I think of the placement/possessions as the issue, but that wasn’t it. I figured it would take some getting used to, but it went on for a while. Instead it was my take on the experience which precipitated a lack of strength for it. I left Sedona and TMB with gratitude after 9 months of vanlife on the backlot of the shop in search of something more permanent.
I spent the rest of the good season down on Dirty’s stronghold in Cochise. I pedaled a loop out to Tombstone and back through Gleason and sauntered through the Stronghold some. I thought about things, and I headed back down to Bahia de los Angeles in the van and camped out for a few weeks at Tony’. I was more at peace in Mexico. I did nothing. I walked the beach. I Pedaled into the pueblita for groceries. I took naps. I drank coffee and I made friends with others. It was an expansive siesta.
Time would pass. Savings would diminish. It was time to work again and so in this way after some months off again, I found the Alaska opportunity in much the same way as TMB and after so many years in the Southwest, and after Baja, I am slowly integrating into Shop Life in SE AK where I have been working for 1.5 years. Yes it is still an integration. The shop is more of a company and there is plenty of complexity to its operations. Also, in being here this long it must be proof that the scenario works in some way. It includes housing. From its foundation, I intend to wrench on bikes to deth, as Champagne Rodman would sometimes say, and I will discuss the life of a bicycle repairman.