Whew! What a weekend!

Wow, that was a tiring weekend. I’m so sore that parts of my body I didn’t know were there hurt. Spent Friday night and all day Sat/Sun at the MSF basic riders course. Somehow, I managed to “pass” and get my certificate allowing me to walk in to the local DPS office, take a short written test and get my motorcycle license.

Overall, it was great. The instructor was a good ‘ol boy, very knowledgeable and very thorough. No shortcuts. Zero. And trust me, some of the class tried to take them. The class makeup was 4 female and 3 male. Two of the guys had bikes already and needed to overcome some ticketing issues. None of the women had ever ridden before. One had never driven a standard shift automobile, so you can imagine what she had to go through.

Remarkable to see the progress throughout the weekend. The 2 guys with ticketing issues really did correct some of their riding styles. And the four women made huge progress. All of us “passed” the course.

So, now what? I think probably I will purchase a bike to continue overcoming the fear that remains from 24 years ago. SU is just so awesome, it’s really hard to put into words. I kept wondering why she was “pushing” me to do this, it just didn’t make sense. JM and I even talked about it and why she would do it. Well, the first time I rode the little Suzuki 250 around a right hand curve Saturday morning, I knew why. I was just plain scared. The image of the girl in the Mustang that stopped a foot from me 24 years ago came back plain as day. Colors, details, everything about that day. I didn’t get hurt in a big way but man, did it ever affect me psychologically. And I had pushed it so far back into my mind that I didn’t even realize it. But SU did. That’s remarkable to me. How did she know that?

Anyways, the weekend and riding wasn’t really fun. Oh sure, on several occasions I enjoyed the wind in my sails but in the next second, I was dreading the curve. But, like I said, I made it through. Late.