Woohoo! I did it!

This past weekend I took the Basic Rider’s Course and passed!  I can officially get a motorcycle endorsement added to my license and stop being a control freak passenger when out with J and everyone else.  The class was a lot of fun but hotter than hell.  I had to be at class Saturday and Sunday by 6:45am.  Yes, AM!  And when I left to head over there it was already hot out. 

Both days were in the 90′s with high humidity.  Sunday definitely had no clouds in the sky at all.  And we were covered.  Leather boots, jeans, long sleeved shirt, gloves and either a full or 3/4 helmet.  I didn’t need to worry about tying my hair back out of my face, the sweat that completly soaked it took care of that for me.  I had fun learning how to take curves and wide turns.  But I apparently am not capable of doing slow, tight U-turns without putting a foot (or 2) down.  So I’ve decided, any U-turns I need to do will be done with my feet on the ground.  Mom and Dad showed up Sunday morning too.  Mom said when she took her class Dad decided he absolutely needed to be there to take pictures.  So I got the same treatment.  Yay me.  So here for your viewing pleasure.

On another note, J and I watched Marley and Me tonight.  Stop reading now if you don’t want to know anything about the movie.  We’ve both read the book, so nothing was exactly a surprise.  Overall the movie is good.  I don’t think I liked Owen Wilson in the role, Jennifer Aniston did a pretty decent job.  And as a couple, I wasn’t really seeing it.  The end was really difficult though.  Reading about the loss was a lot easier than seeing it.  And throughout those scenes I kept remebering having to make that incredibly difficult decision to have my Cocker Spaniel put down.  Even though I knew it was the best thing for her, a question of quality of life versus quantity, it was still so hard.  And I felt like I was killing my dog.  Watching that be done for Marley brought it all back to me and I couldn’t almost see my own experience overlayed over the movie.  It’s been 4 1/2 years since I had to make that decision, but watching the movie it felt like yesterday. 

Here’s a picture of Sasha. 

Check us out!

This weekend one of our local motorcycle dealerships had the Spyder guys in town.  What, you ask, is a Spyder?  It’s a motorcycle with three wheels, 2 in the front and 1 in the back.  They were offering test drives and J missed out on it last year.  So we headed over to the dealership and found out no passengers allowed.  That meant I was going to have to stay behind since I don’t have a motorcycle endorsement.  So while J was signing up, I was reading the signs.  They didn’t say anything about needed the endorsement, so I asked.  An endorsement was needed to go out on the road.  That didn’t mean I was left out of the fun though!  I got to stay behind and drive around the test course to my hearts content.

That actually lasted about 10 minutes, for 2 reasons.  1) Going around the same course got boring really fast.  I guess I can cross Nascar driver off my list of potential future jobs and 2) my arms got really tired.  The course is a smallish course, I don’t think I got it over 9 or 10 mph.  There wasn’t room.  And one side had a lot of curves/turns so people could get used to not leaning.  Those are what made my arms tired.  But it was fun to ride and helped me become more comfortable with curves/turns.  Here’s pictures of J and I on the brand new Spyders!  I don’t have a helmet on because my picture was taken on the bike set there specifically for pictures only.  I promise, I wore my helmet while on the course.

  This was the course I had to ride on.  The Spyder guys had everyone practice here before letting them out on the the road.