Logs on Mark Groves

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Wednesday, September 30th, 2026

I’ve been thinking about how the news about everything that is going on in the world must be affecting our children. Not that I think things are actually worse than they have been in the past. There have always been terrible things going on in the world. But the constant stream of news is difficult to avoid. It is difficult to avoid for adults, who have a broader context to put situations in perspective. They remember when people thought times were bad before, and how they got better. But kids, when they hear the news, either from their parents or from social media, don’t yet have the context to know what to be concerned about and what to ignore.

This topic came to mind as I was talking with one of my friends the other day. We share the same perspective on a few topics, and he is specifically concerned about the environment. He mentioned that he couldn’t believe the current administration in the US decided to lower fuel efficiency standards. I have been pretty good at avoiding the news lately, but even I heard about this change. To me, it was just another in a long list of changes that are all about undoing the last administration’s goals. What stuck with me was that my friend mentioned that his daughter said she had a nightmare that the world was going to end. Which made me think, if you are, say, ten years old, and all you hear about are the bad things going on in the world, it would be odd not to think that the world was going to end.

The news is famous for pushing negative stories. For highlighting what is wrong, and very rarely being able to provide the long view. “If it bleeds, it leads,” as they say. Climate change, wars, homelessness, AI killer robots, that’s just the short list. There is a reason horror movies are popular again: people want to feel that their world isn’t as bad as the characters’ in the latest slasher movie. Backrooms and Obsession were both massive hits this summer with younger audiences. Basically the only movies they went to see. There are several reasons for that, but the fact that they are both horror movies should not be lost.

I’m not sure there is much to assure young people that things will be fine when all the signals say otherwise. It may just be a required rite of passage that is not often discussed.

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2026-09-29

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Tuesday, September 29th, 2026

I decided yesterday that the best way to jump start my creating and sharing my creations is to start to publish my daily journal writings on my blog. Not that these sessions are ever well thought through or crafted entries. They are just a quick capture of what I am currently thinking about, struggling with, or observing. There is no edit pass, so as far as sharing them represents an example of the idea of the shitty rough draft. There really is not much of a justification to share this writing on the internet. No one is likely to read it, which is also the reason to use the process to work through my own resistants to writing in public.

I read something yesterday that from Andy Matuschak, “Work with the garage door up” . Most of my “work” if you will is working on my self. Finding my way through the next chapter of my life. Even though I don’t expect anyone to read through these notes, there is something about publishing them that puts them on another level. Not sharing them. Not marketing them. Not that the notes are for anyone else. I don’t know why I am even doing it sometimes. But I know, writing, even writing poorly, has helped me over the years work through whatever is going on in my life at that moment. For me, it has been the best type of therapy. Most of the time I never go back and read what I wrote. Or even do a pass to see if what I wrote was clear or not.

This whole idea of starting to share my journal entries has been slowly emerging as I struggle with how to think about our travel. And how to share what we are doing with the people we care about. And some of it is a nostalgia of how the internet used to be. Random people, sharing what they were doing, for themselves. And the small group of people who may stumble on their work. As the internet has shifted from protocols to platforms, and now to AI generated content it is harder and harder to find those people. When it became possible to make a living as a ‘content creator’, the conceptual gap between that polished production and someone just sharing what they think started to be difficult to see.

When we tell people that we are going to spend two years traveling through Latin America on motorcycles often we get asked if we are going to have a YouTube channel or can they follow us on Instagram. For me the challenge in that question is how those platforms work. How they are driven by algorithms to push content. And the game to be seen on these platforms is competitive. And as I think about it, even though I know I am not interested in trying to make money on these platforms, there is something about they reward system of these platforms that bring out something in us that I don’t believe is healthy. At least not for me. I don’t want to be checking if someone liked my latest post when I am riding through the mountains of Peru. I am not doing this ride to create content. But it is difficult to distinguish today the difference between a traveler and a content creator. Not that I think there is anything wrong with making a living creating. There are some really helpful and amazingly creative people who I have learned a ton from doing this. I just know it isn’t something that I want to be doing. But the struggle is that I want to capture our experience. Mostly for ourselves first, remembering what that day was like. Taking photographs, and videos, and writing notes of our experiences. Second for friends and family that are both excited to follow our journey and a little concerned for us. Then lastly to share years from now. I’m still not sure how the longer term sharing will work. Or if it is even viable on today’s internet. But, the digital version of that slide show that no one wants to sit through when someone came back from their vacation, but thirty years later becomes a cherished keepsake.

I’m trying to find this line. The line between sharing what we are doing, in public, but staying away from creating something that distracts us from the actual journey. Trying to do stay focused is more about creating constraints than building discipline. The algorithms are too good.

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2026-09-28

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Monday September 28th, 2026

We went on a nice three hour ride on the motorcycles yesterday. The weather was perfect, and the forest service roads where in surprisingly good condition. The rain we received over the last couple of weeks helped to keep the dust down to a bare minimum. The bikes did great, and it is clear we are both getting much more comfortable riding. Which makes me happy. I wasn’t sure how we were going to do if we were not comfortable on the bike going into our long trip. But, we are head of the game when it comes to riding. And we have over four thousand miles coming up in a few weeks. I don’t expect to gain major skills on the Florida trip, but it will just bee good putting in the hours.

On a separate note, I’ve been thinking more about social media, and finding the right balance, in this digital world that drawls you to always be connected. This tension comes down to for some reason I feel the need to put things out there online, but I don’t do it. Social Media has never really been my thing. I’ve tried a few times, but I just can’t seem to be interested in connecting with people in that way. If connection is really I could even say is happening. Performing seems to be more to the point. I think as soon as it became an actual possibility to make a career out of producing content for online audiences the whole internet really shifted. It was no longer the community that I experienced in the mid-1990s where people could meet and share information. It became a place for commerce. Not that this is a bad thing. There are some very valuable content producers out that earn the living they are doing by producing something of value to consumers.

But what gets confusing, is it seems there isn’t much of a difference between sharing something online, and wanting to make a business out of it. Or at least seeming like you want to make a business out of it, even if it is just in the back of your own head, and not the actual plan. This is where the conflict is exposed in my thinking about the topic specifically as it relates to our travels. Since there are a good number of people traveling taking online content about their travels it is difficult not to see that in some odd way you are competing with them. And the ways this all works is there are just about every demographic that you can find out there. So it isn’t difficult to find a couple traveling by motorcycle to think you need to be somewhat like them.

The difficult part is I don’t think I actually am trying to compete with anyone on what we would like to do regarding creating content. Even saying ‘creating content’ is setting the wrong expectation. I think a better, but completely outdated, analogy is creating a slide show of our travels. That list of photographs that no one really wants to view when you get back from your trip. But twenty years later, those snapshots of what your life was then, really mean something. They are like long lost journal entries that mostly are mundane in the moment, but tell a much deeper story for future generations. It is making a mark but not the way a social media share today can ever really make a mark.

So there then is obviously the question, why share online at all? It what we are trying to do in capturing our adventures all about having that time capsule who we were at this time in our lives then is there really any value sharing the photographs and videos publicly? There is a practical justification in that it is the easy way to share with friends and family our slide show. Even if they just pop in now and then to see where in the world we are. The tools and the systems now available to anyone because of this content creator economy are pretty impressive. And just about everything is digital now. Sure it would be a good idea to select a small group of photographs from our travels, and make prints or put together a photo book. Just to have. But, that isn’t the common way people view content as much any longer. Even having physical books around my house seems more a burden to me at this point then a benefit. Having photographs printed on the wall is something that I still enjoy, but not common.

I think one of the tricks and challenges to using online publications in what ever form, is they tent to be ephemeral. Even with the best efforts it is difficult to see today how something I put up on even my personal blog would last say 30 to 40 years in the future. Maybe that isn’t reasonable. Or even a goal. Maybe it isn’t common to have normal people have content available truly for future generations. We don’t have many writings of common people from hundreds of years ago. Even though I am sure there were examples, but no one thought it was important to maintain that for someone in the future. Of course now famous people have books and long term archives of their work. Even if it seemed at the time mundane.

Trying to figure out a set constraints to how we capture and share our travels I think is the tricky part. It is likely multi-layered, but trying to figure out how to think about it first is really the main thing. For example, I could see us sharing photos and short videos on Instagram. The trick is to somehow ensure that sharing things there doesn’t become the point. It is somehow just a side effect of something we are doing that is our main purpose. Figuring out that main purpose and how to think about it, and the rules of the game is really the key thing to figure out. Then determining how to archive the content in a way that meets the stated goal. I know writing this down this way makes it seem too structured. The mindset at this point, the process, I don’t know yet. But, for me, thinking through my constraints helps me frame what I want, and what I can easily ignore.

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Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sunday, September 27th, 2026

We are a few weeks from heading out on our ten-week motorcycle tour of the American South. Not a small trip by any measure. The current mapped out route is over four thousand miles. The whole idea of this trip started with the feeling that we needed a shakedown ride. Something to work out most of the kinks on the bikes, and our setup before we leave for our much longer route in Mexico to the Pan American. This wouldn’t be our first longer ride. We also did a shorter ten day trip back in August through Colorado. This Colorado trip was good on several levels, but from a shakedown perspective, we learned a few things. First, that camping off the motorcycles isn’t really a thing that Valarie loves doing. Which was really good to find out before we left for our long trip. There is no point packing a ton of camping gear if you know you just won’t be camping.

The trip we are leaving on in a few weeks wasn’t our initial plan for a longer shakedown run. Initially we planned on doing a route into Baja Mexico for a couple of months. We have been to Baja a few times now, but never on motorcycles. Then a large group of Valarie’s cousins worked out a trip to St. Augustine Florida for Thanksgiving. It is a location that they all spent time since their grandparents lived there, and it has a special emotional place in their hearts. The idea of trying to get from Baja to Florida and back just seemed a bit too much. I did map it out, and it would have been a fun route, taking the ferry from La Paz to Mazatlán, then crossing central Mexico into Texas. It was just too much riding for the time we had. So the plan changed. The American South it was.

After getting over the fact that we were not going to spend a couple months eating fish tacos in Baja, I started to get excited about exploring the South. I haven’t ever spent much time through that part of the country. And as we looked at the map we realized that one of the benefits of riding small motorcycles, the silver lining if you will, of staying off highways is you get to explore smaller towns, that often have been forgotten since the interstate highway system allowed people to travel much faster but see much less. The way we plan to travel has little resemblance to how most people travel now with the goal to get to your destination as fast as possible. We are taking five weeks on the way to Florida and four on the way back. Stopping every few days, and not riding long days. The point is the adventure not the destination.

I am not sure what we will see, or who we will meet. But, taking the time to explore and let the plan play out as we are doing it seems like a much better way to travel.

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Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Saturday, September 26th 2026

I feel a bit tired today, even though I slept through the night. It likely has something to do with having that third drink when we got home from dinner. Or maybe, with all the rain we have been getting, there is too much crap in the air, and it is messing with my sinuses. Either way, it is taking me a bit to wake up today. Not that I really know what to write about anyway.

I think we are going to go for a motorcycle ride today. I mostly want to make sure the new lowered suspension setup for Val’s bike is low enough for her. It should be better. At least now more of her foot is on the ground. I hope the paint process I did for my bike holds up. I like the look a bit better, and for the most part, the process has not been too bad. I have put more time into the look of this motorcycle than I thought I would. But it is something I am going to be living with for at least a few years.

Maybe it is the still waking up part, but I am having a more difficult time writing this morning. Mostly, I cannot think of anything to write about. I had a pretty productive day yesterday. I got all of the work needed on the tiny house crawl space completed. That was good, so I do not need to worry about that for the inspection this coming week.

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