Wills Creek Winery Ride

I’ve been so busy going on about my Rogue motorcycle camping journey I didn’t stop to smell the roses along the way, so to speak. Well, at least until Jay came into my life and made life for me a walk in the clouds. With that being said, the only thing better than riding cross country is having someone you love riding with you. Ironically, when I started riding more seriously again after several disappointing attempts at dating I intentionally bought a medium-sized cruiser. My focus at the time was to roam the interstates of America alone until I had either run out of land or run out of time before having to return to reality and do my 9 to 5 shuffle.

The issue at that time was either this female was chronically insecure, that female was too materialistic and shallow or this female was outrageously bi-polar and immature. Kayaking served only a temporary fix as you can only paddle so far before you reach the other end of the lake or bay and you have to turn around.

My plan was to devote all of my free time to riding and delving deep into the biker life. It was working well drifting from one sleepy town to the next and meeting uniquely strange and intriguing people but I couldn’t bury the urge to find a soulmate. I finally made up my mind–If this last effort to find love didn’t work it would be a sign that I need to turn my sights on moving back to West Palm Beach or maybe somewhere along the Gulf side of Florida, pick up where I left off so many years ago and become a glorified beach bum.

as fate would have it I found Jay and all was well with the world. Our interaction was fluid with each date. Not an ounce of incompatibility and we had everything under the sun in common. Jay will admit that she was apprehensive at first because I wasn’t exactly the kind of guy she would normally be attracted to, which made our interaction all the more fantastic. Through the years of her trials and tribulations she made a conscious effort to deviate from ‘her type’ the wealthy, tall, suit and tie-wearing, controlling type and give a guy like me a chance.

It was quite the opposite for me as the woman I had always pictured as my soulmate was exactly who I ended up with. Strong-willed, independent, beautiful, slender, eclectic, poised, worldly, and gregarious. Unfortunately, before I became one with the love of my life I ran into every kind of personality and body type imaginable but that ideal. For decades I either attracted the melodramatic, bi-polar types that had me on some wild goose chase or I was the one trying to frantically escape someone I had the misfortune of ending up with.

20 years ago I gained the advantage by learning about the law of attraction and chakras from a co-worker in Key Largo. Loosely defined, the law of attraction is the act of putting positive vibes out into the universe in hopes of receiving from the universe your deepest desires. The trick is whatever vibe you put out there in the universe you will get tenfold. 20 years, about 30 women and a messy divorce later I’ve found my true love. Okay, so that didn’t work out exactly how I imagined but the magical thing was we both vibrated at the right time in our lives and attracted each other. If either one of us had been off by so much as a day, an hour, a second we would have passed each other like ships in the night.

Our first date was amazing in that we ended up at three different events that spanned across Birmingham for the greater portion of the day. Normally total strangers that would have spent that much time together would have developed some kind of friction at some point but we were enthralled from the very second we laid eyes on each other. The next date was a test more so for her than me. I made a gamble and decided to take her on my bike to Fort Payne taking country back roads all the way for a bite to eat at an artsy establishment called “The Spot.”

She absorbed every mile with grace and dignity. Even through the experience of a potentially fatal accident she shrugged it off and pressed on. We ventured on, had a wonderful time and ventured even further up to Mentone to experience the almost Swiss Alps type scenic view as we cruised up into the edge of the Appalachians.

Fast forward a few months to our next adventure: Our ride to Wills Creek Winery in Attalla, Alabama. Incidentally, I rode right by Attala for years up Hwy 11 to Fort Payne without a thought. After the umpteenth time of passing the Wills Creek Winery sign I decided to explore and find out what Wills Creek Winery was all about. After a day of exploration I determined that this is definitely a splendid place to take Jay for brunch. I said all that to say this: Always make an effort to make memorable moments with the one you love. It’s not enough just to hit the local watering hole or take in a nearby movie. Go out of your way from time to time to find a place that is special, unique. When you create moments like this the bond two people have created is intensified.

You don’t have to make every single date some wild, new adventure. Sometimes just a simple walk down the street to a nice restaurant or even a picnic in the park is all that’s required. The important thing is to create variety. An environment where your lives are never monotonous and limited. Also never assume that one good adventure is enough. It may sound like work to some but it can’t be work if you enjoy what you’re doing especially if the reward is boundless.