Plans, parts, and finally: Coffee

If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.

I had such a good plan, too. Get up, get dressed, ride some back roads, then head back in to have breakfast and coffee at Waffle House. Nope. Suzi, my Suzuki SV1000, took a dump on those plans.

Six hours later, I'm finally having my first cup of coffee of the day.

Bad news: The stator's shot.

Good news: I got a good deal on the part, and it should be here in a week.


Better news: Brotherhood. I called a brother, waking him up, and he and his lady came out and gave me a jump start, followed me home, and he spent hours with me, checking the charging system. It only cost me a trip to Jack In The Box, and he didn't even want me to pay for that. Actually, he did all the work, since I don't know anything about electrical systems, other than they have one lever: Leave 'er alone.*

It sucks when things fall apart, but knowing you're never alone, well... that's brotherhood. 

And it makes the coffee taste even better.



It wound up raining, anyway.


*Credit for the "leave 'er alone" comment goes to my brother, Dennis "Trippple Nippple" Cole, who went on the Forever Chapter in 2005. R.I.P. my brother. GBNF, GFFG

MC member stickers

Anticipation

I just finished packing my clothes and camping gear. Tomorrow, I'll work half a day, come home and have lunch with my Other Half and Baby Girl and load up my bike. Then some brothers and a sister will show up at my place, and we'll hit the road - off to our club's annual members-only, mandatory attendance, club birthday run, fondly referred to as "Mandatory".


I'm pretty excited: This is our annual Gypsy MC Family Reunion. We're spread out pretty far and wide, so this is the only chance some of us get to see each other all year. Plus, I'm trying to get all my debt paid off, so this is the only out of town event I'm going to this year, so you could say I'm pretty fucking excited.

I'll come back with some pictures, and hopefully inspiration to write more, and maybe even stories to share.

Running With The Pack

Rolling in a pack. Man, it's such a cool feeling. It could just be you and a brother or sister, or it could be dozens riding to a run or a funeral. You get a real feeling of connection with your riding partners. It's hard to describe that to people who don't ride. It may just be impossible to understand until you experience it.

Hell, it can even translate into driving cars and trucks. I remember one time my ex and I were moving. A bunch of the brothers came over in their pickup trucks to help. I was leading the way to the new place in my car, and since we were all driving cages instead of riding, we got separated. However, when I signaled to exit the interstate, I looked in my mirror to make sure everybody saw me, and I'll be damned if every single one of those vehicles, separated by multiple cars, even, didn't move into the exit lane at the. Exact. Same. Time.

Every group, whether a club or just a bunch of friends who ride together a lot, develops a style, and the members of the group learn to almost read each others' thoughts. Gestures and a certain sign language develop that may not mean anything to anyone else, but can convey all kinds of things to the group.

I recently had a couple of experiences riding with brothers that brought home that telepathy that has developed within my own club. I was leaving a gathering and there was one brother who lived in the same direction as me, so of course we rode together. Now, I've never ridden one on one with this man before. We've both been in the same large pack, but never even in a small group together. Yet, when we pulled out onto the street, we fell into a certain rhythm. Hell, I think we were even shifting gears at the same time. You know you're synchronized when you can ride handlebar to handlebar with somebody for the first time and never feel nervous about it. He was riding on the left and I was on his right, and even when he needed to exit the interstate first, it was like we'd rehearsed the shift.

A couple weeks later, four of us had gone out of town and while we were on the highway on the way home, I realized that without even thinking about it, we'd fallen into riding positions that enabled those who needed to exit first to do so without disrupting the pack. The guy in the right rear had his exit first, then the guy in the left rear, etc. We never talked about it or planned it, or hell – even thought about it. We just subconsciously knew where to position ourselves.

Connection.

It's such a good feeling; and those who refuse to ride in a group will just never know what they're missing.