Rob Allanson muses on the past, and what lies ahead. We set off from Norfolk in a weekI have to admit I am really looking forward to riding with Morton again. Since last year's Journey's Blend trip I have made several long trips on my own, the only company being other bikers you hook up with on the road. The things you have in common are you are heading in the same direction.
That camaraderie is what helps make these long trips so addictive, in fact makes travelling by bike something to look forward to. The Zen thought that goes into packing your life down into small expanses of luggage, then swooping through the scenery like some sort of modern armoured knight.
I am sure there are people trapped in their cars who look on in envy as the steel steed and the leather and textile wrapped rider pass by. The bike, any bike, stands for freedom. The turn on, pull away and keep going feeling of escape. Your head filled with the sights, sounds and smells denied to car occupants by glass, filters and metal. It's all a heady potent mix, especially on longer trips when you know the next day you are heading off somewhere new and sleeping in a different place.
Anyway back to the Morton connection. He may not realise it, in fact I am sure he doesn't, but he has been tangled up in my life and friends almost since I started university in Glasgow.
I was told by a friend in my first year of this Scottish John Peel sort of radio show. Week days, great music and engaging chat in between. Something the commercial stations never really got right. I had no real interest in chart music, actually still don’t, and this dj was playing interesting, new, thought provoking and foot tapping music.
Then, after discovering the alternative worship group of the Late Late Service - again an ethos and vision that I was happy with, then came the revelation of Red Guitars in Heaven.
I still have the dog-eared, spine bleached copy that went around all my friends in Glasgow. It spoke to us all of bands, music, religion and of course the fair city that supported us. Four very important ingredients for us back then, all of which still occupy part of my existence these days, well most.
So that was it, Morton was truly on the radar. His show became avid listening material, and a friend through the finals.
After Uni, moving away from Scotland, the connection dropped, until one odd day working for Whisky Magazine an email dropped in from him. He was pitching a story about the Shetland distillery project. Well we at the magazine had never really touched this as it seemed a little dodgy to say the least. So there was I, turning the big man down. An odd state of affairs really.
The next crossing point was to prove the clincher. I found myself face to face with this voice I had grown accustomed to. The scene was the Wick Prohibition ball at Old Pulteney distillery. There he was across the table - voice so familiar. The man that unknowingly had accompanied me through the finer points of medieval Scottish Literature had become tangible.
By this point I had found his second tome, The Spirit of Adventure, which together with Ted Simon's writings was fuelling my passion for a long motorbike trip.
Tom's epic voyage round Scotland's distilleries on a motorbike, well MZ sidecar outfit to be precise, sparked an idea.
The idea slowly morphed into Journey's Blend, and after I passed my big bike test, the plotting became more definitive. Round the main compass points in Scotland and create a blend. So taking samples from Highland Park in the north, Bladnoch in the south, Kilchoman out west and Glen Garioch in the east.
Then head to the centre, Glen Turret, to make the one -off blend. Of course I would need a partner, so after a few, ok well a lot, of beer and whisky I mentioned it.
The plan was met with interest so as we sat hung over the next day, I went into more detail and vowed to get back in touch.
Things started to fall into place and off went the email. Thus started a riding partnership, it's just a shame the third musketeer Ken Hamilton cannot complete the set for this next trip.
I thought Tom was joking when, at Whisky Live Glasgow, he mentioned the prospect of following in Alfred Barnard's steps and touring Great Britain's modern distilleries. Becoming Barnards of the present day.
Of course the only form of transport suitable, the motorbike, most excitingly Triumphs again. This time their big naked street bikes.
It's a week now until the launch day. I have the beginnings of a nervous feeling in my stomach. But soon I will just want to go.
