I am forever indebted to most – if not all – of the people that I meet on the road. Those who bother to walk up and chat almost always have kind words to say. I have time for such people, especially those older, the ones with the stories to tell.

They speak of where they’ve traveled to on their motorcycles, or how they met their girlfriend or wife or husband on a motorcycle, how they had to sell it when they got married and the children started coming along or a bill came due that just had to be paid.

I owe an even greater debt of gratitude to those I meet and get to spend some time getting to know over a day or a week or months at a time. For these are the people that I want to spend time with.

These are the people that I am afraid of boring to death, those that I see on a regular basis, while sharing meals, running errands, going to movies. Aren’t those the mundane things in life that I have been trying to escape?

Or are they?

There is much to be said for routine.

I’ve enjoyed it here, but I fear my routine is coming to an end. In a few days I’ll give notice to my landlord for the end of June. Already I’m putting things in boxes and getting rid of stuff collected over six routine-filled years.

Happy years, for the most part.

I really don’t want to go.