Thank You Mr. Cage Driver

This past weekend was the Salute to Veteran’s Day Celebration up in Cripple Creek. My friends and I had a great time in our usual adventures. After all, how can leather, cool motorcycles with tons of shiny chrome accessories, helicopter flyovers, rally food and lots of shopping be not fun? Well, it was!

I was up all three days—with different friends which equaled to more fun than a person is allowed. Today’s story is a misadventure with a happy ending.

Saturday morning dawned with unfavorable weather—the forecast for the whole weekend was not promising and my friend and I expected to be doing some riding in the rain with the likelihood of hail. We all know to pack appropriately—and do—except I forgot my rain pants—they are hanging on the back of a dining room chair. That’s another story, however.

My friends and I gather together and ride down to Pike’s Peak Harley Davidson to register for the motorcycle parade. Once registered, the plan was to go ahead up to Woodland Park to the staging area to get an up-front spot in the line. Cool, works for me!!

Once registered, we head on up. After we get over Ute Pass, the weather clears quite nicely and I am enjoying the ride. I know that our next stop is gas, and we pull in. You know, the gas station song and dance.

Here’s where it gets interesting. I’m riding wing, I’m the middle bike in a group of three. My friend is leading and she pulls out. I know it is clear…I glanced briefly then turned my attention to the road ahead. My lane is clear.

There has been a great deal of rain and there was a good amount of sand and small gravel on the road and I had to cross . I’m steering veeerrrryyy carefully over and out of the sand; last thing I want is to fall on a turn on Highway 24. I overcompensated my turn and pulled too wide…into the other lane. Not onto oncoming traffic, but there was a vehicle in the lane and fortunately, the driver was paying attention and changed lanes. Otherwise, I would have been involved in a very serious accident.

I pull into position and shook my head to indicate I was alright. A few moments later, we pulled into the staging area and parked. Of course, I got the “what the *^$*^$ were you doing” speech. I told her what happened.

I looked at her and said “I guess I used up all my good karma points this morning”.

So, thank you, Mr. Cage Driver, for watching the road. Pulling in the lane with a full-sized SUV is not a contest I want to try and I am grateful that the driver was paying attention and avoided me without incident. Yes, he could have used as many expletives as necessary; I will take a verbal beating in lieu of the other option.

The rest of the weekend was without incident. I’m glad it was. I’ll get to ride another day.

Again, whether riding or driving, please extend the courtesy of paying attention to all vehicles on the road. I’m grateful that the driver of the SUV was doing what he was supposed to do.

It’s taken me a few days to get my thoughts together regarding this incident. I rarely doubt my riding abilities but this goes to show that we are all capable of errors. I’m just lucky that this story had a happy ending.

As always…

Keep the Shiny Side Up!

~The Rainbow Wahine