#Danger

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I found myself at the top of the longest staircase I’d ever seen. My family and I were on a six-mile hike along the Great Wall of China, and we’d just traversed miles of the unrestored wall, clambering over stones that had fallen out of place and pushing through the trees that had grown in the centuries since the Wall’s construction. I’d expected the going to get easier once we reached the area that had been restored just 45 years ago, but this length of stairs pulled me up short. We’d encountered similarly steep sections of steps in 20-30 foot chunks along the wall but nothing like this. In the time of the wall’s construction, the terrain it traversed dictated its shape since the high explosives and heavy machinery we take for granted in modern construction weren’t available to lessen the mountain’s angles to suit those of humans on the wall.  

You know better than to ride around trucks any longer than absolutely necessary, but a far more insidious danger is the unprofessional vacationista whose load-securing skills are often primitive. Whenever you see somebody towing a boat, a trailer, or   especially  a boat or a trailer with a bunch of other junk strapped onto or around it, expect this to happen and ride accordingly, i.e., nowhere around it. Especially not behind it. That goes double for the bane of Southern California motorists, the gardening truck, which is often a rolling obstacle course of weedwackers, rakes, and aluminum ladders yearning to break free. If you see someone holding a mattress to his roof with one hand out the window, know you’ll be the one most likely to take a nap if you’re silly enough to ride behind him

The Isle of Man TT officially began two days ago, and from now until June 6 the grandest spectacle of two-wheeled sport will captivate viewers and race fans for yet another year. Personally, I love the TT. The grandeur of racing through the town of Douglas, with the sight of walls, homes and pubs whizzing past at triple-digit speeds is exciting in a way few who have never ridden a motorcycle will ever know.