One Week as a Biker Part 2

In my first hub posted about being a biker for a week I explained how the bikers are like the modern day musketeers, and how most people just leave them alone, and mind his/her manners.  The manners part is something to this day I still can't get over.  I know when you see a biker in his/her chaps and leather jacket he/she just looks "tough" definitely someone you would not want to pick a fight with.  It was not a feeling I was used to, I'm a short twenty year old woman who in my average clothes looks like I would not be able to defend myself from a fly.  But as a biker for that week I was one tough chick, I learned the best way to come out ahead in bar fights.... Okay, not really I was still the same person, and I can't even get into a bar because I'm only twenty.  But I felt like I could be myself that week, it was one of those things where who is going to say anything rude about your hair being windblown or wearing chaps to someone who just looks "tough."  It was both eyeopening and saddening to see life from another point of view.  The sad part was realizing how bad society actually treats "average people."  People are constantly cutting one another in line just to get coffee five seconds before the other people, and just the typical lack of caring about others in general.  As a biker it is common for complete strangers to walk up to you, ask you about your bike, and have a two hour conversation about anything that comes up.  It is something that I have rarely seen as an "average person." 

Along with that feeling of being accepted for who I was, came that sense of freedom.  Freedom is something many people try to describe but can only give a definition similar to that of a dictionary.  Or what they have been told freedom is.  It means something different for every biker, it could depend on what they are trying to escape from.  For some it could be the freedom to wait in line for coffee and not have someone steal your space.  The space that you had a right to, because you waited on it.  Believe me, once you have known this freedom you wont be happy to give it up.  The coffee analogy, although not fitting, seems to be the only way for me to put words to something so precious as being able to live life without interference from others.  Its like being able to earn money without having someone or something take it away from you. Kind of like the old saying "No taxation without representation". 

Freedom to the biker is the open road.  When bikers go on vacation they don't have an itinerary.  They take a map, a bike, and whatever they can fit in his/her saddlebags.  Believe me they learn to do without, a full week and both my dad and I each got one side of the saddlebag.  It was enough for a tooth brush, travel sized hygiene products and a few changes of clothes.  Along the way we would realize we would need certain things like sunscreen and have to stop and pick up the smallest container we could find.  However, in the town we stopped at it took us about ten stops to find a single bottle of sunscreen in Florida.  It was a bit frustrating at the time, but later it turned into an inside joke about not being able to find sunscreen in Florida. 

Along with freedom comes danger.  For those who are free there is danger that it could be taken away from him/her.  For the biker it is danger on the road.  Potholes, other drivers, animals, rocks both flying, and lose gravel.  It is a constant challenge to navigate the roads safely as a biker.  However, from my one week experience I learned that other drivers are the scariest out there.  I know the saying is one car length behind is safe.  But to me ten car lengths feel a lot better when a car is behind me when I'm on a bike.  Personally when I follow a bike I give them as much space as I can.  You never know how experienced that rider is and I don't want to kill anyone.