Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Freedom Ride




I recently came back from a 12 day motorcycle trip through the Blue Ridge Parkway with my boyfriend. I thought. when I first started out that I had decent motorcycling skills. By the time we left Toronto, which is flat and straight, and got to Pennsylvania, my skills were being challenged. I almost missed a curve and hit a parked car. I, understandably, had a meltdown and wanted to return home. Thank goodness, my boyfriend is a motorcycle instructor and he kept reminding me of the skills I already possessed, but was not using. On the curves, you naturally look at the obstacle or edge of the cliff you want to miss and slow down if you are losing balance. Those two things are the worse thing you can do in a curve. You need to look where you are going and accelerate out of the curve. It took about a week of continual challenges and practice before I could take any curve naturally and with ease. I started this trip from a place of fear and despair, and through perseverance, ended up boosting my confidence and conquering a challenge I thought would do me in.

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