Bonus Points If They're Real!

*** continued from previous post ***

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I turned back to Robert. "When did you guys get in? Last night?"

"No. We left early this morning. We live in Calgary. Quite a trip on the bike, but it was beautiful. We didn't really hit any moisture until we turned off the road up into the hills. How about you guys? Where are you from? When did you get in?"

HA! Score another one for me. I had traveled much farther than he had. Pffftttt! A lousy 90 miles. Or, in Albertan, 36,000,000 decigrams. Mileage is the first filter with which riders measure each other. The second is . . . well, it could be a number of things. How much chrome you've bolted to your bike. How many electronic toys you have mounted to the bars. Or, in certain circles, the number of teeth you have in your mouth. Bonus points if they're real.

"We're from the Seattle area."

Chew on that Calgary BMW boy!"

"We came in late Monday night from a town just over the border from eastern Washington. Took us a bit longer than we thought it was going to," I said, and winked at your mom which may have been a mistake.

Roberts eyes began to widen but he caught himself. "That's quite a trip."

Clearly he was impressed. Perhaps this rider was a different breed than the previous BMW owners to which I had been exposed. Or to put it in the vulgar, this guy might not be a jerk after all.

"Say, that was some road up here huh? Did you have any trouble? I doubt that you would, your bike is made for a ride like that."

He smiled and I knew what he was thinking. Perhaps this touring rider from THE STATES wasn't as big of an asshat as other cruiser-folk he'd known.

"No. Not really." Robert sipped his coffee, speaking over the rim of the cup. "I didn't think it was too bad."

I shook my head. "I've got to hand it to you. There were a couple of times I wasn't sure we were going to make it."

Robert just smiled. "Different equipment. As you said, my bike is made for this kind of environment."

"Well for us it wasn't that easy either," Jackie said. We slipped quite a bit in the gravel. I don't mind telling you that I was downright scared a couple of times."

She turned to your mom as she said this because as a fellow passenger she was convinced that Mom would understand. Which of course Mom did understand, owing to the fact that I had put her near death countless times in the last thirty years. However, Robert, being a male of the species, winced as she said this. It's one thing to admit vulnerability yourself, quite another to have your wife point it out to strangers. Evidently Robert had not been educating Jackie on the 'Man Rules' as I have your Mother. Your mom knows how the rules work and would never, ever in a million years admit fear, or even concern to a stranger lest it tarnish my Alpha status.

Mom looked at me as she said, "I know exactly what you mean. I've been scared more on this trip than I have in my entire life. It seems as though it's been one hair-raising event after another."

Gah! Robert and I were both dinged with Man penalties. It was hard to tell who had the upper hand. I believe it was, as usual, our wives.


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*** the journey continues ***