I rode to Gastonia from Pineville on the back of my friend Ryan’s Triumph motorcycle. Gastonia is where I grew up, learned to drive and where, this week, I bought my first motorcycle. Ryan is my friend who rides a motorcycle more often than anyone else I know so the ride out there was relatively uneventful. Tonight I picked up my bike. After driving it up and down the streets in the seller’s neighborhood a few times we hit the road. Pulling onto Beaty Rd there was a refreshing sprinkle of rain that hit me. So gentle, it was the kind of rain that makes you glad that spring time is here again.
The mist from heaven was nothing to worry about, I was more worried about the engine. I couldn’t explain it, the thing stalled out on me twice on Beaty Rd and once more on Union Rd before I could get to the SC state line. I was getting worried that I’d just bought a lemon at premium prices. I’ll feel really stupid if I did. Ryan and I stopped for gas, that solved the stalling problem. Who knew that used motorcycles came with empty gas tanks?
It got dark while we were filling up the bikes. A pizza delivery guy pulled up to the pump in front of ours, as he got out of his beater he smiled at us as he rounded the front of his car, “Trying to beat the rain?” he said.
I shrugged; Ryan said “Heh, yeah.” And the pizza guy walked slightly awkwardly into the gas station without another word.
I looked at the sky, it was getting dark but boy those clouds looked crazy too. Kinda layered, the highest layers still glowing with the last pastel blue and white of daylight while the bottom of the clouds were the color of trouble. Why hadn’t I noticed that yet? Maybe they were just looking that way because it was getting dark. I told myself this and with a boost of confidence we hit the road again, that is after I made sure the road was clear as far as the eye could see in both directions.
It started to rain gently on us by the time we were passing the Wal-Mart near Lake Wyley. It wasn’t much rain, but more than the mist in Gastonia. I made my first left hand turn at an intersection with traffic in four directions. Now facing west we were able to see occasional flashes of lightning rip across the night sky ahead of us. As we crossed the river a couple moments later the rain picked up. When we got to the end of the bridge it was like I drove into a shower, a full on, lather your hair rinse and repeat shower. At this point I’m thinking, where can I pull off and take shelter. I saw a road ahead on the right, I pulled off to collect myself. Even though I was still standing in the rain, at least I wasn’t being lashed by the rain so much and felt safe for a moment. My leather jacket has now soaked completely through and my shirt was starting to get wet underneath it. My shoes and pants? Forget about it. The entire world was soaked. It was like a cold dark Noah’s ark all over again from my point of view, and I was driving an 800cc motorcycle.
It wasn’t more than a half mile to Ryan’s street from where I had pulled off the road so we decide to push through the rain up the road a bit. The rain beat our faces, I was gratefull to have a windshield, but I couldn’t see much through it since it obviously has no windshield wipers. The lines on the road disappeared under the rain in the dark of night. Between the rain pelting my glasses and the reflections from oncoming headlights and the darkness of the night with no street lights, I finally experienced what it must be like to drive a motorcycle if you are blind with no riding experience. At least I had faith that I would see again soon, and I did.
We made it to Ryan’s house, pulled the bikes into his garage and
it stopped raining
outside.
We toweled ourselves off, toweled off the bikes, chatted about how rough a way to start riding a motorcycle that was. He asked if I wanted to try and finish the ride to Pineville or have him drive me home in his car and stash the bike in his garage. I called my wife, Carol, told her I’d survived and that Ryan was driving me home.
My first ride was rough, I’m not going to lie. I don’t know if it could have gone worse without ending in tragedy, injury and bent vehicle parts. My salvation was that I had Ryan right behind me the whole way and his help at the end of it all.
I plan on riding again very soon. In fact, now that the I-nearly-died adrenaline rush has faded, I’m getting excited for my next ride!
In better weather though.
