England Bound

It had finally come.

Time to take the great adventure across the pond to England. It started with absolutely miserable weather on the rive down to Miami, as if the State was ushering me out of the country. First with the darkening skies, an amazing but ominous display of lightning streaking down in jagged slithers and the height of the storm depositing drenching amounts of rain, slowing traffic on I-95 to about twenty miles per hour.

The growing frustration was was broken by by the appearance of a sports bike cimong up on our passenger side, splitting the lane fast enough to outpace the cars but still keeping a safe speed for the conditions. He was an atypical crotch-rocket rider with gear of a full face helmet, bulky jacket, waterproof pants and riding boots and all matching. I smiled knowing that if he'd been on a cruiser the half-helmet, leather vest and jeans wouldn't have quite made the cut in the current conditions.

I wasn't the sudden appearance of the bike that broke the mood inour car, but seeing another car pull in front of us from the same side as the rider just as the motorcycle reached the front quarter of our car. It was only the riders reflexes and safe speed that saved an accident from happening right in front of our eyes. I wasn't sure what to scream out first, my annoyance with the car or how well the biker handled the emergency.

As I shook my head in disgust I noticed I was in peferct time with the rider shaking his. Interesting.

He of course, looked into the car as he passed on the drivers side, using as little of the highway's shoulder as he safely could. I would've loved to hear the comments bouncing around that helmet.

This wasn't a great thing for my girlfriend to see since she's already nervous about riding on my bike as it is. Whether it was us being apart for the next three weeks or she was as relieved as I was the rider was okay, she never tried to relate what just happened to me and my bike. Quite frankly, that was as close of a call as the one we'd just seen.

This trip is different to all the others I've taken to England in a few ways. Although I lived there for a total of sixteen years, having only started riding in the last year this'll be the first tripI see England through the eyes of a biker. Also, I became an American citizen since my last trip and have to now enter the country of my birth as a foreigner on my American passport.

Had to smile though when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a Harley Davidson (UK) ad on Virgins Inflight system. Wow. Only caught the tail end showing the famous Harley Davidson logo and british branding of the American legend so I'm not sure what bikes they were advertising.

So I'm here and looking forward to whatever motorcycle adventures and mischief I can get into.

Of course, willing to share them all!