My First Ride

"I brought my extra helmet" were the words that finished an invitation to lunch. Tim rides a motorcycle. I've known this since I first met him. I've also known that someday I would ride it, but suddenly the moment was here and I could either say yes or no. It would be a short ride he assured me. I'd put it off for over a week...all my friends encouraging me to just do it. You'll have fun they promised.
Here's what I envisioned...when I think of riding a motorcycle my thoughts race back to the days that I rode the back of the wave runner with my dad or brother who, like little maniacs, would swerve through the water with sharp turns and 360's every hundred meters. I was holding on for dear life, screaming at the top of my lungs, knowing that inevitably I would be thrown off and hit the water with belly flop force. It was a love hate relationship. I loved driving the wave runner myself. I took some risks, but i was in control...ah, control...I'm sure you can find a fabulous spiritual analogy in there...
I hated riding on the back, I hated not knowing where we were going, when the next turn was going to happen, when I would be thrown into the cat tails where I was convinced there was an alligator waiting to ponce.

Anyway, back to the motorcycle. I imagined the ride to be somewhat like the wave runner experiences. It wasn't. I imagined that I might actually pee on myself from being scared. I didn't. I imagined that I might close my eyes and scream, if only silently. I kept them open with no screaming. Although I will admit that I did mutter, "Jesus I love you and I know you love me" over and over for the first few minutes.

We took some back roads to get Chicken Shawarma first stopping at the bank. As we stood in line for the ATM I had a ridiculous grin on my face. It might have just been a 5 min ride so far, but I loved it. I jokingly told Tim that I half wished that I hated it so that I could talk him out of riding it in the future...but for now it was fun!
We ended up getting lunch, going to the beach to eat and then as we are putting on helmets and getting on the bike Tim looks at me and says, "I'm going to take you on my favorite ride this side of Vancouver."
This is more than a short ride on back roads. I'm not sure if this was planned or not, but I trust him, so I say "great" which is back by emotions of excitement and thoughts of "this is crazy!"
The ride was breathtaking, as much of Vancouver is this time of year. Mountains, ocean, bursts of color. It's a picture of God's creativity. We're driving 60 kilometers per hour (40 mph) and I'm loving every minute of it.

My first ride was a good one...I wonder where we'll go next.