It was a mixed ride this week in part because I wasn’t feeling well. The day was beautiful with the rain holding off until tomorrow and the sun shining brightly. We made an early start of it so we could ride while the temperature was in the upper 70s as opposed to our usual time when the temperature would be in the mid- to upper-80s. I was feeling weak, but I still wanted to ride as I felt I could handle the motorcycle. It helped when Bill said our ride would be nice, slow, and easy.
My start wasn’t easy. I’ve explained before that there is a steep camber on the road we start on. For safety of course, I try and check for oncoming traffic. Due to the bright sunshine, I put sun shades in my car windshield which is parked on the street to our right. With the sun shades in, I can’t spot oncoming traffic through the windshield and have to edge out to see around the car. Now Bill’s Triumph Rocket has hill stop assist which means his bike won’t roll back on an incline. My lovely BMW R Nine T does not which means if I stop on a hill, my legs have to hold the bike from rolling back. My legs did not hold the 500 plus pound motorcycle from rolling backward. So when Bill took off, I rolled back. It took me a few moments to readjust and get myself going.
Our motorcycle cabbage white butterfly was back flitting about in the yard over and around the bikes as we geared up. I tried counting all the cabbage whites I spotted throughout the ride, but there were far too many of them. And nearly with each butterfly I saw, there was a dragonfly nearby. With the roses approaching peak bloom, the irises, clematis, and more flowers blooming, the butterflies had a lot of nectar to drink.
Less than half a mile into the ride, though, I had a near collision with a cabbage white! As we turned onto the main road through the neighborhood, I spotted the little guy to the right of the road and watched as his meandering path brought him straight toward my bike’s chassis. I tried to spot him out of the mirrors as I passed to see if he managed to avoid the collision, but I didn’t spot him. I feared I would find little white wings melted to the engine when I finished my ride, but I’m happy to say, there was no sign of butterfly body parts
During our ride, which was helping me to feel better, Bill stopped us and gave me an exercise. He wanted me to target fixate on something in the road when the road was deserted—a leaf, a pinecone, a shadow. While I target fixated, the drill was to keep my eyes on the target while I swerved away from it. This drill is to prepare me for accident or obstacle avoidance. I did well with the drill, which also helped me to feel better.
As we rode, I spotted a beautiful fuchsia colored peony in full bloom. I also caught the wonderful scent of honeysuckle finally blooming. Plenty of nectar choices for all the butterflies I saw. I think I caught glimpses of two ceraunus blue butterflies; these were very small butterflies with diaphanous wings (getting to use the word diaphanous makes me happy). We mostly cruised through the ride and cut into odd streets to avoid the many trucks with trailers we encountered. Our earlier start showed us very different traffic patterns.
We went down by the river where I’ve seen the great blue heron at low tides, but it has apparently migrated north for the summer. I spotted one turkey vulture high in the thermals before we headed out, but the only other birds of note I saw were the ubiquitous crows. I don’t really mention the crows because they’re everywhere and they’re crows. But as we finished up our ride, adding a circle back to avoid even more trucks, I spotted yet another cabbage white butterfly on the right side of the road and zooming across to the other side. I also glimpsed movement out of my left peripheral vision and saw a crow swooping in. My heart sank because I knew what the crow was swooping in for and, sure enough, as I passed the large oak tree, I saw the crow on the ground with white wings in its beak. I realize nature is nature and butterflies are part of the food chain, but I didn’t really need to see it, and I was glad the ride was coming to an end.
I let the fact that I made it through the ride and I saw so many butterflies not getting eaten by crows to cheer me up. I’ll have to get used to slightly different sights—I did see a Cinco de Mayo peppers blow up—and traffic patterns as we get earlier in our rides. As long as I keep riding, I’m OK with that.
Flutterby Biker 