By Lulu

When running from one end of the state to the next to cover motorcycles events, it is so easy to forget what I love about motorcycles. I must admit, from time to time, it becomes more like a job than a passion; then something like our trip to DC reminds me that the ride, not the destination, is what it is all about. It is the aroma of honeysuckle at 60 miles an hour and feeling the change in temperature while riding through a tunnel in the Smokie’s. It is feeling the trip, even the tired buns at the end of 500 miles in one day. It is finding a waterfall along the way with friends, and stopping to watch the snake that slithered past our front tire. You feel the trip in a way you just don’t in a car. In a car you are insulated from the elements. You have the AC and the heater. You are safe and dry. You have your seatbelts! But on the bike it is cold/hot, wet/humid; and, quite frankly, frightening at times, particularly on the switchback turns of Grandfather Mountain, just ask my friend Gruber! But when the trip is over you remember each mile more vividly, you actually feel you have endured…and lived the trip.

We were lucky our weather was pretty dry, only one short burst of rain and no tornados. DC and the Ride to the Wall were emotionally draining, but the ride from Skyline all the way down to the end of the Smokies was healing. With beautiful views in every direction, the thundering of the waterfalls, the hours of riding with little to no traffic in either direction was very peaceful.

While in DC I was watching the children who lost a parent in Iraq or Afghanistan, the price of my freedom (OUR FREEDOM) was paid by those small children. In our lives our idea of achieving “freedom” is leaving the nest for the first time and heading for college or for our first apartment! Some think it is when we finally muster the nerve to get a divorce. We have lived in freedom all of our lives for generations now. For us it is a “given”. We forgot the cost of freedom has been lives, limbs, loves…fathers, mothers, children! We are lazy about it, complacent about it. We should be guarding it and at every chance honoring those who have paid the price.

I thank the members of Rolling Thunder, the Patriot Guard and the military, both active and those who have served, for their diligence in protecting what so many have fought so hard for. If you want to be in a motorcycle club join one that matters! If you are a lone wolf…ride for these protectors of the guard. Someone must take the watch, for if we all sleep someone could easily steal what has been so valiantly fought for.

Choose a poker run to ride on for veterans, stand with pride at the passing of our flag and don’t forget your sunscreen!!!

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