Bubblegum and Dancer right before Phoenix departure.
Sultan and Dancer in the big yellow bee with their tag along trailer. How cute is this??
One of the Tail Gunners for Platoon 2 was Richard, "Agitator" Gonzales - our friend. 30 miles outside of Wilcox, AZ, his bike hit a guard raiL (actually a short wall) and he fell. Riding in the front part of Platoon 3 (which follows Platoon 2), my platoon came upon Richard right after the accident happened. At the time I did not really know it was Richard; but I thought I recognized his torn apart bike and I thought it was him on the ground. Seeing the blown apart bike and pieces still moving was an eerie feeling and it unbalanced me.
John and I did not participate in the dinner at the HD dealership. We elected to leave the group at the last fuel stop in Savoy,NM and ride into Las Cruses alone. The group and the pace of rubber banding was getting to me and I needed time on the road with just my husband.
I posted this photo of John and Richard a couple of days ago, but it seems fitting to post it again. Richard's accident brings a salient issue into clarity. Riding motorcyles is not just an adventure. It is a dangerous activity where the illusion of control is just that: an illusion. We can take all of the safety couses we can (good idea), we can log a ka-billion miles on multiple bikes over many years and sometimes stuff just happens. Asi write this, there hasn't been any information about richard. We only know he was awake after the accident and he was life-flighted to Tucson.
Life is so very precious and it seems a bit cliche to say we need to tell the people we love that we love them. I am grateful that on a sunny morning in Phoenix that one of the road buddies I got to hug before we headed off on the road to Las Cruses, was my friend, Agitator. My God's Tender Mercies watch over you until we meet again.
No comments:
Post a Comment