Dangerous Business

I think Lauren gave me the knot in her neck. I woke up this morning, and my neck is hurting.

Anyway… I had a great time this weekend. I went over to Berry on Thursday night, and went to the weekly swing dance. I had an overall good time, but only danced like… four songs, because there was a lot of Latino musica being played… and I am not good enough to dance that yet.  So, I watched for the most part. It was fun watching everyone out there having a good time. (Other than the snogging that one couple was doing.)

For the most part, we really didn’t do a whole lot over the weekend… but we hung out and had a good time. It was fun enough that I didn’t notice we weren’t really doing much.
Beth and I got Lauren to watch V for Vendetta. That was pretty awesome. It’s been a while since I have seen it. I need to go buy another copy, as mine is missing. Maybe I should get it on Blu Ray, to speed up the process of getting a Blu Ray player.

There were so many pictures of me taken over the weekend, it’s ridiculous. I would have broken the card, had I realized they were all going to be put up for the world to see.
Though, there are a few good ones with Beth and Lauren with me that didn’t turn out bad.

Last night before I left Lauren, Beth, and I all prayed. Gosh, it felt good to do that with friends. It’s been a while since I have had anyone to pray with. It’s always nice to talk to Dad when you have people to share his love with.

Alright, I’m off… Not sure to what to do… but I am.

I feel like I don’t know how to use words to describe anything any more. It’s like after those two really long posts about the trip, my mind has been going blank. I suppose it could be that those two posts were just amazing, and it set my standard for writing a little too high, and now I am back to the way I was before.

Anyway, I have been sitting here trying to think about how to post about my day yesterday, and it’s just not working. It’s somewhat infuriating. Knowing I have things to say, but not able to say it in any way that sounds any good at all.

Seems like that is my problem with a lot of my life. I don’t say things a lot of times, because I don’t think the way that I am thinking about forming the words sounds any good at all. I stutter on occasion as well, which doesn’t help matters. I wish I could figure out a way to get over this stupid fear of sounding like a complete idiot.

Anyway… looks like this is a stream of consciousness post. Those are always interesting, I suppose.

Well, this past Tuesday I went down to Berry to spend some time with Lauren. We went and got a pizza, and then she took me up to the House of Dreams at the college.  It is an absolutely gorgeous place. It is no wonder that it got the name that it has. It’s both a dream house, and a place where dreams come from. There is a small fish pond up there, and even a small herb garden. It was absolutely wonderful.
We stayed there for a couple hours just eating pizza and hanging out. It was a place that I could have easily stayed at all day.

I am planning on making a return trip there with a notebook and pens, and just writing until my hand falls off.
It was very conducive to writing. On either side of the living room are really big windows with a gorgeous view. The sun floods in, and it is so relaxing to just sit there.
If you don’t feel like staying inside, the sound of trickling water and the smell of rosemary and sage in the garden are gifts from God. Man, it is truly an amazing place up there.

Lauren was telling me that the students built it for the founder of the college (Martha Berry) in her later years. I am not entirely sure if she lived there or not, but from the sounds of it… she did spend a great deal of time there. I will take my camera with me next time, and post some pictures.

There comes a time in every man’s life, that he starts to worry that he made a big mistake. Yes… it is true men, don’t try to deny it. I have not come to that point in my life yet, but I was worried I had when I was driving home from Florida.
Now, you might be thinking, “Driving home from Florida? What’s the big deal about that?” — Well, let me tell you. Yes, on this fateful couple of days, I was on a motorcycle. A four hundred mile journey to the northern section of Georgia. Luckily, I was not alone on this journey. My father was also riding his motorcycle, and my mother was in the car following us.

Yes, on this fateful day we got a late start out of Panama City Beach. We had stopped for breakfast, and took longer than we should have. Once we finished up there, we headed on our way. By this time, it was roughly eleven o’clock in the morning. Once we got on the road, it wasn’t long before we stopped for the first time. There’s a motorcycle shop on the outskirts of town that we had made a couple trips to, and we stopped one more time before we left.
Once we left there, about an hour later, we headed on for Columbus. We had decided that we would try to make it there before dark. We didn’t make a whole lot of stops along the way. One or two bathroom breaks, and that was it. Sounds boring, yes?

On one of our bathroom stops, we noticed that the clouds ahead of us were getting really dark. We decided that we should get our rain suits on before we kept going. So we put our suits on, and I went back inside to get a quick drink. While I am waiting in line I hear the weather station come on, but I don’t really think much about it. That is, until I hear the word…. Tornado. That’s right. That was my thought when I heard it too.

We hit the road again, but going slower as the wind is starting to kick up a little bit. I can hear some of you thinking already, “Are you guys idiots?! There’s a tornado out there!!”. Well, to calm your thoughts for now, it wasn’t where we were going. Just knowing it was out there was scary enough, though. — Where was I? Ah yes… We got a few miles down the road, and it started to rain. Not too bad, but enough to get annoying. For the most part, we didn’t have many problems until we got right outside of Columbus right as it was turning dark.

A little advice if you’re ever in Columbus on a motorcycle at night when it’s raining: Don’t.

You know how on some roads they have that patching material that they drizzle on the roads to make it “smoother”? Well, motorcycle tires do not like that stuff very well. When it’s wet, doubly so. Well, in Columbus… they practically paved with the stuff. At least, where the regular car tires go. So that left the middle of the road open for me to drive on. Guess where all the oil surfaces when it rains? Yeah, that’s right. Which left me with a two inch section of road to drive on, with a 4 inch tire. Remember… I am also fighting gusts of wind.

Meanwhile, it’s grown dark and cold. I still have on my tinted face shield. It gets too dark to see, so I have to raise it. It’s raining remember, and the rain is slapping into my face and stinging like a bunch of needles. Not to mention, I don’t even have the protection of my glasses any more. I also still have on my summer gloves, so what’s left of my hands are soaking wet and cold.
But what’s this? — A beacon of hope in the ever growing darkness? A turn signal! I can see the light!

My father turns into a hotel parking lot. At last! Rest for my frozen epidermis! I climb off the motorcycle and prepare for the glorious heat that awaits me in the hotel room. Yesss… I can feel it no—— What do you mean no rooms?

Two hotels later, we finally find room. Even at a hundred dollars a night, it is worth it. I slowly peel off my layers of clothing, worrying that might skin might go with it, and stand in front of the heater. After a few minutes, my phone rings. I slowly reach into my pocket (fingers breaking off in the process) and pull out my phone. A familiar name! My friend Lauren is calling to check up on me. Man, she’s awesome.
I open the phone and am greeted with, “Where have you been?” — Whoa… When did I get married? We talk for a while, and she tells me that she was driving in Atlanta traffic for 7 hours, and had been waiting to talk to me for nearly as long. We talked for a while, and finally got off the phone… I crash into bed, get out my computer, and talk to a few friends for a while. Meanwhile, the rain tries to take the building down.

The next morning, we awake to angry skies. On goes the weather channel, and it’s not looking good. We decide we’re going to make a break for it. We’ll get an early start and beat it out. Mom packs up her stuff and heads for the car. As she is going to breakfast, the skies open up. God didn’t re-nig on the whole flooding the earth thing, did he?
Alright, so we’re not leaving for a little while. We’ll just wait it out… uh-huh.

Knock knock.
Who is it? — There’s no answer.
Who iiiis it? — There’s still no answer.
— Wait, that’s a Weird Al song. We weren’t as fortunate.

Knock knock.
Who is it?
Housekeeping…
We open the door. They have a funny look on their face.
Yeeeah… We need you to get into the stairwell… There’s a tornado headed this way.

Uh-huh… Well, this should be fun.
We headed to the stairwell, and packed in like sardines with the other poor hapless victims, and took pictures on our cell phones. After a while, the staff came around and handed out pillows. They told us that the tornado was fairly close and they would let us know of any updates. Great.
After a while, they came around and told us it was all clear to come out, but it was still raining very hard. We made an executive decision that we would need to stay another day, because we couldn’t ride in the kind of weather that was being thrown at us. So, we paid and went back up to our room.

Fast forward a couple hours… Open the curtains, seeing if the rain has let up yet — Uhm. What’s this? Sunshine? Blue sky? Get the dang car packed, we’re blowing this joint.
We get all geared up, and head downstairs. After taking the covers off the bikes (which are full of water), we head on. How things can change in just a short period of time.

We had relatively no problem, the rest of the way home. We drove about one hundred miles in twilight/dark, but that was about it. Goodness, it felt so good to be home. Never thought my mattress would feel so good.

So, though I was starting to think that this may have been one of “those mistakes” in my life, it was surprisingly not all that bad. There were only a few memorable moments in my trip, that I thought I was going to be hurt pretty badly, so all in all… a good trip.

Gosh, this post was too long.

Tips for the long distance biker:
Though you may look like a smurf, rain gear is your friend.
Tinted face shields are not conducive to night riding.
Work out a signal to let the other riders know when you need to use the bathroom. This can mean the difference between life and death.
When in doubt about needing to stay another night in a hotel, wait in the lobby.
Put on your warm gloves before you need them.
Get earplugs for long distance highway trips.