I am sitting at my favorite watering hole having a morning cup of Joe, lamenting the rain. We have had plenty this year already. However, I remember years where I prayed for it to rain just once.

I am lamenting it because I took today and tomorrow off to do a Texas Hill Country ride. Mainly because I needed some saddle time, secondarily, because I turn 54 today, and thirdarily (my word), because ….well, the picture above.

Look at that and tell me you don’t want to come along.

Yea, you can see that sunrise from your car too, but I would argue that you do not experience it the way a biker does. We are literally riding into the day, watching it unfold around us. The sky brightens, the air warms and everything begins to welcome another beautiful day.

This is the lure, the draw of riding.

I have said before that the experience of riding is something that gets in your blood. It permeates your being and becomes part of you.

Yes, for those who ask, there is an inherent danger, especially in the day of the cell phone. I am close to not riding in town much due to this ever growing danger.

On that point as I sit here writing I see the people around me all head down in their phones. We are living our lives from the screen in front of us and no longer from the world around us.

This saddens me greatly. It is why when I am not doing my job, I tend to use pencil and paper to write. I want to get out of the electronic more and more as we devolve more and more into our electronic lives.

This too is why my bikes do not have radios or other electronic gadgetry.

I recently almost traded up to a new bike. I was ready. My BMW is twenty years old and has over 70,000 miles on it. I went and rode the new versions of the bike I own. They were fantastic. Light, much lighter than mine, fast, nimble and festooned with all form of electronics. Cables are yesterday, everything is fly by wire (which ironically means electronic wire not cable wire). Thus, there is very little breakage…unless you have an electrical or computer issue.

I guess I am getting to be too old school. Even being from the computer industry, I don’t trust it. Probably too many “Blue screens of death” (if you are old you know what these are). I like my trusty cables. They can be repaired on the side of the road. Electronics not as much.

I don’t want to have to hook my bikes to my laptop to diagnose a problem. I want to dig into them and find the problem.

So I stepped back and asked myself; Do I really need this electronic wonder?

The answer was no. I would keep my trusty old steed and the other trusty old steeds in my garage. I know them, they have taken me just about everywhere. We have history, they are manageable.

As I have written many times there is character and value in those things that don’t do everything for you. Those things that require some input from you. We have increasingly become a “do it for me” society and our technology has obliged. To the point where we have become, in my opinion, weaker.

So I continue to ride my old bikes and strive to keep up my old stuff, loving them more because (like me) their age requires a bit more care. They are tough and work well but I must acknowledge that they, like me, will require a bit more upkeep. But isn’t the working at it part of what keeps us well oiled and functioning?

So look at that picture. Consider where you are and what is consuming your vision. I can assure you that that sunrise looks better in person than on your screen.

Tell me you don’t want to…