I decided to sell my motorcycle. I didn't quite rake in the cash I originally planned, since I didn't bring the bike back up to 100% before selling it, but I'm comfortable with the sale. I think that, in the end, taking a break from the world of motorcycles is a good idea, what with my kids being so young and all. Family comes first.

I sold the bike to a guy who said he was an oceanographer -- he traveled the world on a ship after quitting a life of fishing in Alaska, and his ship was currently in Africa. Previously, his ship had been stationed in India. We chatted for several minutes, and all the while I dreamed of the amazing adventure of traveling the seas, going from place to place with nowhere but the ocean to call your home. The vastness of the ocean is terribly romantic to me, in the way that it cannot be conquered or tamed - it is a neverending challenge. I think a life at sea would be amazing.

The gentleman then told me that it's the kind of adventure you can only have when you are single and have no children - nothing to tie you down. Few responsibilities. You can go as you please.

He paused, long enough for me to long for such a life, and then, as if to add a warning, he added, "... but it's lonely."


And there's the reality that grounds the ship.

The romance of adventure is lonely. It's a life of solitude, and as exciting and intoxicating as it may be, if you can't share that adventure with those you love, it takes the romance out of the romance.