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Wednesday, August 23, 2006

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

10 comments:

Biker Betty said...

Wow, Christine. I'm glad that person was watching. It's good to remember not to get over confident. I do try to remember this often.

That Saturday a cage almost wiped me out coming home from Cripple Creek. I, too, was in Woodland Park on Hwy 24. I saw him starting to come over into my lane and was braking, when he finally decided to look and saw the lane was full!!! If he hadn't finally looked, he would have got me. Scared me. I was right beside him (I could look him in the eyes) when he did this.

He then did something stupid later down the road with a group of motorcycles, but that's a story I will share later. He was SUCH a jerk!! I'm still spitting mad!!

Biker Betty said...

PS: Thanks for the advice about Firefox. It works much better.

Christine said...

It wasn't a matter of overconfidence....I wasn't paying attention as I should...I was watching the sand on the ground while making a turn.

Hmmm...I'll have to go back and reread to make sure I'm telling the story correctly!

ellopez said...

whew, glad that tale had a good ending. thanks for sharing. said tale will help remind me to "pay attention" more also...

brl

Lucky said...

Christine - glad you made it out with little more than a tongue lashing. Sand and loose gravel always make me uneasy; but remember the basic rule of motorcycling: let your eyes lead you (i.e. look where you want to go).

Cheers,
Lucky

Anonymous said...

My hats off the the Cager.

Thats a rare thing, most folks don't see us.

Loud pipes do save lives sometimes, when they notice us.

Keep riding and the rubber down

Anonymous said...

I have thought more than once that we need a universal hand signal for "SORRY!" sounds like it could have come in use here..

Christine said...

And THANK YOU as well!!!

Biker Betty said...

Hey Christine, sorry. I miss read. Just glad it all turned out well.

Kathleen Jennette said...

It has a happy ending...and sand & gravel are a bad contenders for our bikes. Glad it all worked out.