Travel by Motorcycle or Motorcycles

Some good friends just returned from Ireland, where they report that you drive on the left hand side of the road, sitting in the right seat of tiny rental cars, and rental motorcycles are very expensive. They drove and rode on little narrow roads, argued a lot and returned on a flight that arrived in DC (Dulles) only to be rerouted to Baltimore to refuel because of a terrific storm over the area, they had the landing gear down, and the runway was in view, but the airplane was so turbulent that more than 1/3 of the passenger literally vomitted (one on my friend's legs). Once they refueled in Baltimore everyone was ordered to return to their seats (from the single file line in the aisle - to clean up the puke) because they were ready to take off for DC. When they entered the runway to take off the storm from DC arrived in Baltimore. Needless to say they needed a vacation after their VACATION!!

THAT's how I feel today. We're not on vacation, we travel mostly for a living, although our living is for a purpose (a divine purpose).

When we started out almost 2 weeks ago on two motorcycles, I was nursing a 4 week old bum knee that I turned when I dropped my bike on a sharp turn in a gas station in May. Since it was a torn meniscus and it would take time to heal, I decided it was strong enough to head down the road on my bike. Our first night out from Indiana to West Virginia was over 400 miles, we saw absolutely stunning scenery, and stopped to camp in a very hilly campground in Beckley WV. When we arrived I realized how tired I was when I had trouble finding a flat place to park my bike, that said and done, I was too tired to get back on after setting up a tent.

A couple in an RV watching us set up came over and offered to cook our dinner, what a wonderful gesture to strangers. We had a great spinach lasagna, and they scared up some salad and fresh fruit ... we camped and survived sleeping on the ground.

Then we got up closed up camp, called the North Carolina destination to say we were on our way, the hubby put my bike on the road for me so all I had to do was get on, start her up and move out on the highway...well,

with the extra 75 lbs of camping gear and the angle of the hills mentioned above, I got on straightened up the bike and went right on over to the right side down to the ground and I rolled down-hill.

Yes, this is the third time I've dropped this bike since I bought it. this time my knee was fine! I protected it. I rolled. But my elbow wedged into my side and knocked the wind right out of me. I was rolling and moaning trying to catch my breath, when the hubby saw me rolling down hill and the bike on its side, he jumped off his bike to come to my aid, but his bike wasn't balanced on the kick-stand very well and over his went.

Me, I'm fine, HIM he's fine, my bike, well, a little more scratched that I'd hope, his bike???

When you drop a BMW the mirror is supposed to "break-away" but not when it's on an angle and the entire weight of the bike falls on the mirros (shattered).

This has proven to be about a $500.00 incident so far. So we get on the way to North Carolina anyway. I'm still so shaken, riding actually mellows me a little. We stop for some gatorade and gas. Somehow I end up with the hubby's cell phone.

We have these vests we put in the sink - it soaks up water - we wear them to stay cool when it is over 90 degrees (works real well). I'm soaking my vest in a public bathroom, and drop his phone into the water -- bye-bye cell phone.

Dumber things have happened. A sweet friend baled us out on this one and donated a used pink phone for the hubby to use until our contract is up next March for a new phone. Only two days without his cell, not bad.

Now I said all this to say this, we were both feeling pretty silly about dropping both bikes in a matter of minutes, (and besides silly for about a week, I was in a lot of pain in the ribs - lots of advil was consumed) ...

then this weekend camping in Pennsylvania with a large group of riders, and a man pulls up to camp, puts his bike on the kick-stand, gets off, walks away and BOOM over goes his bike. Everyone in camp ran to his aide,

but he said, "No, I'll get it." "Watch This," There is an art to picking up your own bike, and he demonstrated it - easing the pain of dropping a bike in public. Damage??? probably, but he made such a good thing out of a silly incident. Then we all sat around and talked about dropping bikes, one man said that he is going to have his doctor tell him when he is too old to ride.

This is the conversation we've been having, how do you know and who tells you when you're too old to ride a motorcycle. Well, I was at this stage - someone tell me, and the hubby was at this stage, "I'm not telling you." But if he doesn't and something really bad, not silly, happens he'd never forgive himself, then this gentleman who had the spill in the Pennsylvania campground told us his age, and he is more than 10 years our senior, so at least we know at this point we're not too old.