Farewell Feelings

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No, I'm not giving up riding, and I'm not giving up writing about riding yet.  What I am talking about are the feelings you get when a ride is nearing its end, and your fellow riders are peeling off to go their separate ways. 

I don't ride in groups every often, but when I do, I many times don't want it to end.  Heck, there are many times when I am riding alone that I don't want it to end.  Just a couple of weeks ago, I met up with someone  I ran across on one of the motorcycle forums.  We rode up to and along the Blue Ridge Parkway and we hit it off pretty well.

He started riding about the same time I did, took the MSF Basic Rider Class like I did, is a conservative rider, a conservative in his politics, and he is a devout man. 

He is also a geek.  Not an engineer like me, but a computer guy.  We enjoyed our wide-ranging rest stop conversations quite a bit.

Our route is a familiar one I have ridden a couple of times before.  It is a good one for gawking at the scenery or to enjoy the experience of riding a good road: 

View Larger Map
For your reference, a brief description of key parts of the route:

• Between Pushpin B and Pushpin D is US-178 and US-215.  178 is quite twisty in places, 215 a bit less so.  
• Between Pushpin D and Pushpin F is the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The Parkway Headquarters and Visitor Center is located at Pushpin F.  

We are not riding very fast, and the new guy has not previously ridden on this section of the Parkway, so today we are enjoying the scenery.  

The road ahead -- a favorite view of the Parkway. 

Waiting bikes.
Blue Ridge Parkway, view of Looking Glass Rock from Log Hollow Overlook,
mile post 416.4
Photo by the new guy.

The route back along four-lanes is a bit boring, but when we get to SC-11, he needed to go a different direction to get home.  We stopped, shook hands, bid adieu, and departed, each going our separate way.  For a while after that I felt a degree of regret for it having ended so soon, even though we had been out for several hours.
 
Odd, it is, I think.  Here we are each riding a motorcycle -- a solitary pursuit -- yet the fellowship that developed in a very short time, caused me to feel a few moments of regret and sadness when it had to end.
 
This a apparently a fairly universal feeling.  

A blogger, GLanturn, who writes the Stay On the Gas Blog, and was living on Long Island way back in 2003 says:
 

I can`t believe what time it is, and how many hours have passed – it feels like I was just finishing my pancakes – and here we are, heading towards home. How I wish the day would just go on forever. Home. Yuck. We head down, thru the park, and wave off as [today's riding partner] Myko leaves us.  ...but when the group starts to break up, well, it feels like it is all over.

I have felt that -- just recently, in fact.  Have you?
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