Observations From The Road

My partner and I spent yet another lovely holiday weekend at his mother's home, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. We got there by car. It's about a five-hour trip. My Harley whimpered 'bye as we pulled out of our garage. He much would rather I be riding him on what turned out to be a lovely, warm, sunny three-day weekend. Alas, it wasn't the case, once again, as we had to do what we had to do.

Along the way, I saw lots and lots of bikers on the road. As we were driving north, they were driving east and south to join tens of thousands of their brethren who were traveling to Washington, DC, to participate in Rolling Thunder. On our way home, we saw the opposite -- bikers returning to their home, going north and west while we were going east and south.

We stopped to have lunch along the way, and to switch drivers. At lunch stops, dozens of bikers were stopped, too. I observed:

• Most real motorcyclists kept their helmets on, even in Pennsylvania, where a helmet is not required by law (as it is in a smarter state, Maryland, where we live.) However, there were some ding-dongs observed removing their helmet at the state line.

• Most motorcyclists were wearing proper clothing -- jeans, long-sleeved shirts, and boots. There were a few wearing sneakers, but fortunately, not many of those I call "anticipating broken ankle recoverers."

• There were some organ donors, too -- those who were wearing shorts and sneakers and no helmet, either. I really wonder what these guys were thinking. (Sorry, oxymoron: helmetless sneaker-clad shorts-wearers on a motorcycle going 70mph aren't able to think, as they believe there is no possibility at all that they would have a crash.)

• it was amusing to me, but as every biker I saw parked and got off his respective motorcycle, he pulled out his cell phone (or Blackberry, or iPhone, etc.) and began texting away. Every single one of them -- text-text-text. I guess it's a new trend among bikers now. I haven't really seen all the texting practice before. Since I don't text and have blocked texting service from my cell phone, I don't know why they are doing that, but they do.

• motorcyclists were generally traveling in groups of four to eight and were going within the speed limit. That's a good thing, from a safety standpoint.

Well, anyway, as we were traveling along the highway and I would see a group of bikers, I couldn't help but let out a little sigh. My partner said that next year, he might rearrange things so I can stay home for the holiday weekend. We'll see if that really happens. So many things can change in a year's time.

Life is short: ride safely!