On the road again

Back 20 to 30 years or so ago when I used to spend a lot of my free time flying around as a private airplane pilot, there were a couple of sayings that every pilot knew. The first saying is: There are two kinds of retractable landing gear pilots; those who HAVE landed their airplane with the landing gear up and those who WILL land with the gear up. The second saying is: A good landing is any landing that you can walk away from. Ok, now keep those thoughts in mind for a minute and I’ll come back to them.

We just finished spending the past two weeks in Austin resting and doing some rather mundane things like paying bills, having some work done to the car, replacing the summer clothes in our suitcases with winter togs and generally getting ourselves ready for the next phase of our travels. But now the starter’s flag has dropped and we are off again on another round of our odyssey.

The day before we arrived in Austin two weeks ago and then again yesterday, we went to motorcycle race tracks to watch our son Mike participate in what is known as a “race day”. Basically it’s where “civilian” motorcycle riders can race around the track and pretend they are the Mario Andretti’s of the motorcycle world. They are plumbers, school teachers, firemen, taxi drivers and the occasional computer geek like Mike who like to experience an adrenalin rush by seeing how fast they can zip around the track under reasonably controlled conditions.

Now, you must understand that the operative phrase here is “reasonably controlled”. Although there are safety precautions of many sorts, these guys (and an occasional girl) still fly around the track as fast as their engines… and guts… will allow. And although they don’t go as fast as the “pro’s”, the ambulances that are stationed around the track are not there just for looks. Yesterday there were no less than three incidents where the medico’s had to ply their trade for the benefit of unfortunate bike bashers. One of them, an acquaintance of Mike as it turns out, had to be taken to the hospital.

When walking around in the pit area between race sessions, it was fairly common to see riders wearing leather riding suits that had been scuffed, scraped and torn by unintended contact with terra firma. In fact, I saw so many that it began to remind me of the sayings that I told you about at the beginning of this writing. Modified, they say that there are two kinds of motorcycle riders: those who HAVE crashed their bikes and those who WILL crash… and, any crash that you can walk away from is a good crash.

So, when son Mike has what I fear will be his inevitable encounter with the ground some day, I pray that he will be able to walk away with nothing more bruised than his ego.

Scary pictures in the gallery.