Eleanor at 200,000 miles. It's complicated.

Well, it happened. Finally.

On February 5, 2018, Eleanor, my 2007 Yamaha FJR1300, reached another milestone in its journeys on the paved roadways of this world. Hitting any mileage mark at any point is an accomplishment, but when it's something that only happens every hundred thousand miles, it's a moment that will be hard to replicate again for a long time and with another motorcycle.

Unfortunately, the celebration was a bit short-lived. On the morning of February 7th, Eleanor was sidelined on my way to work due to a hydraulic fluid leak, preventing me from using my clutch and halting her progress at 200,087 miles on the odometer. As result, she was towed back to my regular mechanic, which at the time of the publishing of this post, she has remained. Originally, I was planning to drop her off for a full valve adjustment as part of major service. To add to the fun, I had the luck of being caught behind a major backlog of repair jobs in front of mine, and two of them were complete engine rebuilds! However, the end of this nearly three-month wait for her return to her parking spot at my house is imminent, and I look forward to putting miles back on her.

It has seemed like an eternity without her here, further compounded with what had transpired in between then and now in both my personal and professional world. These last several months have been a series of transitions from one chapter of my life to another. In some ways, I am glad that Eleanor wasn't with me to witness many of these moments as they just seemed to pile up in an overwhelming succession. Still though, even with one of my most beloved companions down for the count, it has allowed me to recollect and reflect on moving forward and onto greater things. Hell, even returning to even write this is an accomplishment in itself. I would attribute that to special moments that have helped me find clarity and safety to refresh and reload, and for that, I will be forever grateful.

My new reality is not unfamiliar, but aspects of it are in places that I had hoped to not revisit again. But now, I look at these new scenarios with a different set of eyes and a much larger sense of hope. What is clear now is that I am meant for something else and that I am deserving of so much more than what has been dealt to me. Regardless of what the future holds in the next several months, I will be more than okay.

I will end this post with the beginning "ramble test" episode of my vlog that I had filmed with my GoPro on the way to Silverado, CA, on February 4. This was the day before Eleanor's odometer flipped and shot with her windshield actually wiped down properly. My plan is to start doing these as a series with a more structured outline of discussion, but it'll be a little while until I can revisit this side project. Anyway, enjoy.