rolling thunder...

the holiday weekend and the traffic has already picked up
things were back to back
bumper to bumper
although no motorcycles are seen here
the motorcycles have already started rolling into town

this afternoon after work I was rolling town L Street crossing number streets going down
it is a One Way street at this point and if you catch the lights it can have a good flow
my single speed is geared for mountain and is not so good for catching the flow

number streets counting down
17th, 16th, 15th...
at 15th I rolled up on a red light
at this time of day 15th Street is one way at this part of town
at the front of the pack of stopped vehicles is a DC Police officer on his Harley Davidson police motorcycle
among the post business human sidewalk traffic was a pack of people in biker casual
a mixture of black leather, black jeans, and black t-shirts
lots of black, lots of bandanas, and lots of gray beards
one of the bikers stalled with his small digital camera
the man with the camera pointed at the camera as the camera pointed to the motorcycle cop
the cop nodded
the man took his photo
I saw that the light was about to turn green so I focused on moving forward

there was some cat and mouse
the cars passing at their high speeds
while I was forced to overspin my single speed mountain bike and never really get any speed
yet... even with gear so small that it works effectively on dirt I am moving faster than the flow of traffic

as L Street Merges onto Massachusetts Avenue a few blocks later I the intersection
the light is yellow
the light is red
I hear the sound of the horn from the motorcycle cop's bike
at the same time a car that had been in the left hand lane of oncoming traffic made its left turn
the motorcycle cop was at good speed and hit the brakes in a panic
the motorcycle buckled upon itself and the officer went rolling
the VW continued its turn and stopped on the side of the road

with the camera around my neck I stopped in the crosswalk ahead of the cars stopped at the red light
everyone paused
the officer stood up and checked his hand and his elbow then went to move his motorcycle from the center of the intersection

everyone seemed okay
at first I thought that the officer would want my account
then I figured he may not
I decided not to take a photo
when the officer was on the ground I was more worried about his well being than capturing the shot
then when the officer was up and mobile and everything seemed to be okay
I was more concerned about getting on my way
and not getting involved

my perspective is different than the car driver's
I thought that they could share what they saw instead

I was just glad he was okay

witnessing this messed with my mojo

I went through the intersection first
then went on my way
rode up around the US Capital Building
then back past the White House on through Georgetown
snapped a few shots than caught some peace away from the cars on the bike
the car traffic was thick
and I had lost my mojo
was not splitting the lanes well
was not feeling well on the bike
felt fine one the bike
just did not feel like dealing with the variables and the consequences