A boring day, or so I thought

It seemed to be the start of a regular, boring day. I left the house in just enough time to make it to work at my normal time. I was in no hurry though as getting in a few minutes before or after my normal time doesn’t matter.

This morning was nice, no frost on any windshield so I decided to ride a motorcycle. After I turned out of my subdivision I went to pass a large Ford diesel pickup that was traveling a little slow. As I started to make the pass the pickup sped up and attempted to close the gap that I was planning to weave into. As I just made it into the right lane, completing the pass, the driver in the pickup turned on their high beams and proceeded to follow as close as possible. I turned right at a street that leads to I-25 and the truck followed. The street is usually open so I was able to get away from the glaring high beams aimed right at my mirrors. At the light leading to the freeway entrance ramp the pickup stopped immediately to my right and rolled down their windows but did not say or do anything. I was looking straight ahead but noticed the front end out of my peripheral and heard the familiar sound of a power window descending. I did not care to say anything either. Maybe I would have felt better about telling off the driver for their discourteous manner but truth is I knew nothing about that person or their capacity for anything; obviously it was not worth risking an incident when all I’m trying to do is get to work and will forget the whole thing by lunch time.

If that were only it for my morning then it wouldn’t be worth writing about. The first half of my drive was the same as always and continued that way as I shifted from I-25 south to I-40 east. Just after the Carlisle exit though I had the first ever experience of a type that was certainly not for the faint. I was riding in the far left lane and I noticed a plastic shopping bag flowing in the wind. As if my helmet was a magnet the bag drifted over my bike’s fairing screen and landed right on my helmet screen completely covering it. For a moment I was frozen, not being able to see anything but the white shopping bag and not knowing what to do. It seemed to be several moments before I took my left hand and removed the bag which seemed to be attached rather well to my helmet, the wind acting like a kind of vacuum. Once off I could see again and fortunately was a safe distance from the retaining wall to the left and the vehicles in front of and to the right of me. I was shaking a bit but was able to maintain a solid grip on my handlebars and ride on. It was certainly a relief when the Louisiana ext came up and I could ride off the freeway and into my office garage.

Riding a motorcycle can be dangerous. This experience reminded me that the most important variable in maintaining safety while riding is me. From properly maintaining the motorcycle to maintaining awareness while riding at every second to riding enough because there is no better training than experience once a basic level of competency has been achieved. The moment where the shopping bag was over my screen and covering my vision probably wasn’t more than a few seconds though it felt like much longer, when I was an inexperienced rider I have no doubt that this incident would have caused me to fall off which could have had grave consequences. Today I am a better rider by experience and lucky because of the momentary nature of this incident which I hope will only help make me a better rider.