Sometimes the most memorable moments come from a change of plans.
What kind of traveler are you? Are you the kind of person who likes to plan everything down to the minute, or do you just prefer to go with the flow, maybe with a vague destination in mind, and see what happens on the way?
I realize that in some cases, you don’t have a choice. Most of us have time limits, because we only have so much time off. Maybe we have a hard deadline or appointment or meetup that we have to get to by a certain time.
That stuff is usually super stressful. It’s very easy to carry that stressed out attitude over into the time that’s supposed to be just for us. Where do you draw the line between pushing yourself so you get to where you need to be on time, and also not losing your mind over a road closure or a washed out road or too many people who decided to do the same thing that you did because it’s Memorial Day weekend?
That’s a thing that Amanda Zito, who makes travel and motorcycle camping videos on YouTube under the channel name As the Magpie Flies, has a good handle on. Because she travels by bike a lot, she’s learned how to laugh, reroute, and just go a different way when she runs into something she can’t ride through. It’s kind of a moto-metaphor, in a way.
It’s an admirable sort of energy to have, both in life and also as we roll deeper into the holiday season. It’s a stressful time of year for many, and things definitely don’t always go according to plan, whether you’re on a bike or not. The question you have to ask yourself is, are you going to yell about it? Or are you going to find the funny, dust yourself off, and go eat a delicious slice of pie? State of mind is everything, both on the bike and off.
Here’s hoping you have a wonderful time with the people who are most important to you, reroutes, detours, and all. Maybe you can pull up this video and introduce someone new to the concept of chill motocamping out in nature.
