I Love Riding Home

June 29th, 2005

I ride my BMW R100R everyday to school. It's a 40 mile ride one way on nice curvey backroads with little traffic. Yesterday, I took a long sleeve denim shirt and soaked it in cold water, wrung it out as little as possible, and then put it on over my t-shirt to ride to class. It was already a balmy 91 degrees when I left and the humidity has been miserable. The shirt serves two purposes really, 1) It keeps me from getting more sun on my arms (I've had enough for one season) and 2) When soaked in water, it acts as an automatic air conditioner.

At any rate, on my way to class, I'm often pre-occupied with thoughts of class and did I remember everything and did I do all of my homework, while keeping my attention on the road ahead, to the sides, and behind. Little time to really enjoy my surroundings. But coming home is usually a little different. Yesterday, I ran through several areas where a shower had recently passed through and the feeling was exhilrating. The air instantly went from hot and humid to chilled and brisk, not to mention the smells that came bursting out. Memories came flooding back of when I was a kid and would get out and ride through the fields and back dirt roads just after a rain. And later, when I was a teen and rode home late at night from my part time Tastee Freeze job, I suddenly remembered all of those nights and the chill in the air when the road would cross a creek. Needless to say, I really, really enjoyed my ride home from school yesterday. Rides like that help me to remember why I love riding and why I love writing.

Enough rambling. I'll see ya all at convention.

Dianna