{"id":3712,"date":"2013-01-12T16:05:55","date_gmt":"2013-01-12T21:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=3712"},"modified":"2013-01-12T18:40:38","modified_gmt":"2013-01-12T23:40:38","slug":"winter-ride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=3712","title":{"rendered":"Winter Ride!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Preride\"Saturday, January 12, the weather where I live is usually frosty cold — not conducive to riding a motorcycle. But today we had a break. Predicted for more than a week, the air temperatures climbed close to 60F (15.5C). So what better way for a biker dude like me to enjoy it? RIDE!
\n
\n\"GrouprideJan122013a\"23 brave souls — that is, brave enough to agree to follow me — joined me for a ride through backroads and byways of our home state to a quaint old town where we had lunch. I was relaxed and happy leading this ride. I was able to relax because I rode the route by myself two days ago to familiarize myself with the turns and potential trouble spots. <\/p>\n

\"GrouprideJan122013b\"There I am, in full leather (Chip Firefighters, leather jeans, chaps, leather shirt, vest, and jacket) with a bunch of bikers similarly attired — and in this photo, with a sister’s closest friend from childhood (standing with her big Harley). We had a great time — terrific way to shake the winter blues and cabin fever.<\/p>\n

Does it matter that a gay man led this ride? Did anyone care? Nope — not at all. I am a safety-oriented ride leader. Not “that gay guy who rides a Harley in leather.” I enjoy leading rides and the camaraderie of fellow safe riders. My being gay has nothing to do with it. <\/p>\n

To prove that point… as I approached a group at the far end of the table to thank them for coming, I overheard one new member ask a seasoned member, “are there any gay people in this club?” Two of the members who have known me for years gave me a glance. One of them turned to the guy asking the question and said, “does it matter?” That<\/u> was the correct response!<\/p>\n

\"Ridecomment\"I could have gone to a gay leather gathering in Washington, DC, today. But to me, going for a ride, leading a group, and enjoying the comments of “great ride!” from my fellow riders was much more fun.<\/p>\n

Life is short: RIDE!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday, January 12, the weather where I live is usually frosty cold — not conducive to riding a motorcycle. But today we had a break. Predicted for more than a week, the air temperatures climbed close to 60F (15.5C). So … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-motorcycle-ride"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}