Fast-forward 30 years: I’m eating dinner
at 30,000 feet in a 600-mph metal bird heading for London, my 12 year old son Patrick by my side as I contemplate the 2013 BMW R 1200 GS that awaits our arrival. A machine that on a physical level will take us along the roads and lanes of England, Scotland and Wales, but one I suspect that will take me deep into the memories of my formative two-wheeled years, as I watch the country of my birth come to life in the reflection from my son’s eyes. Soon to turn 13 years old, his ever- quickening march to manhood is matched only by his continually changing view of life, and I’m intrinsically aware it could be the last time we have a chance to do this before I become completely boring. A father’s job is to prepare a son, not to need him, though, and riding into my history while creating his in what has become modern England will be another part of that process as he helps with the electron- ics, photography and navigation. They sure are making kids a lot smarter than we were growing up. I wonder how differently the two of us
will view the passing scenes from the seat of our BMW. Like my old Moto Guzzi, it still has two big cylinders and rolls on two wheels, but the person who left England wrote airmail letters, used phones attached to the wall and had only two TV channels to watch. We are riding on electronic sus- pension with fly-by-wire throttle and power brakes; our phone works anywhere
Neale with Author Shelby Tucker.
in the world, Google has replaced a bicycle ride to the library, and nobody lifts choke levers or adjusts points anymore. Somehow all these changes have arrived, been inte- grated and become the new normal. What will be left of my memories? An ever- shrinking collection of random thoughts, color-tinted now like an old restored black- and-white movie. Defying gravity and trav- eling through time somewhere over Greenland,
they mix together in a con- fused, congealed blob of thoughts that are
going to take some long days in the saddle to dissect. London is a foreign place to me now: a
multiracial, multicultural, multi-story, fast- paced,
jam-packed, bumper-to-bumper
city. As we slide out of town, the country of my birth comes back, and thankfully our Polish driver taking us to the dealer in Guildford isn’t jet-lagged and knows what side of the road to be on. Our GS is waiting, and we quickly work out a system for our luggage, mount up, and head for Oxford
Our R 1200 GS outside my sister's home in Houston, Scotland.
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BMW OWNERS NEWS April 2016
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