Life in Motion with Rodney Myers and his motorcycle

Originally Published in Southeastern Rider Magazine, January 2017 First off, let me get one thing straight, I’m a big boy, so I don’t need anyone’s permission to hop in the saddle and go for ride. However, I should mention that I do invite my favorite riding partner just to keep calm in the house. It’s the sensible thing to do. I’m still in my honeymoon phase with North Carolina, we moved from Indiana in June of 2015. Even though I was a lifelong resident of the Hoosier State, and new plenty of great destinations to ride, finding ideas for new places was always on my radar. State Parks and Covered Bridges were always great place to ride and discover new strips of asphalt. With that in mind, I have ventured to the Pisgah Covered Bridge, so Kasey, the aforementioned riding partner, and I decided to head out and discover the area of North Carolina that had been decided were picturesque enough to be set aside as state parks. The 2017 North Carolina State Parks Passport. A revisio...

Originally Published in Southeastern Rider Magazine, December 2016 I have been around long enough, and done several different things long enough to know that if you something for a while great stories emerge. Like the time Kasey, my favorite riding partner, and I were riding in Illinois and came upon the town of Chittyville. Here are a few more of the strange sightings I have seen from the saddle. Let’s start with animals. I’m sure we have all had our own encounters with wildlife on the road. Here is my elephant on the road. On trip from Indianapolis to Fayetteville, Arkansas, the sightseeing got started early. Just off the road, perched up on the hill was an African Elephant. The gray beast stood tall. We were in no harm, as the Indianapolis Zoo had designed for this happen. Wasn’t my first time seeing an elephant up on that hill, but since I had a couple of guys from out of town riding along, I had to make sure to point it out. Considering that a squirrel got scalped, this...

Originally Published in Southeastern Rider Magazine, November 2016 Most of us that ride a motorcycle look at it as an activity done in solitude.   Even if you ride with someone else on their own bike, you couldn’t talk to them except when you stopped. Got a partner on the pillion? You would have to yell and fight the wind to hear the voice. Intercoms and Bluetooth has changed all that, so choosing a riding partner has become more important. Here is my history with riding partners. The first person I shared riding with was probably my father, while he was teaching me to ride. The practice I got after that came from making ruts in my parent’s yard with my brother.   He had a few years experience on me, five years my senior, and like a lot of things when you are young, you don’t get to pick who you do it with. Age brought the usual divides; he entered his teenage years, and I was just an anchor. Once he got his driver’s license, the law forbid me from following him. By th...

Originally Published in Southeastern Rider Magazine, October 2016 We were all taught in Geometry Class that three points make a plane.   As a video production professional, I used this principle every time I set up a camera...on a tripod. Three points give you stability, but do you always want stability? Isn’t really living about being off balance, leaning into the wind and turns? Those are probably questions we each have to answer for ourselves. With age, those answers can change. With that in mind, my favorite riding partner, Kasey, and I were about to head east for about 100 miles to take a different kind of ride. We can’t imagine traveling without our knees in the breeze. We also know that as those knees get older, they may grow to the point were they can’t hold up a motorcycle. A few weeks earlier, I had seen on social media that a dealership in Fayetteville, North Carolina was having a day of demonstration rides on the Can Am Spyder. This three wheeler has become very...

Originally Published in Southeastern Rider Magazine, September 2016 There are times when you throw your leg over the saddle, and know you’re about to make some great memories. You may know that you are about to witness breath taking scenery. Perhaps it’s a ribbon of asphalt with curves that boost your pride with each one you carve up. Sometimes, I have rides not because of what I have seen, but because I felt one with the machine, the road, and the nature surrounding me. There are times when I’m planning a ride, and I know I’m about to create imprints that will be on my mind for a long time. This is about such a ride, a Ride for Remembrance. It all started when my brother and I were planning the rides for Gathering of Eagles, Cruiser Club USA’s annual get together, which was to be held in Mineral Wells, West Virginia. I had the idea for one of the event’s rides, however, it would be a journey. The destination would be the Flight 93 Memorial in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. ...

Saturday, August 27th, 2016 It is time to head out and earn another North Carolina State Park Passport. This time we are headed west to South Mountain State Park. Before the ride, we needed to fuel up ourselves, and that would start at a Wayside Restaurant. While we have discovered there is more than one eatery with this marque, we have also discovered that they are not created equal. Even though one would be on our way, we decided to head for the one in Stanfield, that just makes better food. For us, we were getting a pretty early start, as we had some ambitious miles in ahead of us today. Some of the hardest would be the first, running up Highway 200 to Highway 601, and then turning west to get passed Charlotte. State Road 73 would be the asphalt that would pass underneath us for quite some time. As we passed over Lake Norman, the cool air from on top of the water mixed with the warm air the sun was providing. At Lincolnton we moved on to State Road 182, and that would carry...

Sunday, August 7th, 2016 Not just any day, but this is my birthday - 48 years young/old, however you want to call it. Since I was about to embark on a day of miles on my motorcycle with my favorite riding partner, I will say young. Maybe immature might be a better descriptor. The mid-morning started out with the sky broken up with clouds, but the temperatures were good. There was a slight chance for liquid to fall from the sky, but we had hopes for the best. We met T-Bo at the Sunoco, and then headed out of Locust, North Carolina using Bethel Church and Coley Store Roads. At Mission Church we ran passed Running Creek Church, and then headed north for Millingport. We would this road through the town of the same name, and into Richfield. We veered off onto SR 49, and headed north and east. We stayed on the State Road, crossing the Yadkin River and then entering the Uwharrie National Forest. On the eastern edge of the National Forest, we turned right onto Slate Mine Road. The woo...