Practice makes perfect

My days have been spent on the bike and I have been doing a lot of practicing. Jimmy is a blessing, as he sits behind me and encourages me to continue on, even when the going gets tough. I would never be as far along as I am without his tender loving care and guidance. He’s helping me make one of my dreams come true.

Yesterday I drove for almost 200 miles…or at least it seemed that long. We didn’t set the thingy that tells you how many miles you’ve actually traveled.

In the last couple of days I’ve made the plunge into driving in city traffic and yesterday I drove from city to city. I had been staying only on the less traveled 2-lane highways, for everyone’s safety. I know this doesn’t seem like much of an accomplishment for some of you, but for me, at almost 62, it’s a great feat getting over the hurdles of being scared to death of cars approaching from side streets and driveways. You see, it was on this motorcycle that a person ran a red light and hit us, on the side…and this was the first time I ever got to ride in an ambulance. It took a year to recover the use of my left arm fully…but the fear of cars approaching from the sides has remained.

About my injury…it wasn’t that bad. I loss consciousness, but didn’t even know it…I just couldn’t understand why my vision was so blurry and I only broke something in my rotary cuff that held things together in my arm and had to have surgery to correct it and lots and lots of Physical Therapy. The only reason the ambulance came was because I couldn’t get up off the road, and some nice lady wouldn’t allow anyone to move me. One thing I do know is that ambulances need better shocks…you can feel every bump in the road…it’s not a ride I would care to take again. Jimmy managed to escape with only cuts on his arms, but to this day his shoulder hurts him. He refused any treatment at the time.

Getting back to my ride yesterday….
Cucoo went along and almost fell out of his cup-holder seat only once….I told him to hold on, but you know Cucoo…he has a mind of his own.

I try to drive on as many new roads as I can find and on the new road to Lancaster (Hwy 52), I stopped in the shoulder of the road to rest and Jimmy found some nylon string used to mark the edges of the blacktop. So being the frugal person that he is…he found a stick to wind the long string on and take it home. You just never know when old string might come in handy. *S*

My drive yesterday was pretty uneventful…no one pulled out in front of me or followed too closely. I did give Jimmy the reigns once when we were approaching a steep hill with a stop…I haven’t quite mastered not rolling back a little and I sure didn’t want to roll back and hit some car behind me…How embarrassing would that be!?! As soon as he took it passed the hill, I took the bike over again.

On my way home, as I was approaching Renfro Valley, Kentucky I got a Charlie horse in my right calf and thought it wise to let Jimmy take over the last few miles home. That’s my braking leg and I really needed to have that leg working perfectly. This road is not a road that always has a nice shoulder where I could safely stop if needed, so I pulled into the Shell Station at Renfro Valley and Jimmy took over. My back, between my shoulder blades also had a burning feeling, which was relieved by some sports cream, when we got home.

Well, my arms are still flabby, but at least they are getting some muscles in there, and maybe I’ll eventually build some upper body strength. I’ve also noticed that the wonderful seat they provide the driver doesn’t put my bum to sleep…and that’s a real blessing.