Being a light to those God places on my path
We went riding motorcycles again today since they took the rain out of the forecast. We rode down some pretty, back country roads and went to dinner. The ride back was colder than going even with the jackets we took. Time to get a windshield on my bike!!
Bike Miles Today: 57 miles
Bike Miles Total: 150 miles
Odometer: 1346
Well, I got to ride my motorcycle to dinner tonight. Duck cleaned both bikes up this morning. I went to ride around the neighborhood and was rather confident of myself — and took a turn a little too wide. I didn’t run off the road or anything, but realized it had been too long since I’ve ridden. Wow, I just looked at my last post — the last time I went riding was almost a month ago (April 12th). That’s just not acceptable people! But I did get the hang of it again and didn’t do anything foolish while we were out 
Oh, Duck also made sure to check the bike for gas before we left 
Bike Miles Today: 23 miles
Bike Miles Total: 93 miles
Odometer: 1288
Wednesday has always been called hump day. Now, I am in no way a morning person. This morning I am dragging tail and wondering how to get over this hump day.
I’m excited about tomorrow because I have a hair appointment. My hair dresser had surgery about 7 weeks ago and wasn’t able to do one of the trims I needed. I visited someone else, and while it wasn’t a horrible experience, it just wasn’t my hair dresser. So, tomorrow she’ll be freshening up my color and trimming my bangs so they will stop curling and sticky up at the ends. Definitely not a good fashion statement.
Saturday I’m having breakfast with a friend. I’m trying to be more intentional about my relationships. How freaky — the thought just came to mind that I need to be intentional about my offline relationships. Hmmm, guess God’s trying to tell me to get off the computer
And before you know it, next hump day will be my 35th birthday. Dang, I’m getting old. But I’ll never be as old as My Genius Better Half! HAHAHA! To give you a good laugh, my trainer said yesterday he thought I was like 28 or something. He’s only a year older than I am, and I’m sure he was just trying to be nice. Although I have always looked a lot younger than I really am — but I always thought that had more to do with my attitude
I guess hitting the shower will be a good start to getting over hump day. Then I can go eat lunch with Duck and make him take me for a ride on his motorcycle. And no, I haven’t ridden in quite awhile. I could probably get my bike out of the driveway, but I haven’t gotten to the point where I can ride on the highway yet. Otherwise, I’d ride my bike to Duck’s work and go to lunch with him. Oh well, off to the showers. Smelling better always improves my mood!
Well, we managed to go for a little ride today before the rain came. I was doing quite well, if I do say so myself — that is until the wind picked up. It wouldn’t have been so bad, if it hadn’t come at me from the side. I actually swerved in my lane a little. But I made it home and actually parked my bike instead of making Duck do it — we have a gravel driveway and park on the sidewalk in front of the house. The gravel makes it very easy to drop the bike. I thought for a minute I might run into the house, but I made the turn and all was safe
I’m really starting to get the hang of this! Except for a I forgot what my starting mileage was when we went out. So now I’m going to start adding them to my posts
Bike Miles Today: 15 miles
Bike Miles Total: 70 miles
Odometer: 1263
It was such a beautiful day today! When Duck got home from work, we got on the bikes and rode to dinner and back. Nothing really thrilling happened like last time. The only thing that happened is I had to clean bug guts off my face shield. I’m definitely not riding without a face shield or a windshield. But I’m starting to get the hang of this
Bike Miles Today: 22 miles
Bike Miles Total: 55 miles
More Thankful Thursday
I should start a Forgetful Friday meme to list all the things I’m thankful for that I forgot to list yesterday! I’m thankful I have learned to ride a motorcycle and I have not died yet I’m also thankful for the changes I can see in my body from working out. The changes I also feel — not needing oxygen after running 70 feet to first base — have been great also. I’m very thankful for strong allergy medicine as well. Being that I’m on 2 different kinds of allergy medicine and the pollen isn’t kicking my booty like it was this time last year!
Perhaps it was women’s intuition. Most likely it was God’s nudging.
Duck, Doodle and I went riding again yesterday evening. When Duck had gotten my bike out of the driveway (I have not braved gravel yet), I asked him if he’d checked the gas in my bike lately. See, his big, fancy bike has a gas gauge on it. Mine, does not. You actually have to take the top off and look into the tank to see if it needs gas.
Duck reassured me the bike had plenty of gas. Notice he didn’t say that he’d checked it recently — just that it had plenty of gas. I took the bike for a warm-up spin around the neighborhood. A couple of times I made the turns a little wide, so I rode around the neighborhood until I felt comfortable on the bike again.
At one point the bike back-fired and I stopped to ask Duck what caused that. Oh, it’s ok — the bike’s just not getting enough gas. It’s a cold engine so it just needs to warm up. I bought the excuse and decided what better way to warm it up, than to go on one of the country roads we live near.
Now, mind you, we don’t live in the city necessarily, but we don’t live in the country either. I headed down one main road toward the country with the intent of going several miles and turning at this one intersection and heading back into town for dinner.
The bike kept jerking here or there, and sputtering along. At one point it started to slow and I tried to roll on the throttle (that’s biker talk for give it more gas). It wasn’t going. I looked behind me and Duck was following behind safely. Cars had begun to line up behind him. I looked for a place to pull off the road safely, but there wasn’t such a place. I knew something was wrong with the bike, but I just didn’t know what. I mean, really — we’d just gotten it out of the shop, so it should be running perfectly for awhile at least.
I crested a hill and saw my oil light come on — not a good sign. The bike engine had cut off and I was going about 45 MPH. Thank God the hill I crested gave me enough umph to coast down the hill, through the green light and pull into the gas station parking lot. Now really, I have to say this was truly a blessing from God. When we first turned on this road out of our neighborhood, we passed 2 gas stations. But we were heading toward the country, and as you might know, gas stations get further apart in the country.
Duck apologized for not checking and I felt like an idiot because I should have checked myself — it is, after all, my bike. He filled it up with gas, and we were off again. This time I got a little highway experience. We actually rode to dinner and I got some nighttime experience as well when we left to go home. It’s a good thing that Duck’s bike is bigger and more headlights — his bike actually helped me see and be seen. If I keep this bike, we’ll be getting extra headlights put on
So, for my Thankful Thursday post, I’m very thankful that I have learned how to ride a motorcycle; that I have actually ridden on the real, live road and haven’t died yet; and that this is turning into something I enjoy doing. Perhaps Duck and I will be riding bikes together for a long, long time.
Bike Miles Today: 19 miles
Bike Miles Total: 33 miles
Going 55 MPH on a motorcycle — on the real, live road!
Ok, so maybe this isn’t a cure for everyone, but it’s put me in a better mood
It’s been raining here so much that all softball games and practices were canceled, but the sun peeked through the clouds most of the afternoon. Duck asked if I wanted to try the bike around the neighborhood again. We just got it out of the shop last Friday, and it’s been raining since then.
Wonder of wonders, the bike rode much better than it did the last time I tried to ride it around the neighborhood. I think the air pressure in the tires was supposed to be 32? 34? something like that — and when we took it up to the shop, it had maybe 14 in the front tire. That can make it difficult to drive!
I was so excited I could ride it around the neighborhood that I decided to go on the actual road — you know, like with cars and stuff. So we went to Doodle’s school — which is literally only 1 mile away but it gave me comfort to have a short distance to go. Wuhoo! Through 2 stop lights and we were there!
We went riding out on some back country roads and all I have to say, is WOW! Going 55 MPH on a motorcycle (without a windshield or body shield!) was a feeling I’ll not soon forget. It was awesome and we made it back safely and uneventfully. Doodle saw friends she wanted to play with so we didn’t go back out. She was riding on the back of Duck’s bike and had hoped I would feel comfortable enough to go on the road. Guess she had enough though
I’m going to try and keep track of how many miles I ride — miles since my class and getting my license which by the way, I forgot to take with me. Duck says if I ride enough on my bike, he’ll let me ride his
Oh, and Heather — my quiet time today was good. You wouldn’t believe how much praying can be done in 14 miles 
Bike Miles Today: 14 miles
Bike Miles Total: 14 miles
