Good ole Days

Alone in thought on New Years day
My musings wandered far afield
To friends I'd come to know and love
while riding roads on "cyberwheels".
A glance, a look, a shrug, a nod
could not convey,
the words I thought
I had a need to say:

So few I meet between these shores
have ridden long nor seen
the Sun come up thru
frost and fog encrusted on
their sheild and beard.
They've never felt the subtle thrill
of reaching the crest atop the hill
simply to escape the touch
and cut deep inside hollows' chill.

I'm old I think, and so do they
but I do not preach of days
long gone and roads I've seen.
To them I know Route 66
Is just a song where some "old dude"
says "got my kicks".
I cannot say it hurt me to my core
When Uncle Sam ripped up that route
For twelve lane wide and arrow straight
goddamned Interstate 44.

A ride today must have a purpose.
A destination, a meet, a"run".
A socially redeeming cause,
to overcome the stigma of,
the sour taste in todays minds' eye,
created by the folks like me
who rode the road
to places unknown nor planned
just for the Fun!! in days gone by.

But in my travels with new friends
who ride to their specific ends
I still feel the call of 66
and River road and old Route One.
And in my mind I'm there again
I'm seventeen,not fortyfive..
I've never felt so much alive
as on that ride with them
that turns one last corner, too soon done.

If they feel that way I do not know,
nor ask,I have no need to throw
my old mans dreams into their path.
For of them I guess ,I hope they'll say
"ridin with that old guy on the pan"
and waitin while he kicked her over
are treasured memories and dreams
that take them back to their "good ole days."