Ride to nowhere

Sometimes I don’t like living in Kansas City. Yesterday I thought I would take a motorcycle ride near Liberty after lunch. It’s 22 miles away. I looked at the maps and found a route that avoided major highways. The plan was to ride to Liberty, which is just North of the the river, take a small semi-curvy road to Excelsior springs and back, and then go back to work. I figured it would take me an hour and a half, maybe two hours tops.
I hit the road on the bright red Triumph and immediately found myself stuck behind cars crawling along on the surface streets. Unlike in California, here there is no lane splitting to get away from them. After an hour I was hot, tired, and hadn’t even made it to the river yet, just few miles north of my house. I had gone 27 miles – and hadn’t actually gone anywhere! I was still surrounded by fast food and strip malls. I felt guilty about being away from work, so I turned around and came back. This time opting for a major highway that brought me back the 25 miles home in half the time.