Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Apr 13, 2003

13 April 2003

Filed in Blog

Miles Today: 14.1
Miles This Month: 36.7
Miles This Year: 69.5

After an incredibly wet day yesterday, I wasn’t sure if there would be any opportunity to ride, but I looked at the sky and decided to chance it. Each time the decision to ride is a little easier, and I’ve been getting wyrd-clues; I enjoyed an online slideshow from Carolyn’s solo ride in the Southwest and got inspired all over again. (Can we detect a theme here, hmmm?)

I set out with no real destination in mind, though I had thought about posting some letters. I got out there and rode up Wolfe, then decided to turn right on El Camino. I didn’t bother to turn down Fair Oaks, but continued. The traffic was relatively light, but there was traffic; I just dealt with it. Things went smoothly at an average of 35mph, and even when someone pulled out in front of me I handled it okay. I passed each of my known “outs” - that is, routes I can take to get home and sitll know where I am going - but decided to just carry on until I got to Escuela.

Took a right there (it’s the top of a street where I used to live, yea these many years ago), and bumbled down the lane until the sharp left onto Crisanto, then to the intersection with Rengsdorff. Somewhere around here I had what amounted to a panic attack - suddenly tight breathing, had to take some very deep breaths. It was odd, there was nothing threatening; I think that my body was telling me it had had enough, even if my mind had not. I had to do quite the heave to get the bike out of the carport today, and I’m not exactly Miss Fitness.

The intersection with Rengstorff is a bit of a fiddly place, but I took my right just as the lights changed, and was able to squeeze nicely alongside the car in the right hand lane, so I could get a clear and uninterrupted run onto Central Expressway.

I stuck to the speed limit, which at 45 mph didn’t really feel fast enough, but I didn’t fancy speeding. Nor did I fancy trying to force my way into the left lane to go onto Mary (post office), so I just wandered off home. It was good.

Later, we went and fixed the left rear turn signal. Yay! No need for a $75 replacement part. Just needed to wiggle some wires around.