One of the main benefits of being on a bike is that we don’t get stuck in traffic having the ability to filter through stationary and irate cars crawling at really slow speeds, so when I filtered the other day through a particularly long bout of congestion it was a surprise to end up at a full stop at the beginning of the queue. Apparently, not even bikers get past waiting when the motorway is closed, as it was in this case due to an accident. The accident didn’t look at all serious and there were no ambulances so while waiting I took the opportunity to do what is a rarety, having a look around the motorway while at a stop…it was really boring.
It was then no surprise that after a few minutes another bike ended up along side me having experienced several miles of stationary cars. Now, bikers are usually a social bunch of people who share in some way an affinity with one another in experiencing the same lifestyle. If you watch bikers pass one another on the motorway, some will wave or nod and it is customary to nod to another biker if you a travelling in the other direction on a road. So, when this biker pulled up along side me, I guess we both felt the need to converse or acknowledge this situation we were in and in a comradely way bond in a bikerly way. There is one difficulty in this and that in keeping the elements at bay we usually wear such things as neck protectors and helmets which tiresomely prevent the optimal expression of speech. Here then is a transcript of the conversation that we had:
Biker: Hrmph, mumble (nod) mumble (gesticulate wildly) mumble, mumble some more for a bit (guffaw) mumble?
Me: Sorry, didn’t quite catch that.
Biker: mumble mumble mumble etc. (only a little louder)
(Haven’t the faintest idea what he just said, but would be pretty rude to ask again)
Me: Yeah, (laugh) isn’t that the darndest thing. (I have never used the word darndest and am not entirely sure where I picked up the Americanism but it sure seemed appropriate at the time and it didn’t matter anyway because he couldn’t hear me anyway)
Thankfully, the road was cleared and traffic started again which was lucky as it was becoming quite embarrassing.
LOL! Can't tell you how many conversations I've had like that.
Thanks for visiting Raven's Roads. I think I'll stick around and read this for a while.
Funny story! It stinks that you got held up in traffic but at least you got a good story to tell out of it!