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Webster’s Dictionary defines etcetera as “so on and so forth”.  As motorcyclists, we live and breathe in the realm of etcetera. It’s the promise of the “so on and so forth” that exists at the far end of roads, lies just around the next bend or beckons to us from the distant horizon inspiring us to the road.  To place etcetera at the end of a sentence is somewhat akin to placing a corner at the end of a stretch of road.  It’s an invitation, a promise and hint for more than an end.   Every day, all over the globe, motorcyclists embark on myriad journeys of etcetera.  These various mileage trips tend to share several traits.  The routes are almost always circular – ending up exactly where they began – and are invented with some vague excuse to justify the sojourn. The journeys can be a well-planned, arduous circumnavigation of the globe or an uncomplicated, spontaneous local jaunt to get a cup of coffee.  It can be as simple as getting to the top of a mountain to enjoy the view.  The reason is purely to go.  With this kind of thinking, people that ride motorcycles tend to become accustomed to taking the long ways home.         (Jeff Buchanan Robb Report Motorcycling Fall 2004)