I have to share the experience I had last night and see if anyone else has felt this way too... I felt for a couple of minutes that I was
truly plugged into the universe. I felt like I could see, and was part
of "it".

I normally have strong urges to ride (duh), but last night something
was different. I knew I had to ride, and I knew I had to find some
curves. The temperature was just about perfect, 72 degrees or so. The
time was early evening, from 6:30 to 7:45. I got into a riding pace
that was incredible. Not too fast, just using half a lane but pushing
the tires and the bike right to the edge. I was riding alone. I've
watched some incredible sunsets over the past couple of weeks and I
was hoping to see another one. The fall has been very kind to west
Michigan this year. The weather has been clear and unseasonable warm.
So, I'm riding along and the bike feels like it is a part of me, like
I've been riding it all my life... I can feel every pebble on the
road, I feel the tires gripping, I feel the carbs breathing, I feel
the brakes squeezing the disks. The bike is fast and powerful, but
tonight it is especially responsive. Blackbirds are incredible bikes.
Then it happened. I felt like I stopped breathing, but still had air,
I gasped for a second and seemed to become aware of the world and the
road like I never have before. I experienced what felt like a fourth
dimension. The sunset came and was nothing short of spectacular.
Fingerlike red and orange clouds looked like fire coming from the
western sky, I was drinking in the sunset and the ride, and then I
looked in my rear view mirror and saw the full moon was rising over
the trees... I looked up and the sky above me was this cool
blue/purple color. The leaves on the trees and plants around me were
jumping out with super contrast. Reds, yellows, oranges, tans and
browns mixed in with still a lot of green. There was enough light to
see everything clearly, but the shadows were gone. I could smell the
smells of fall. I couldn't hear my bike anymore, but I could feel it's
sound. It was like a voice inside my head. A farmer was out on his
huge farm machine cutting corn and I smelled both the plants and the
dirt as I sliced past him on the bike... I felt like a streak of light
as I went by. I caught his eye and he was smiling as if he knew how I
felt. I knew that I was skirting danger riding at this time of night.
Deer can step out in the road at any second because this is their
season and time of night to begin coming out again too but I pushed on
until it was dark... I nailed every second of it and then took
familar, lighted roads home. It was all very surreal.

Wario - US-MI-Grand Rapids
Mike Trus