The Ride After Goodbye: My Daughter’s Leaving, and So Am I
It’s official. My youngest daughter is packing her bags.
It’s a strange feeling — watching her prepare to leave while my motorcycle waits silently in the garage. She’s heading off to university, chasing her future like I once chased speed on open roads. And me? I’m trying to chase meaning in this next chapter of life.
The house feels quieter, but my mind? Louder than ever.
She’s turning the page, and strangely, so am I.
Empty nesting hits differently when your identity isn’t just “Dad” or “Husband,” but “middle-aged guy with a GoPro, bad knees, and a wicked sense of humor.”
I may be down a passenger in the family car, but I’ve got a lifetime’s worth of stories — and horsepower — to share.
As a Gen X rider living in Dubai, I always thought motorcycles were my escape.
Turns out, they’re my mirror. Every throttle twist lately feels like a question:
What now? What next?
I expected life would slow down at 50.
It hasn’t. It’s just gotten… quieter.
The kids are grown. The house echoes differently. And even my bike — Manchalee, my loyal BMW R1250 GS Adventure — seems to know we’re entering a new phase.
So welcome to MotoMoku: Gears, Years & GenX Fears.
Here, you’ll find a mix of motorcycle trips, reflections on growing older, the comedy of retirement prep, and life as a Dubai-based Gen Xer learning that it’s okay to feel uncertain — just as long as you keep riding forward.
This blog is the next gear shift — a space to share not just my motorcycle rides, but the internal ones too. From gravel trails in the desert to the bumpy roads of midlife, I’ll write about what it means to age, to let go, and to rediscover adventure.
This blog isn’t about nostalgia.
It’s about momentum.
Let’s take this journey together — one blog post, one ride, and one moment at a time.