Crossing the Precipice on a Super Duke GT

Traveling New Roads

Someone I trust advised me to start this story with a bang. My bang was the sound of the Achilles tendon on the dominant right side of my body rupturing on a basketball court at Disney World. My magic encounter with the land of Mickey Mouse landed me on a home-bound flight to North Carolina for surgery and facing the unknown of the after effects of such an ordeal.

I’d recently arrived at a sweet spot in my career and had my eyes on acquiring a motorcycle to replace the one I’d regretfully sold. The research and daydreaming I’d done on the bike had worked their way into my psyche and the idea was beginning to inch its way into reality when the tendon popped. So it was a setback, yes, but I was born with an extra dose of resilience and had absorbed enough wisdom in 42 years to know that this, too, shall pass.

In the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I found myself emerging from an existing quarantine as I recovered from the surgery. Being able to safely ride a motorcycle again was a goal that kept me going through the weekly physical therapy sessions. As the light at the end of the recovery tunnel grew brighter, the stay-at-home orders were fast approaching and I had a decision to make. In addition to the risk of re-rupturing the recently repaired tendon, I had to make up my mind over whether I should bring my vision of riding again to fruition in the new era of social distancing and limited hospital beds.