A bunch of us went out riding today. The sun was shining and the weather was perfect. There were 5 bikes most of the time. A couple others joined for a short time. I was out in front and having a good time there.

I have been taking some pictures while riding. I learned early on, not to worry about looking at the camera. I just point and shoot and hope for the best. I get about 1 out of 5 pictures to have good quality. That is an improvement from last year. Of those, only a handful are kept and shared on the web site.

Normally, I do a good job of keeping my eyes on the road in front of me while I am still able to take some pictures, enjoy the world around me and still manage to keep track of those behind me. Well today was especially nice and I was enjoying the road. A few times I lost track of the people behind me because I was focusing on what was in front. This isn't so bad. It is better than going the other way around.

I must admit, at one point on the way home I was checking my mirrors and couldn't see all the bikes. This isn't normally a problem for me because I just check back in a bit and see the ones I was missing before. But for some reason today, I got a little pre-occupied with the missing bike. I checked and checked but the rider in back was not to be seen. I thought I would watch the road behind me for a moment while rounding a corner. Not one of my brighter ideas. What was suppose to be a short one or two second glance turned in to several seconds. After the corner while looking for the other bikes I drifted just a bit into the on coming lane. I looked up with plenty of time to see the truck comeing at me and gently drifted back to my lane.

Although no one was hurt and this was far from a close call, it did remind me that even an experienced 25+ year rider that is in the saddle almost every day can still make stupid mistakes and it only takes a second or two for things to go from calm and fun to crazy and tragic.

The last bike was there by the way, I just couldn't see him because of how we were lined up while riding the curves.

Do a favor for yourself and all those in your life, keep your eyes on the road. Sure, take time to glance around at the world around you. After all, that is the main point of riding. You want to be a part of the world and experience it, not just drive through it. But all that beauty is lost if you look away too long and find yourself drifting into oncoming traffic or flying off the road into a canyon.

Stay safe and alert. Happy riding!