Learn to Ride in the Rain

June 27, 2013

Summer Road Trip 2013_Day Six

SE Alberta Canada_SummerRoadTrip2012

“Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass; it’s about learning to ride in the rain.”

Day six was probably my least favorite part of the trip so far; the jaunt from south of Lexington Kentucky to Muncie Indiana was fraught with rain. I awoke at 4am (Yikes! its summer!) thinking I could ‘beat the bad weather’ but alas, it was raining just five miles down the road from the hotel.

There were two things I was NOT looking forward to today; rain and Interstate traffic. After five days of mountain roads and very little traffic (except the metric bikes screaming around the curves ahead of me), I was reluctant to hit the Super Slab.

Let me take a moment to say something about ‘rain gear,’ it sucks. But, this is the kind of weather day that separates the fair-weather bikers from the hard-core bikers. If you are fair-weather (and understand I’m not passing judgment, I get it), you don’t worry about rain gear because you don’t ride in the rain, you only ride when its good weather right?  But if you travel - a lot - like I do; you better have good rain gear. Which I never have. I know, right!? I’ve always bought the cheap crap; it is thin, it is flappy, it is NOT made for motorcycling in the rain, it is crap. AND, I’ve tossed four sets of cheap rain suits at the end of my destination - one was even stripped off and tossed at a rest area somewhere in Northern Maine - because getting wet was easier than riding with the damn cheap suit. Rain gear is also very HOT; it goes on over your clothes, and I feel claustrophobic in it....and something akin to a ‘leftover,’ all wrapped in plastic. Day six was no exception; I decided my leather chaps was the answer for my lower half and dug out the cheap windbreaker, put it on UNDER my nylon riding jacket (which I LOVE, but its not waterproof) and kept on truckin. Needless to say we got wet; but riding in the rain when you are traveling is much more cost efficient than sitting somewhere in bumfuck Kentucky complaining about it raining. Theoretically, at some point, you WILL ride out of the weather...and we did.  I have to say that the first thing I did on Day Seven, was to visit the Harley Davidson shop in Muncie and I now own a gorgeous set of OFFICIAL Harley Davidson rain gear fit for a Road Queen! It only took me five years and a 100,000 miles to decide to do that.

Bumper Sticker on a trashcan along The Dragon;
I like the sentiment, and so true.

The only bad thing about starting in the dark this morning, was....well....it was dark. Rain is one thing, rain AND dark are a little intimidating even for me. Not the most pleasant ride from Lexington to West of Cincinnati, but we persevered and by the time I got on 74 West, the rain had stopped, although the clouds were still thick and threatening. You guessed it, I stopped at the first opportunity, peeled off my moist leather chaps (jeans were dry, so they DO work), stripped off two layers of upper body gear, changed bandanas, changed gloves.....and we were ready to pound out those last two hours to Muncie! I was anxious to head off-Interstate and hit SR3 North; the only ‘traffic’ on an Indiana backroad are large farm implements lumbering down the road. But I embraced the slower pace and enjoyed the ride through the corn and soybean fields of my home state. 

Grateful for another day of safe travel, grateful to see my Dad ( who is always supportive of my efforts - no matter what those might be - I think of my own two daughters and if they decided to ride a motorcycle across country like their Mother ....I would be having a fit! But no, my Dad is my biggest fan). After hosing Bessie2 down and at least getting the first layer of road grime off her, Dad I sat down to talk and catch up.

ME....in Spirit! Love this Photo.

Life is Good.