Motorcycle Riding and Work Life Balance: Why I Start My Day at 4 am

There is something about hitting that 40-hour cap on a Friday morning that just feels like winning. If you follow along with the channel, you already know that I am Walt, coming at you from right here in Pennsylvania, and today you are catching me on the bike headed to Target on a late Friday morning. For a lot of people, that probably sounds a little weird. Most folks are grinding away at their desks at 10:47 a.m. on a weekday. But this is exactly what the motorcycle riding and work life balance equation looks like for me, and honestly, I would not trade it for anything.

Why I Wake Up at 4 in the Morning

People ask me all the time, “Walt, why are you starting your workday at 4 a.m.? That is insane.” Fair point. It does sound a little extreme when you say it out loud. But here is the thing – I am not doing it to be some kind of productivity hero. I am doing it so that when the weather cooperates, when the sun comes out between cold snaps and monsoon rainstorms, I can actually ride.

We had a rough stretch recently. A couple of nice days, then a cold snap rolled through, then we got hit with tremendous thunderstorms, high winds, trees down all over the place. It looked like the rest of the week was going to be a total wash. Then Friday showed up and the forecast said upper 60s. It started out a little brisk, upper 40s in the morning, but the sun was shining and I knew it was going to turn into a gorgeous afternoon. That is the kind of window you do not let slip by.

So when you start early, you end early. You hit your hours. And then, as long as there is no work emergency waiting for you, you get to do things like take a 10 a.m. bike ride to Target. That trade-off is absolutely worth dragging yourself out of bed while it is still dark out.

Two Wheels and a To-Do List

Now, I will be honest – today’s ride had a purpose beyond just getting out there. My wife mentioned this morning, before she headed off to work, that she has been wanting a purple Stanley mug. And her birthday is coming up in about a week and a half. So rather than spending the next ten days racking my brain trying to figure out what to get her, I am just going to go handle it.

She does not ask for a whole lot. She spends a ton of money on the kids – dance class alone costs more per month than my car payment, which yes, keeps me up at night –but for herself, she is pretty low maintenance. When she tells you she wants something, you go get it. Simple as that.

Is it my favorite thing in the world to drop money on another expensive mug or cup? Not exactly. But that brings me to something I could honestly talk about for a while.

The Museum of Overpriced Cups in My Kitchen

If you open up one of the lower cabinets in our house, the one that does not get a whole lot of use, you are going to find what I can only describe as a museum of expensive liquid containers. It has been building up for years.

It started with those fancy Nalgene water bottles. BPA-free and pretty reasonable price actually – but when you are a family of five, you are buying five of them, so it adds up fast. Then came the Thermoflask phase. Stainless steel, double-walled, keeps stuff cold forever. Perfectly good product, but everyone needed one.

Then came the Yetis. And look, I will give credit where it is due – those things work unbelievably well. You pour hot coffee in a Yeti at 7 a.m. and it is still hot enough to drink at noon. That is genuinely impressive. But the price tag is also genuinely impressive, and not in a good way.

After Yetis, the kids needed those Owala water bottles with the different spout – kind of like a Thermoflask but styled differently. You throw a couple of ice cubes and some water in one of those in the morning and the kids come home from school and there is still ice in there. Works great. Still expensive. That seems to be the pattern.

And now, of course, it is Stanley season. The good news is that my wife was not chasing Stanleys back when they were going for close to a hundred bucks at peak hype. My daughter wanted one at that point, but that ended up being a gift from her grandparents – so I did not have to foot that bill, which I was grateful for. Today’s Target run should be a much more reasonable number since the craze has settled down a bit.

If you add it all up over the last five, six, seven years, I am pretty confident we are sitting somewhere close to a thousand dollars in cups and bottles in that one cabinet. Which is, when you say it out loud, a little absurd.

For what it is worth, my personal preference is the knockoff Rtic brand you can find at Walmart for about half the price. Double-walled, insulated, keeps stuff cold or hot just as well. Not everything needs a name on it to work right.

The Real Point

Here is the thing though. My wife does not splurge on herself very often. The kids are always the priority in this house, and she is the one making sure they have everything they need – sports, dance, activities, all of it. So if she drops a hint that she wants a purple Stanley for her birthday, that is about as easy as a birthday gift gets. I am going to go get it, and I am going to be grateful that she made it that easy for me.

And the fact that I got to hop on the bike and ride over there on a beautiful Friday morning instead of sitting in a car – that is just the bonus. That is what motorcycle riding and work life balance actually looks like in real life. It is not some Instagram-worthy sunrise ride through the mountains every single day. Sometimes it is a Tuesday-feeling Friday, a sun that showed up just in time, and a trip to Target for a purple mug.

I will take it every single time.