The Mudflats New York

It's better to do just a little than it is to talk big and do nothing. And so I offer up these little sketches I did yesterday while escaping the heat and humidity of Manhattan. It's amazing how being on a scenic motorcycle ride can flush your head of all the garbage that collects from basic city life. Neil Young entered and stayed with me through out my journey northward.

"Old man take a look at my life I'm a lot like you."

I arrived at a bird sanctuary just behind an old man in a red Mercedes convertible. We both pulled over in a shady spot on the shoulder of the road and parked. I turned my bike off and folded my gloves neatly in my helmet and hung it on my handle bars. The old man walked around his Mercedes with a rag and lovingly wiped it down. It was all ready spotless. I asked if I was the only one lost. He said, "No me too." It was just the two of us out there.

When I walked back to my bike after I finished sketching, the old man was asleep in the drivers seat with the door open and one leg out the side. The sounds of Red Wing Black Birds gathering on the reads and the ever present cacophony of insects filled the cool valley air. I escorted my bike several yards away from the old man so as not to startle him when I started it up. The gravel crushed beneath the tires. My bike is loud even when it's not on. I roared off in the opposite direction flushing out a family of Black Birds that simply flew to another spot in the marsh. I turned around by the rail road tracks and headed back. I was humming along in 3rd gear by the time I passed him. The old man waved good bye. I returned the wave and blasted down a straight narrow strip of road that cut through the estuary. I had a smile on my face for many miles.