A couple of years ago I met a guy who loves motorcycles. Now, this isn’t a phenomenon by any means, but he just seemed to live for them. He grew up in California and raced dirt bikes as a kid, but the kid in him never outgrew that feeling of adventure. He could tell you story after story of wild things that happened on any given day the dirt bike was involved.

He taught me a lot about motorcycle’s just by listening to his stories. The pitch of his voice changed to excitement whenever he spoke about them, and it was like he was reliving the moment and taking me along for the ride. He’s older than me, but still owns one that’s street legal and the last time we talked he was trying to get one delivered to him that belonged to his childhood buddy, who passed away too soon. There’s no telling how many he has now, but I still recall what he taught me.

Yesterday I was driving home, and a motorcycle pulled up behind me at a stoplight. I was in the left lane driving away from town because so many cars turn right in this part of the road and there were a lot of cars. The further away you get from town the less cars you have around you and there’s a part of the road that takes you up and down continuous hills. I moved over to the right lane to let the motorcycle pass and there were cars in front of him, but he showed patience. I heard my friends voice say, “All the motorcycle wants is the open road.”

I lost track of the motorcycle until I got to the top of the hill to turn onto my street. I caught a glimpse of him ahead in the distance and there were no cars around him as he had both lanes all to himself. I knew it would be short lived because he was coming up on a busy intersection ahead, but maybe all he needed was that moment to feel the open road. My friend taught me…When you see a motorcycle in the rearview mirror, move over and let it have the open road.