Senioritis is an ugly thing

BikerDude is gearing up for his last push. Graduation is May 17 on Long Island, but he will still have to finish his last three classes-- simultaneously. The deal was that he could walk in May graduation if he finished his remaining classes by July, and he will meet that deadline, but the most he's ever taken at a time up until now is two, so he's going to have to work hard to finish out undergrad life. That seems appropriate. After that, he will have the entire months of July and August off before he starts grad school at BTSR in the fall.

Remember Senioritis? That blissful illness that befalls those about to graduate, when the end of the race is in sight, you know you only have to pass your finals, turn in your last English essay and try not to blow up the school with your chemistry final and then-- FREEDOM!!

Multiply that by about 10 and you get where BikerDude is right now.

He's been working full-time and going to school full time for four years now. He's still looking at four years of grad school, but that is going to be very different-- sort of like senior year after you had gotten all of your acceptance and rejection letters and knew where you'd be going to college in the fall. In fact, along with his formal acceptance letter into BTSR, he was given a grant for having one of the highest GPAs of the incoming class (he will be graduating Summa Cum Laude), but I have reminded him that he still has to actually finish the classes! He will, but he has been spending a lot of time recently daydreaming.

He is specifically daydreaming about his ultimate graduation present. When he graduates from grad school in four years, he wants us to take a month-long cross-country bike trip. For this, we will need, as best as I can tell, a camper and most likely a new bike. Or a second bike.

The camper is easy. There are these super-cool little pop-ups that can be towed by a motorcycle. I grew up camping in a pop-up camper, and I think this sounds fabulous!



Cute!

As for the second bike, he has determined that we either need to seriously upgrade his current bike or, better yet, buy a bigger one. If you have ever known a biker, you know that one can never own too many bikes. This is his current bike:




This is the one he wants to upgrade to:



Undeniably more comfy-- a rolling Barca Lounger, one might even say. Not that I'm complaining!

The other plan would be for me to get my Piaggio MP3, get comfortable enough riding it to be able and willing to ride it across the country, and for him to take his old bike and us to ride in tandem. I'm thinking that the Barca Lounger has better odds, all things considered.

Anyway, he's got the routes all planned, right down to calculating gas station/rest stops along the way (important for cross-country biking, where you are unlikely to get more than about 100 mile on a tank of gas). We will, apparently, be iron-butting it directly to Denver before the more leisurely aspect of the vacation will kick in, where we will then spend about three weeks touring through the Rockies and the western national parks: Zion, Yosimite, the Grand Canyon, etc. We'll end up in the South Dakota badlands and head home via a more northern route.

This is all fun, but about those final classes...?

Dreaming

BikerDude is talking about plans for a cross-country bike trip when he finishes seminary in 4-5 years. When he was younger and stupider and living in Southern California, he used to take off with his friends for a couple of weeks at a time and ride their bikes up the West Coast, through Canada, through most of the Western national parks, and all around. He hasn't done any long-distance biking since he's been here in the East, but he still goes out on weekends, sometimes with his daughter MonkeyChild, sometimes by himself, but so far not so much with me because we need to modify the bike before I can ride long distances.

Motorcycle passenger seats were clearly designed for women (and it is always women) who are not, shall we say, of my proportions. I am WAY too tall and WAY too heavy for what they have in mind! The way the pegs are positioned, I end up riding in a position that I rarely assume outside of an OB/GYN exam, which is not one that I intend to maintain for hours at a time. On top of that, I have a bone spur behind my left knee cap which makes bending my knee painful in any event. The problem is that in order to lower the passenger foot pegs (and preferably replace them with foot boards), we have to replace the exhaust pipes with ones that run lower along the frame.

One of the things I have learned in being married to a biker is that asking a biker to modify their bike is like asking 21 year old bride whether to serve the crab cakes at her reception with cocktail or remoulade sauce. Everything is drama! You can't just replace the exhaust pipes because the lower pipes now make the saddle bags look out of proportion, so now we must shop for saddle bags. And if we're going to get new saddle bags, there's no reason not to go whole hog (Hah! See what I did there?) and get a new seat. And really, wouldn't the whole thing look better with a ferring? Then we could install a stereo w/ CD/MP3 player, and how cool would that be??!!

So, anyway, three years later, still no footboards for me.

I did take a motorcycle safety course to see if I could learn to ride, too. Turns out that I can't. When you wreck-- twice-- in the safety class, they are reluctant to pass you. Go figure.

So I'm looking into the Piaggio MP3 scooter:


Note the two front wheels. This is a serious asset.