By Jason Moxness, Market President, Core Bank
To call me a biker might be a bit of a stretch, but I’ve had bikes off and on since I was 10 years old. My first bike was a Honda Trail CT70. My most recent was a 9-foot long rigid (no suspension) Chopper. And there were a few Harley’s sprinkled in between. Add several trips to Sturgis to the list, and I at least qualify to be considered a biker.
One of my biggest fears on my first trip to Sturgis was getting caught in a storm.
I had visions of getting caught in a downpour and laying my bike down at highway speeds. Needless to say, part of that vision came true in a big way. In the middle of nowhere on a two-lane road in western Nebraska, a good old hot summer storm blew in and pelted our pack of ten bikers. It was the kind of rain that would have been difficult to drive a car in, let alone a motorcycle. Water was standing on the road, and I felt out of control as I hydroplaned across the puddles. I remember gripping the handlebar and wiping my face while thinking, “my wife is going to kill me if I get hurt out here.”
At that moment, I remembered a piece of advice that I was given by one of the other guys.
Keep riding or you’ll never get out of the storm.
When you’re riding through a storm, slow down and keep riding. Don’t pull over and wait for the storm to pass. Call it biker intuition, but that’s a piece of sage advice that I’ve carried with me for years.
Fast forward to a recent experience that was the inspiration for this story. I was driving my car home from the airport on I-435 and ran into another one of those hot summer pop up thunderstorms. As I was crossing the bridge over the Missouri river, I saw a biker pulled over on the side of the road. He was waiting for the rain to stop. I wanted to stop and share my advice with him – Keep riding or you’ll never get out of the storm! Sure enough, a few miles up the road I was back to sunshine and dry highway. I thought about the biker and wondered if he was still on the side of the road, stuck in that hovering rainstorm.
If you’ve never been through a storm in your life, consider yourself lucky. It’s a good idea to prepare for one to hit – they always pop up when you least expect it, just like a summer rain storm. A setback at work, a bad month, a bad year, health issues, relationship problems, a dark day that seems to last for weeks – whatever your storm is, please take this advice…
When the storm hits, don’t hide and wait for it to stop – keep riding! There’s sunshine and dry roads ahead. Always.