April 22nd - EarthDay and my Birthday too

This was it... the day that riding became a passion!

It wasn't quite as warm as I'd have liked (I'd been saying no go unless it's 13C out there. It only got to about 11 or 12 degrees... but it was my birthday and somehow a ride seemed the appropriate way to commemorate this event.

We left our home, Stephen riding in front, Vic in the rear, and me, so deliciously protected in the middle. We headed toward the Duke Point Ferry terminal to an Esso station to fuel up. Then decided to cross the highway at the Chase River and go the back route into Nanaimo. So far so good. I'm riding well. I seem to be able to gear up and down appropriately, can come to a good stop, nice and gentle too. Seem to be finding the right friction point for start off's from corners and intersections where I've been stopped. So I just trust in Flo and Donna and the other women from the forum and tell myself "if they can do it, so can I."

We come to Bowen Road in Nanaimo, and then turn onto the old highway, and the traffic is thick and I should be panicking, but I'm not. I feel good. I feel excited and thrilled and protected and most of all, capable of this. We turn down Departure Bay Road, and then turn onto Hammond Bay Road and I stall. Yikes. But I don't panic, even though I'm on an incline. I realize I'm still very much a beginner and I'm so glad to have the two very experienced riders there with me. And we manage it all very well and get going again, and before long the tension in my stomach is gone again. I can add that I'm so alert... so aware of the things that can go wrong... my senses are on high frequency.

Hammond Bay Road seems to continue forever, and I'm starting to chill. I want to stop. I think the little stall at the start of the Hammond Bay Road turn unnerved me a little and added to the chill that has set in. We head to the Canadian Tire Plaze at the north end of town for coffee. Somehow navigating all the insane traffic in this area actually manages to instill a bit more confidence in me, and by the time we've finished our coffee, I'm ready to head home.

In truth there was a great deal of meandering through back road routes to get into town, and we took our time, but the return was a little faster. My son determined that I could handle that old highway easily... we didn't need to exceed 70 km, and he thought it would be good to get home sooner rather than later. We managed the Cedar route to avoid the really fast section of the highway, and got home after a little more than three hours on the wonderful bike. Oh she's so glorious.

I got home and managed a lot of squealing and screaming and jumping up and down, taking a few deep breaths and starting the whole dance of excitement, stomping, jumping and screaming all over again. What a ride!

Yes, it was the best, so much so that an hour later we got back on those bikes again. I actually did a bit of fast riding on the highway into Ladysmith. What a bike. Another 1 and 1/2 hours of riding and that made this a 5 hour plus day on my wonderful Honda Shadow VLX 600cc dream machine.