No Thru Traffic

I feel like Ralphie from A Christmas Story. Bear with me here.

You say you want to ride a motorcycle and all the crazies, nay-sayers and other people too afraid of their own shadow will tell you that you’re crazy. You’ll crash, you’ll die. There are two types of riders: those who’ve gone down, and those who will.

Whatever. Life is for living, not questioning.

I thought that if I ever got into a motorcycle accident, then it would be because someone hit me, not because of anything I did. I’ve taken my rider safety course, I know the physics of riding and common sense takes care of the rest. Practice is the only thing I don’t have much of, but something that is increasing every day. Well, it turns out that practice may just be what I need the most. And boy, did I get some good practice in Yellowstone.

I was following a huge tour bus on the second day in the park – the kind that you tour Europe with, the kind that you can’t see anything in front of. I noticed that it was from Nebraska and had stupid lettering on the back that read “Please drive carefully, very special people onboard”. What does that even mean?

Well I had a safe distance, maybe could have had more, but we were only traveling about 25 mph and were approaching an open field. So, I looked to the right to see if there were any bison, held my glance for maybe a second or two, then turned to look back ahead.

The rest of this happens in a split-second.

I immediately notice that the bus is slowed way down, which looked stopped to me at the time, and all I could see was a wall of metal. I threw all logic, education, and common sense out the window and instantly grabbed the front brake. My fight or flight syndrome apparently said it was time to stop or kiss the bus. Unfortunately, the physics of motorcycling don’t agree with sudden and drastic application of the front brake as it quickly reminded me of when the front tire locked up, skidded for about five or six feet then sent me sliding on my left side down the pavement.

Don’t worry, the bike faired pretty well, as my leg was between it and the pavement for the whole slide. Don’t worry, I faired pretty well too… the biggest bruise was to  my ego, I think.

So now my bike has some scrapes on it, but most everything has bent back into place. And brace yourself moms, I wasn’t wearing my riding gear. I know, stupid, but I was planning on hiking and didn’t want to have to deal with it.

So my jeans were torn and I ruined a nice jacket and I lost a few layers of flesh on my knee, elbow, hip, and side.

A painful lesson learned. At least now I’ve got some practice, and I didn’t shoot my eye out, either.