Motorcycles across the desert

I was watching a movie preview on tv tonight and the man had his bicycle sliding across the ground laid flat and the man stood on top of it.

It reminded me of a real life experience when I was 19 or 20 near my father's 2 1/2 acres of land then in 1968.

I was riding my army surplus bsa 500 that was used in North Africa during world war II and sort of halfway racing my older cousin on his dirt bike. My motorcycle looked a lot like the motorcycle Indiana Jones rode in the movie with Sean connery except mine didn't have a sidecar.

I was riding about 45 miles per hour on a dirt road up on Yucca Mesa near Yucca Valley, california and sort of racing my older cousin across country on a large dirt road.

since I was ahead I looked back quickly to see if my cousin was gaining on me. However, since I was on a dirt road there was a sand burm built up where the cars hadn't driven and when I looked back while travelling about 45 mph I hit it and the motorcycle went down. Luckily, I had very fast reflexes and pulled my left leg out so it wouldn't be pinned against the sand at 45 mph. Instead I grabbed the right handlebar and pulled myself up on top of the bike now traveling about 40mph on its side. I stood there until the left handlebar and left footpeg dug in and suddenly stopped the bike from about 20 mph to zero so I rolled forward and luckily I had a long sleeve shirt on so it absorbed most of the force of stopping that quickly when I rolled forward to absorb the shock like an acrobat. I came up laughing and saw my cousin very worried at first and then started laughing with me.

Like my father used to say, "a miss is as good as a mile". I felt very alive and never forgot that sweet moment of realizing I didn't need to go to the hospital after that strange experience.