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It's The Destination, Stupid
by Dale Brown, 2007

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT TheBigFiveOh.com Blog @ Yahoo.Com, Wednesday May 2, 2007

I had the most Epic motorcycle ride last week: 4 hours from Lake Tahoe, Nevada to San Mateo, California, with a single fuel stop in Rocklin, California. Next day: 8 incredible hours riding from San Mateo to San Luis Obispo, California via Highway 1 along the California coast, including stops in Carmel, Cambria, San Simeon, Cayucos (do not miss the Old Cayucos Tavern and Card Room!), and Morro Bay, then overnight in San Luis Obispo (do not miss the farmer's market every Thursday evening).

The third day started out fairly early. Lisa, one of our riders, wanted to do the "Sideways" winery tour. We embark on an incredible 12-hour run (but less than 200 miles) including wine tastings at several of the "Sideways" wineries between San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara, including Fess Parker, Talley, and Cambria. The evening was topped off with dinner at the excellent Hitching Post II Restaurant in Solvang, CA (where Miles meets Maya in the movie). Tip: don't show up at the Hitching Post unless you're hungry! It was an easy 30-minute ride in early darkness from Solvang to Santa Barbara.

I am a wine guy, but I'm not a fan of Chardonnays and Pinot Noir. The Santa Maria-Santa Barbara areas are warm during grape growing season and therefore are not known for rich reds. I am a Cabernet Sauvignon, rich Merlot, and Bordeaux guy, and the weak-ass whites and pale reds started to wear on me. After 3 wineries, I'm tired of tasting stuff I don't like (the only exception: the 2002 Bishop's Peak Cabernet at Talley Vineyards was great). Maybe I was being a party-pooper, but I'd had enough fairly early.

The plan for Saturday was to hit a few more wineries on Highway 154 on the way north, intercept US-101 around Los Olivos, maybe visit a few missions, then head back to San Mateo. I cringed at the idea of struggling through more wine tastings, so I announced that I was heading back to Tahoe Saturday morning. The announcement apparently triggered something, because our "Wild Hogs" posse of five riders suddenly became all solos.

I hated to abandon my friend Michael--never leave your wingman, right?--but all of a sudden I wanted to get home, and I blasted off early Saturday morning. I took US-101 south to Ventura, Highway-126 east to Santa Clarita, Interstate-5 to Mettler, Highway-99 to Sacramento, Interstate-80 to Truckee, Highway-267 to Kings Beach, then Highway-28 home. Almost nine hours total riding time from Santa Barbara, with only three fuel stops. Total trip was 1,250 miles in 4 days; the longest was the 500 miles from Santa Barbara to Lake Tahoe.

So why did I want to cut this trip short and do a long hard cruise back home instead of a leisurely two-day drive through the Bay area? Was it just because I don't like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay? Was it because I was psychic and knew that a tanker truck was going to crash in the I-80/I-580/I-980 interchange early Sunday morning and snarl Bay area traffic, probably for months?

The old saying goes "It's not the destination that's important, but the journey," but that's not true for me. I need a destination. Highway-1 through Big Sur was beautiful, but on a motorcycle you're too busy negotiating the tight, steep curves and narrow lanes to look up and enjoy it. The Santa Maria and Santa Barbara wine country are beautiful too, but for me wine is something to sit down and relax with--it's no fun to enjoy a nice taste of wine and then hop on a motorcycle and drive, and doubly so when you repeat the process several times in one afternoon.

The same is true for flying. I do a lot of pilot-proficiency flights to stay sharp and current, but I do those because I have to and because I have nowhere else to go. I don't particularly like "dancing the skies on laughter-silvered wings," as in the poem "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. For me, flying, like riding a motorcycle, is not a purely "fun" activity in the normal sense of the word. It is a challenging skill that takes study, training, and practice. That appeals to me more than the sense of "freedom" and the "wind in your hair" ideal. It is also a fast, convenient mode of transportation.

Might sound a little boring or anal to you, but in any endeavor, everyone gets something different out of every experience. I was happier accomplishing the trip than taking the trip itself. I enjoyed the fact that I rode twelve hundred miles in 4 days in a wide variety of conditions and roads than what I saw or what I did during those four days. After safely and successfully reaching the first planned destinations--San Mateo, San Luis Obispo, then Santa Barbara--the only way I was going to feel good about the whole experience was reaching the last destination: home.

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