Live and Learn - Emphasis on Live!

Safety comes first with my family! Here is Dad riding my bike wearing all his safety gear.

I'm too lazy to rewrite this story, so I'm just going to copy an excerpt from a letter to my soldier (I'm a Soldier's Angel) who had mentioned that he was surprised that I had a bike -

I've always been fascinated by motorcycles. I bought my little Ninja 250 last year, and I've been riding it to work quite a bit. But I'm still learning! I wish I could learn without everybody knowing who I am and watching me. You know what I mean? There are so many people that think bikes are dangerous (which they are) and shouldn't be allowed on the open road. And then here I am a girl, and I'm still just learning how to ride. I feel like I don't have any business being on a bike. But how am I going to learn unless I ride, right?!

Anyway, I was coming home on my bike the other day, and usually get off the main highway and ride on the back roads. I noticed my bike was acting a little funny, and when I stopped in the turn lane my bike died. I felt like I was out of gas, but it seemed to me like there should have been a low fuel light come on. But there was a gas station half a block away, so I pushed my bike across the road and headed down the hill for it. As I was rolling along very slowly, this guy on a cruiser pulled up beside me and asked if everything was alright - "No, I think I've run out of gas." I kept pushing it along the road, hoping he would leave me alone. But Okies are the chivalrous sort. He pulled up beside me again, "Well does your bike not have a reserve tank?" I had forgotten about that, and oh man, did I feel stupid! But I swallowed my pride, turned on the reserve tank, and started my bike. I think the guy on the cruiser was trying hard not to laugh as he rode away. But you know I made his day :) He was probably on his way to have a few after work drinks at the local bar, now he had a good story about a silly girl on a street bike to tell to all his Harley buddies!

And then, while I was getting gas, this car pulled up beside me with several people inside, and the guy tells me to be careful and keep wearing all my gear that they had just gotten back from a funeral for a man who had died in a motorcycle accident. I was already feeling pretty humble and then that just made me feel like a dog!

And then (yes there's more) I thought I had turned my fuel tank back to normal, but I unwittingly turned the fuel completely off! So on the way home I was running out of gas again! I had my bike full throttle and was only going 40 mph. I wanted to just pull over to see what was going on, but there was no shoulder, and I already had a line of cars behind me. I finally just reached down and switched the knob in the direction that I thought it should go. It worked. Fuel was able to flow to my engine and away I went. Sheesh! Just a bad bike day, but I survived, and I learned a lot too!