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188/365 (July 7, 2010) – Summer has finally arrived. And with the heat, the cooking moves outside into the Weber. Charcoal in this household, no gas here thank you very much (except to get the coals going more quickly).

Kind of a last minute photo, not a lot of thought or effort today, but there’s a good reason.

I was in motorcycle class today. More like motorcycle boot camp! Pacific Riding School is a great school, with a crazy eight time supersport champion as one of the instructors. They get you going in a classroom over two days and then give you the better part of three days in a parking lot, plus one and a half days of road riding. But they do some things that you won’t experience in any other riding school.

Today was day one in the lot. Day one on a bike with a clutch for me. Considering I ride a scooter (automatic) I think I did pretty well by only popping the clutch once. But once they got you comfortable with the clutch, things got interesting.

They focused on focus. And then literally threw everything they had at you to try to make you lose your focus. By literally, I do mean literally….they threw water in our faces as we rode, shot us with water guns, threw pylons at our heads, grabbed our knees, rattled the bikes, yelled at us, pushed us, jumped on the back of the bikes with us and grabbed the handlebars, grabbed our helmets and twisted our heads…all while we were moving. It was….interesting. It went well and I got a special kudos for focus. But oh man was it hot. It was over 30C out in Surrey. Now put on jeans, thick leather riding boots, a riding jacket and gloves and get on a hot motorcycle on a paved lot with no shade. For about 5 hours. The water they threw at us felt good…and it felt even better when I took off my helmet and he dumped a bucket of icy water straight over my head.

I had been speaking with “Kramer” earlier and mentioned that I wasn’t even sure I wanted a bike since I had my scooter. By lunch he looked at me and said “You are definitely going to get a bike…. you should have seen your smile out there.”

But you know what I really hate? Walking in wet denim. That’s just an awful feeling.

Tomorrow is day two, it will be just as hot…I’ll remember to bring a second shirt, at least I had shorts to change into today though.