MaxThePanda
Race Dog
I am just a lonesome cowboy
And I'm travelling all alone
I ain't even got a nickel
To call my baby on the phone
Just beyond the mountain lies a city
And I hear it calling me
Saddle up and ride you lonesome cowboy
Here is where you'll find your destiny
In my dreams the lights shine bright and pretty
Near to me and yet so far
Will I always be a lonesome cowboy
Am I only reaching for a star
Ride. Ride, ride, ride along cowboy
Sing, sing, sing, sing a song cowboy
Will I ever leave this lonesome valley
Really see the lights that shine
Gotta find what lies beyond the mountain
Gotta rope and tie that dream of mine
I am just a lonesome cowboy
And I'm travelling all alone
If you don't call me baby
Then I'm never coming home
It’s 1957, and a country boy dreams of a life-more-extraordinary in the big lights of the far-off city. At least that’s how he sung it, and he can sing it how he likes, coz Elvis is The King!
A king I ain't, but every boy can dream. And this city-slicker was dreaming of a different kind of escape… to a place far from the bright lights… the kind of place you can forget your own name.
2014 is going to be a year. I’ll be marrying my sweetheart, moving home, making some big work changes… and I felt the desert calling for some soul time. I’ve done solo bike journeys before - but always pretty much from here to there, with a cellphone for security, on relatively well-travelled roads. But this time felt different. I wanted out - far out - alone, under empty skies, with big horizons and wide open space. Luckily there’s a desert on my doorstep.
I’m normally a bit lazy with routing, but I wanted this to be different. A few hours on Google Earth meant it was after 8pm on Friday evening by the time I reached the Tankwa Padstal. And even though it was still quite light, nobody was home.
Perhaps it was an omen? This weekend was to be about solitude, reflection and self reliance, so why not start now? Plastic flying from the telephone poles fluttered like Nepalese prayer flags in the evening breeze and I said a few silent words to the spirit of the journey and headed a few miles up the main drag to the turning to my road less travelled.
![url]](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/57f/57fddcf0ce24efd103931162f42bd8cb)
There’s something very special about a first evening on the road. The deep air of possibility, the lifting of worries, the relaxing into the now, and the cares of past and future blowing away with the out-breath from my machine’s pipe. Just me and her, now.
![url]](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/3e5/3e5c272398f4ff940b539c252254af7e)
It got dark, so I pulled over and made camp. I left my tent at home… for me bike trips are about peeling away… all that security, comfort and refinement insulation of modern life… getting a little closer to the raw essence. Sleep in the dirt, cook on a fire, get cold and hot, enjoy thirst and hunger, and a tiredness that feels good to the bones.
![url]](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/230/23001d50ff291af49cdbf89b8c997e84)
And I'm travelling all alone
I ain't even got a nickel
To call my baby on the phone
Just beyond the mountain lies a city
And I hear it calling me
Saddle up and ride you lonesome cowboy
Here is where you'll find your destiny
In my dreams the lights shine bright and pretty
Near to me and yet so far
Will I always be a lonesome cowboy
Am I only reaching for a star
Ride. Ride, ride, ride along cowboy
Sing, sing, sing, sing a song cowboy
Will I ever leave this lonesome valley
Really see the lights that shine
Gotta find what lies beyond the mountain
Gotta rope and tie that dream of mine
I am just a lonesome cowboy
And I'm travelling all alone
If you don't call me baby
Then I'm never coming home
It’s 1957, and a country boy dreams of a life-more-extraordinary in the big lights of the far-off city. At least that’s how he sung it, and he can sing it how he likes, coz Elvis is The King!
A king I ain't, but every boy can dream. And this city-slicker was dreaming of a different kind of escape… to a place far from the bright lights… the kind of place you can forget your own name.
2014 is going to be a year. I’ll be marrying my sweetheart, moving home, making some big work changes… and I felt the desert calling for some soul time. I’ve done solo bike journeys before - but always pretty much from here to there, with a cellphone for security, on relatively well-travelled roads. But this time felt different. I wanted out - far out - alone, under empty skies, with big horizons and wide open space. Luckily there’s a desert on my doorstep.
I’m normally a bit lazy with routing, but I wanted this to be different. A few hours on Google Earth meant it was after 8pm on Friday evening by the time I reached the Tankwa Padstal. And even though it was still quite light, nobody was home.
Perhaps it was an omen? This weekend was to be about solitude, reflection and self reliance, so why not start now? Plastic flying from the telephone poles fluttered like Nepalese prayer flags in the evening breeze and I said a few silent words to the spirit of the journey and headed a few miles up the main drag to the turning to my road less travelled.
There’s something very special about a first evening on the road. The deep air of possibility, the lifting of worries, the relaxing into the now, and the cares of past and future blowing away with the out-breath from my machine’s pipe. Just me and her, now.
It got dark, so I pulled over and made camp. I left my tent at home… for me bike trips are about peeling away… all that security, comfort and refinement insulation of modern life… getting a little closer to the raw essence. Sleep in the dirt, cook on a fire, get cold and hot, enjoy thirst and hunger, and a tiredness that feels good to the bones.
