Thing wind is NOT good for: Trying to ride a motorcycle down the highway with open fields on either side and semis all around!
Troy and I decided to take a ride up to Fort Wayne to see my parents on Sunday afternoon to take my parents out for dinner. My Dad's birthday is on Wednesday, April 4th, but I won't be able to make it up there for the actual day.
It seemed like a great plan at the time. We checked the weather and saw that it was going to be in the upper 60s, low 70s with a bit of wind in the afternoon and a chance of rain heading into the evening. I've never been fond of the combnation of wind and riding my motorcycle on the highway. When I first started riding, I used to swear that gale force winds whipped up as soon as I hopped on the interstate. I now realize that's not actually the case, but you would have been hard-pressed to convince me of that three years ago!
As far as the rain goes, I used to say that I had made a deal with God and that we had agreed (ha!) that if it was supposed to rain, I wouldn't ride and that if I was supposed to ride, He wouldn't make it rain. Well, all bets were off last summer when we were riding through New York State in a rain that was so hard that the area received about 5 inches in just 3 hours! Despite wearing enough clothing and rain gear to resemble the little brother from "A Christmas Story" ("I can't put my arms down!"), I was soaked in places I wasn't even aware could get wet.
All that to say, the threat of a little rain doesn't really put me off of riding.
On the other hand, after yesterday's ride in 25 mph winds, I will definitely reconsider before heading out in a little "weather"! Today I am quite sore from trying to man-handle my bike against the wind so that it would stay on the road and I'm certain I have taken at least a year off of my life due to stress from the fear of being run over after slipping under the tires of one of the many semis that were around me.
There were several times that I just wanted to pull over, lay down in the fetal position and cry like a baby. Fortunately, I didn't act on this desire. I sense that might have made the situation A BIT worse! Instead, I did as my friend Tammy suggested and breathed. It actually occasionally worked!
When we got off of the bikes at the end of our journey, Troy said that I had handled it well when I told him I hadn't enjoyed that ride AT ALL. He said, "While that may be true, you've learned new things about the bike and the way it handles."
I think maybe sometimes ignorance is bliss.
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