Helmets and Jesus

You know – years back, when I first heard about states with no helmet laws, I thought to myself, “Wow. That’s stupid.” But you know, after this trip, and having gone through A LOT of states that leave the decision up to you, I guess I can see that it’s a bit of a “keep your laws off my body” issue. I still think it’s stupid. Personally, I can make the decision that I do not feel comfortable riding without a helmet and would like to have at least a CHANCE of surviving an accident. But if you want to feel the wind on your face whilst getting pelted by bugs and get a sunburn on your head and leave yourself little to no chance of surviving an accident, I guess that should be your personal choice. I don’t know. I’ve been trying to come up with something that it’s akin to…like seat belt laws? And I think I’m in favor of those. They seem to be fairly straightforward. Or no driving while talking on a cell phone? I know some states have passed that one – you can only talk on a phone with a hands free device. I am SO pro that. But personal freedom is important. And in terms of cell phones, it’s often someone else you are going to hurt for being an asshole on your phone, whereas the only person you are hurting is you if you decide to go sans helmet. Now I don’t know what to think. Huh.

Another helmet thought. When you ride for such long periods of time, you have an incredible amount of thinking time with yourself. It’s just you in there with you in that helmet. Some people do get those two way microphone things, but dave and I utilized a lot of smacking type sign language that worked moderately well… Plus, it’s kinda neat to have that solitude. I found out that I could keep myself pretty damn occupied. Did a lot of singing. Found out that I still remember the words to a lot of musicals. Who knew? Also spent a lot of time talking out loud to myself in stupid accents… and trying to talk to myself in German. We also used headphones quite a bit and listened to NPR when it was available and interesting… as well as a lot of country music. God – I really enjoy that Brad Paisley ‘Ticks’ song. Didn’t hear a lot of Dixie Chicks. I guess they really are still blacklisted from a lot stations. Grrrr. Also listened to some terrifying 24 Hour all god all the time stations. And there are A LOT of them! There are an awful lot of people who think that an awful lot of other people are going to hell. There are also WAY too many Christian rock stations. They kept making me think of that South Park episode where Cartman fronts his own Christian rock band… the lyrics were astoundingly similar…. “Oh Jesus…I wanna feel you Jesus…deep down Jesus…”