My first thrilling ride

Dear Diary,

I did it! I can now cross another thing off my Bucket List. I hopped on a motorcycle and went up to 85 mph on it.... and heck no, I wasn't driving! Don't worry, I was safe... as safe as I could be.

I have a close friend who has a motorcycle. He's on it often. Originally, I couldn't have cared less - but then I got interested and decided that I wanted to give it a whirl. I received a nifty dark blue leather jacket as a gift for Christmas that is just super cute and sexy. I bought myself a neat blue/silver/gold helmet. My jacket arrived almost two weeks ago. My helmet took forever but it finally arrived yesterday.

Tonight, my friend needed to go to Wal-Mart to get some last minute Christmas gifts. We used this opportunity to go out on the bike because now, since I have the appropriate gear, why not!? I was nervous at first. Anytime I try something new, I tend to get a little bit nervous. But I never let that get in the way. It was awkward trying to get up on the bike. The ride to Wal-Mart went smoothly, however, I was struggling with trying to stay in my own seat. Whenever the bike slowed to a stop, I would slide forward. When the bike sped up, I would slide backwards. Pretty scary at first.

Of course, I'm a total newbie to this kind of stuff. So I figure it'll take a few rides for me to find my "stability" and become more comfortable with the bike speeding up and slowing down. My biggest fear was (and still is) sliding and falling backwards off the bike as it's speeding up. But like I said, with a couple more rides and practice, I'm pretty sure I'll get over it and learn how to stay put. Anyway, the ride to Wal-Mart was pretty tame. It was exciting for me and a totally new experience but nothing happened (thank God). However, the ride back was a different story....

I guess my friend decided to try to spice things up a little bit. Maybe he was trying to scare me. Maybe he was testing my limits. Or maybe he's just a jerk. He sped up to 85 mph on the Katy Freeway. If a cop is reading this - this didn't happen, I'm lying. At the time, I had no idea how fast we were going. The posted speed limit is 65 so I had figured we were going 70 or 75. I remember thinking at that moment "wow, we're going kind of fast." Yes, I did grip a little tighter then. After we took our exit, my friend decided to start to weave back and forth within our lane. Fun? Maybe for him. But me - that just made me nervous. We had to slow to a stop at a traffic light. He decided to start playing with the brakes. Again - fun? Maybe for him, but not so much for me....

The rest of the ride was uneventful, thank goodness. Now, I don't want to come off as someone who gets scared or nervous easily. That's not me. However, I do have to cut myself a little slack. This was my first real ride on a motorcycle! That has no seat belts!!! On a freeway! With speeding cars! And I didn't freak out. No sir.

All in all, it was a unique experience. While it's not exactly as exhilarating as skydiving, it was a neat experience. I'm already looking forward to my next ride.

Signed,

A motorcycle passenger