Living in the Past

 In my book Better Lucky Than Good I said, “You can’t live in the past, but sometimes you can visit there for a while.” The synopsis and advertising for Hangmen say that we lived in a time that cannot be recreated. But I think I was wrong on that, at least partially.

Do we want to relive the barfights and the shootings and stabbings and constantly going to jail? I don’t think so. (Unless you’ve watched too much Son’s of Anarchy).

However, you can still relive the good parts of the lifestyle. All you have to do is build yourself a chopper and throw on a sleeping bag to lean back on, or your favorite lady, and head off down the road to parts unknown.

The idea is just to go. Build, Ride and Go! That part of the lifestyle is entirely doable, and the good part is, you don’t have to worry about going to jail… Most of the time.

It surprises me how many people are doing this nowadays. Young people are building choppers and traveling. Attending that chopper rally last month I found it is bigger than I thought.

There are always hotel rooms along the way if you can afford them anymore. But camping in a National Forest is free, and dinner out of a can and maybe a six pack of beer would probably be cheaper that a Big Mac combo at McDonald’s during these days of mega-inflation.

Back then we thought it was bad when gas went up to $0.36 a gallon. We only brought a cheap cotton sleeping bag, and at the end the day, if you’re partying with friends, if you were lucky, you weren’t too drunk to climb into it.

Camping out, old school style

Luxury? What’s that?

Makeshift tent, a G.I. poncho, a stick and some bungee cords

Looking back, it’s funny how little we prepared for traveling, besides the sleeping bag and tools for the bikes, we just winged it. Certainly, there were no cell phones. To meet up with other chapters, we communicated by pay phones, calling someone at home that would relay messages. Somehow, we made it all work.

Inside a cave in Dinosaur National Monument, Utah

Nowadays, it makes more sense to bring a tent and an air mattress to go with that sleeping bag, and a small camp stove to heat some beef stew. At least some of these technological advances need not be ignored.

Even on trips where I plan to stay in motel rooms, I’m not a good planner, I don’t like to make reservations ahead because of all the reasons when traveling on a motorcycle, you may not make your planned destination that night, if you have one at all.  So, just in case you get to a town where the rooms are all taken, it’s good to have a backup, hence the tent and sleeping bag whether you’re planning to use them or not.

So, what are you waiting for? You can still relive part of the old days, the best part in fact. The open highways and those free campgrounds are waiting for you.