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Day 250 : Tuesday January 13 2015 : Miles 19388

My Susi works as the Director of Children and Family Ministry for a church and every year there is a staff dinner. I am compelled to attend, and this years dinner was last Saturday. This was the first year that I have had a motorcycle, but I have talked about getting a motorcycle for the last few years as one of the men at the dinner each year is a rider. This year I got to actually talk about riding instead of just talking about dreaming about riding while my dear wife roles her eyes.

Why do I mention this?

Mrs. Hanson could not keep her trap shut and started bragging about my riding.

Susi: Ask him about his crazy long rides where he rides over a thousand miles in a day!
Susi: Ask him if he rode his bike to work this week! (It has been freezing all week).
Susi: The moron (Mr. Hanson) rides all the time in all weather. He is just wrong in the head!

.... and so on.

My wife was not happy about my desire to get a motorcycle and it took a lot of effort and a lot of time for us to arrive at an understanding, but it is becoming clear to me that Susi has accepted that my passion for riding is just part of life. I am grateful for this acceptance, however grudging and unstated, and I believe that she is even a bit proud that I am not just a perfect weather rider who gets out on the occasional sunny Sunday afternoon only to ride a few miles to the local Starbucks for an over priced cup of coffee. I will never forget those evenings not so long ago when I would lie next to her in our bed wearing my full faced Arai helmet while reading David Hough's Proficient Motorcycling in the hope that she would become more comfortable with that crazy idea in my head, the idea that I was going to ride a motorcycle. In some respects, I think this ongoing journey has been much harder for Susi than for myself and I am very grateful to be in the place we are now.

All this despite the ugly reality that our next door neighbours got killed in a motorcycle accident a few months after I first started riding.

I think Susi knows that I am deeply committed to riding as safely as I can, that I am not in the least bit a squid, and that my primary goal will always be to make it home to her and our children.

Safe Travels,
Richard

This is an introspective post, but at some point in the future I want to remember what I was experiencing at this time in my development as a motorcycle rider.

If there was a "Like" button I would have clicked that.

Nice post.

blues2cruise wrote:If there was a "Like" button I would have clicked that.

Nice post.

Thanks Blues.

I like introspective posts, Richard. Don't apologise. I think there is an expectation that motorcyclists will be extroverts, only interested in techie subjects and other externals. But there is a lot of internal passion and drama that goes with riding a motorcycle, and of course it has a huge impact on our relationships with others. I really enjoyed your post. Yep, me too, I was looking for a 'like' button.

Like number three here. A lot of us ride just to turn inside and reflect on what's happening in our lives. It truly is amazing what goes through your mind when riding long distances alone...

Day 255 : Sunday January 18 2015 : Miles 19983

The weather was perfect in North Texas this weekend and I got out on both Saturday and Sunday for short rides. On Saturday I just rode up to Atoka Oklahoma and back, but on Sunday I had a bit of a mission. Next weekend I am supposed to go backpacking with the Scouts and I needed to find the trail-head for the west end of the trip. To that end, I programmed the location into the GPS and got on the bike. I had no luck finding the trail-head, which was somewhat expected as the west end of the Cross-Timbers trail does not get much use, but I did have a good time on the motorcycle. I am sure we will get it all figured out before next weekend.

Safe Travels,
Richard

P.S. - thanks for the comments on my blog.

Day 256 : Monday January 19 2015 : Miles 20000



Safe Travels,
Richard

Day 285 : Tuesday February 17, 2015 : Miles 20338

Just over a month ago, I hurt my back. It was on a Friday after work and I was in the bedroom. Mrs. Hanson was pissed at me so she cross-checked me with her hockey stick and my lower back has not been the same. I wish the story was that good, but instead the truth is not that interesting.

I was changing after getting home form work and something went out in my lower back. I don't have the language to describe what happened, but my lower back hurt a lot and it just got worse over the weekend. It was not bad at all while I am sitting down, or lying down, but getting up was horrible. Also, I am a side sleeper and I role around quite a bit, so every time I would role over my back would wake me up. After a week of this I was continually exhausted. My back also hurt a lot while walking or standing.

The Monday after I hurt my back, I got on my bike and rode into work. Getting on and off the bike was a bit painful, but I did not have any problem riding. I was dreading the work day, but after I sank into my office seat I was fine. The biggest issue was that I was just not getting enough sleep and it is hard to write software, at least for me, when you are only half awake. I have been taking a lot of naps at the desk.

After about two and a half weeks I went to the doctor and he fixed me up with some rx magic that has helped quite a bit.

I mention this because I have not ridden my bike for anything but transportation, mostly my work commute or to Scouting events, in the last month. The weekends come and go and the bike just sits in the garage, lonely and neglected. I just don't have energy to ride, or drive, or cook, or ...

In the last few days I have noticed significant improvements in my back and I am hopeful that this episode is concluding. I have plans to do a nice long ride on Friday March 20, the Vernal Equinox, and that same weekend I will be riding out to a Scout camp to teach a group of scouts basic rifle marksmanship. I think I will ride west into New Mexico, or perhaps east across the Gulf states, or maybe I will ride up to Colorado and back. I just want to go for a nice long ride.

This morning I received an email from the Tour of Honor indicating that this years rider package has shipped. I can't wait for April 1, and the start of the 2015 addition of the ToH.

Things are getting better, or so I hope.

Safe Travels,
Richard

Day 294 : Thursday February 26, 2015 : Miles 20435

Monday: we had ice in North Texas and I took the day off work.

Tuesday: The roads still had large patches of ice, especially in the shade. I took the truck to work. The afternoon was warmer and most of the ice melted.

Wednesday: Snow in the morning but the roads where mostly clear. I still took a holiday.

Thursday: Today - I rode into work this morning but we are expecting some snow flurries. The big issue is that city puts down a mixture of sand and salt on the roads, mostly on bridges and at intersections and it is important to pay close attention to traction in these areas.

Friday: Tonight the temperature is going to be in the twenties and there is about a 70% chance of ice or snow.

Ice is not good, I think it would be fun to ride on a bit of snow, but it needs to be a fresh snow on clean pavement. Snow on top of ice is not something I want to experience. Unfortunately, what we mostly get is ice. Typically, a cold front will pass through the Dallas area bringing rain that turns to ice as the temperature drops below freezing. It is rare to just get snow instead of a freezing rain.

Safe Travels,
Richard

Day 306 : Tuesday March 10, 2015 : Miles 20544

I have now been riding for 10 months since I returned to motorcycling on May 10, 2014, but my monthly mileage has taken a big plunge even if I ride almost every day to commute to work. I had a big pay cut and a lot of people in our office have been let go, so times are a bit scary. I do plan to do a nice long ride on May 21 and I am looking forward to that event. I also had a look at my rear tire, and I think I will be putting on a new tire this weekend. It had been my expectation that I was going to get a bit more mileage out of the Michelin PR4, but I am right at about 10k miles and I think it is worn enough that I will will replace it before the long ride on the Vernal Equinox.

Safe Travels,
Richard