Christmas and Getting the Courage to Ride Pt 2

Driving behind Terry as we make our way to Newcastle, we hit Singleton which is about 80km's from Newcastle, we're on the home stretch and I was glad. I lost sight of Terry when he went through an orange light and I had to stop. All good I knew I'd catch up to him eventually and I figured we were going to stop at the MacDonald's at Rutherford like we always do on this trip. Then I got pulled over by a booze bus just the other side of Singleton. That was interesting because Gizmo the staffy was sitting in the passenger seat and I had unhooked her from the seat belt cause I felt sorry for her being restricted. Whoops I just had to pray that my over friendly puppy didn't decide to clamber over me to say hello to the nice police man. She behaved and I moved on after a mad scramble to find my licence in my bike jacket in the back seat.
Now it started to rain and I honestly thought Terry would have to pull over now and wait for me. Somewhere visible would be the thing, like at the side of the road, I passed a gazillion places for him to do it. Did I see him? No. I got to Rutherford and checked the MacDonald's, no Terry, and now it's not raining, it's pelting buckets of water. Did I mention my husbands open face helmet, with no visor, in pouring rain. No way, I thought to myself, he has to pull over, he wouldn't be able to keep his eyes open in this with that helmet.

At this stage I decided he must have pulled over somewhere and I hadn't seen him, I'll ring him. I rang his mobile, and heard it ringing in the back seat of the car. I was starting to stress a bit now, I had a few visions of him lying in a ditch at the side of the highway, where no one would see him, one wheel of the bike spinning slowly over his unconscious form. I decided to just keep going to Newcastle, he's got to be in front of me still.

I got to Newcastle and no sign of him, by now visions of broken bodies and me being a widow so early in life were passing unchecked across my brain and the tears were flowing I have to admit.
After ringing people and still no sign of him I decided to go to his daughters house and just stress quietly with company. By the time I got there my wonderful husband was standing on her front veranda.
There were cuddles and stuff, and there was the constant reminders to him to take his bloody mobile phone with him when he was on the bike from now on. OK he was wet, like a drowned something, and his face was red raw from the rain, but at least he was safe.


The Shadow at Newcastle's Foreshore

 I felt drained, I'd started to think about the dangers of riding a bike in a real way.

I had a wonderful Christmas, but I didn't get on the bike at all in Newcastle. I had been looking forward to that, Newcastle is my home town and I really wanted to ride a few different roads, round the beaches and so forth. When I got there I just didn't want to do it. Was it because of the drama of losing Terry? I was starting lose confidence in the bike I think. I made Terry ride the whole way back home.