We woke up Saturday to grey skies. In fact there was a quick shower that I let dash my hopes of riding that day. But as my boyfriend pointed out, the forecast was for scattered showers, that was a scatter, and we could still hope to ride before the needed rain arrived. I texted my mom in Virginia Beach to be sure it hadn’t started raining over there. We were all clear.
Today’s ride was about swerving—both the quick swerve to avoid a crash and the gentle swaying swerves. I didn’t have any safety cones, so I imagined the ends of the parking spot lines as my cones and swerved between those. I had a blast doing that as I learned to moderate my speed with my steering to time the swerve correctly. I hope that translates into a much smoother performance when we do get out the cones.
As for the swerve to avoid an obstacle, I imagined half of the parking lot speed bumps to be the offending obstacle, and swerved to avoid those. I was doing the swerve wrong. I thought the MSF instructors had said to push down on the handlebar on the side you want to swerve, but it is supposed to be push forward and pull back on the handlebars. So I will need much more practice on that one. We did see a cool example of how to do the swerve, and practice it, from Motojitsu on Youtube, as well as some excellent turning drills from ADV Motorskillz.
I found myself fully enjoying my ride as I worked on maintaining my throttle for speed and then swerving in the parking lot lines. For the first time, I understood how Zen went along with motorcycles, and I can’t wait to be out on an open country lane.
My boyfriend is a constant mantra of safety. Even my practice look-arounds in the parking lot have to be with purpose and with focus. But since there is nothing between me and the elements if I tumble (which I haven’t yet, knock wood), and since I can see for myself how tailgaiting and cutoffs are the new driving norms, I appreciate him helping me to understand how much awareness is needed to be safe on a motorcycle.
A few days later, I took the morning off work to drive out to the Onancock DMV to add the Motorcycle designation to my driver’s license. Now if you’ve tried to do anything with the DMV since Covid-19, you aren’t wondering why I drove 75 miles for a DMV appointment when I live under 3 miles from the one on Widgeon Rd. It was a beautiful drive because Onancock is on Virginia’s Eastern Shore which means crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. As I looked out over the sun bejeweling the bay waters, I imagined the ride on a motorcycle. Up to Cape Charles was actually a beautiful ride, with the Fisherman Island Wildlife Reserve and Kipotoke State Park scenery as well as plenty of farmland and woods. And it isn’t that Cape Charles is not pleasant, but that is where the traffic picked up and the imagined ride became much less pleasant.
But then I turned off into Onancock, a town oozing charm. The DMV is across from the Town Hall building which is exactly how you would imagine a small town’s Town Hall to look. I had arrived 15 minutes early for my 9:30 appointment, which translated into me getting seen at only a few minutes past 9:30. Everything was going too smoothly, of course, so one of life’s gremlins had to get involved. My certificate number on my provisional permit granted by the MSF was deemed invalid by the DMV computers. We wiped the slate clean and started all over again but to no avail. Even as I watched several of the DMV ladies confer as to the certificate number issue, I knew what must have happened.
One of the MSF instructors was a newbie. I had noticed him visibly shaking with nerves as he spoke to the class. I also noticed that he was much less nervous outside on the bikes. But he was not comfortable speaking in front of a group of strangers. And as all you MSF veterans know, you don’t receive your DMV certificate until the completion of the course and passing the skills test. That translates into your instructor, who has put in many hours more than you did over the two days, was outside in the heat with you, is now carefully writing out the MSF completion card and the DMV certificate card for every member of the class, transposing some numbers somewhere, so the DMV does not have your certificate number.
Now the DMV ladies were sending the question of why the certificate wasn’t accepted to SSG. The earliest response from them would be half an hour. Perhaps you didn’t realize that I was at the DMV the day after Memorial Day. And remember, I work for a public school. Public schools do not like for teachers to take extra time off right before or right after a holiday. In fact public schools can insist on a doctor’s note for any leave taken right before or right after a holiday. So I had gambled on it being OK for me to take half a day and for my DMV appointment to not run much past 30 minutes. No I do not believe in unicorns and faeries, but I do believe in miracles and, had my certificate number been recognized, I would have been in and out of the DMV in 30 minutes. What this meant was either I take a day of leave with no pay (ouch) or I leave with the “M” added to my license. The joy of the latter decision is that I get to make another appointment with the DMV and go through the process again. But before I do, I will contact the local MSF folks and see if they can give me any insight on what is up with my invalid certificate number. As for school, the earliest appointment I can get is after school lets out for summer, so I will be able to spend the day in Onancock if needed.
Flutterby Biker 