Ride Like The Wind

Today I rode the motorcycle to work. Severe weather was predicted for late afternoon. I took a chance and assumed that meant after 5 o'clock. Riding in the rain puts me one rung up on the ladder of risk. That is one rung higher than I want to go. Plus rain hurts. Rain feels like hail. My head, arms and torso are protected but the legs can be painful until you're cold enough that your legs go numb. But I rode and I lucked out. The ride home was very windy though. The situation wasn't so bad on two lane roads. On four lane roads I felt the wind trying to push me into another lane and that was a scary. I compensated by going just a little slower. The thing is, riding to work makes my day much more enjoyable. I watched a green heron fly across Shenandoah Boulevard this afternoon. The ride in is fun. The ride home is fun. Even the time between rides is fun because I think about the fun ahead. My whole day goes better when I commute on two wheels. This morning I was reminiscing about some friends I had back when I was in high school and my first two years of college. We were a group of four; Debbie Y., Linda, Sandy and myself. Debbie had a big motorcycle. I'm not sure but I think it was a Honda gold wing. Debbie was a big, strong woman. Her Dad was a biker. Linda had a smaller motorcycle. I don't remember what kind. Linda had long, curly hair past her waist and she weighed 98 pounds when her hair was wet. The four of us would go on weekend motorcycle trips. We'd strap our gear onto the bikes. Sandy and I would ride on the back. In a couple weeks I will have had two years of motorcycling experience and I will not take a passenger. I don't have the confidence to do it. Debbie and Linda had the confidence to do it. One weekend we rode to Minneota, Minnesota. I remember our destination because the name of the town was so strange. If I remember right, Minneota is in the southwest corner of the state. I think it took us all day to get there. We went because we all worked in the same nursing home and one of our residents moved to that small town. We went to visit her. I believe her name was Jeannette. What a stir we must have caused - four young women blowing into town on motorcycles and camping in the town park overnight? We had a blast. Were we wearing safety equipment? I sure hope we were. If we had helmets they didn't have face guards because I remember washing the bugs of my face. My friend Linda wasn't as confident on the bike as Debbie. One time she was giving me a ride in St. Cloud. We were approaching Tenth Street preparing to go right and over the Tenth Street bridge. We were coming up a hill right by Munsinger Gardens. I believe that road is closed to Tenth Street now. Anyway, we were coming uphill to a stop sign and when we got to the stop sign we both tipped over to the right onto the pavement - just like the man on the trike on "Laugh-In," a popular television show at the time. What happened? Did she forget to put her feet down? I don't know what happened but we righted the bike and I hopped right back on having lost no confidence in her ability. We weren't hurt. I was young. I believe that was before my frontal lobe was fully formed. Where are those woman now? Do Linda and Debbie still ride? I haven't thought of them in years until today.