First Day
So, the day started at 7:30am with me pondering what might happen at 12:00 noon when I was supposed to pickup the trike. I had my coffee, I had my fruit, and I thought about all the things that could go wrong. I thought, “What if the trike was unavailable??” Hmm, do I try a full blown Harley? I picked the trike because I thought it was feasible. I mean, if I couldn’t find the clutch, or the toe shifter, at least I wouldn’t fall down in the intersection. I would just sit there, acting like a tourist. “I will go when I’m ready!”, I would say.
I have this nightmare of having the motorcycle fall over, and then I would appeal to my son to come over and pick me up. It’s not rational, but fears are rarely rational.
As it turns out, everything was fine, the car didn’t blow up, the trike was ready, I didn’t have an aneurysm. I showed up at 11:30, signed some papers and I was given a helmet. Go ride! Umm, my son isn’t here, and by the way, what are these things attached to the handle bars. Oh, sure, that’s GPS, that electronic reverse, that’s stereo control as well as those three others. That’s the kill switch, that the starter, that’s the horn, those are the turn signals and that’s the flashers. Behind that is the USB charger, and you can use the blue tooth if you hide your phone in that slot, he went on for about twenty minutes. This was a little like learning to fly the space shuttle.
“Just remember to start it in neutral”, except that neutral was only a concept. It existed between 1st gear and 2nd gear, but only as wish and a hope. Hope, now that is a concept. I was fast losing my hope. I bravely got it started, I ignored all the bells and whistles, then I drove around the parking lot. Sherry went inside out of the heat, and I wrestled the trike at low speed.
I remembered that I used to shift gears. Perhaps I still could. I tried second gear. It worked! On one straight away I actually got to third gear. Well, this was fun. When Matt comes maybe he could follow me around the parking lot.
Matthew came, we talked about direction, and Sherry went home.
Then the story gets better, we rode from Folsom to Auburn, and from Auburn to Grass Valley. That was enough for the first day. Matthew had ridden down from Weed, he was tired. I had rode only fifty miles, I was exhausted.
So now I’m fed (Italian primavera), I’m resting in a great room with air-conditioning, and I’m feeling great. One little problem, the trike is wide in several ways. It is wide on the road, and that, I still have not gotten used to, and it is very wide in the seat. I feel like I’m sitting on a horse. My legs can’t come together without some aching. I walk like a bow legged cowboy or a drunken sailor. This will get better!
Matthew gave me schooling on do’s and dont’s of the road. I broke every rule and still I survived. I will learn, and this too will get better.
