What’s that feeling?

What’s that feeling that you get when you’ve laid into the off ramp, firmly committed to your line and you see snaking across your headlamp beam a dark stripe wriggling up the road to advertise the ominous approach of a fuel spill? What’s that feeling?

What’s that feeling that you get when you feel the asphalt tickle the outside edge of your boot and you didn’t know you had her laid in that far and your heart laughs and your right hand twists just a little harder? Hey, what’s that feeling?

What’s that feeling that you get when you’re screaming down the road like you own the left lane and the cages are diving off your path as you run up on them and there’s nothing in your wake but swirling clean air? What’s that feeling?

What’s that feeling that you get when you run past one and you hear him shift down and you hear his engine roar and he disappears in your mirror like a dying leaf on the wind? What’s that feeling?

What’s that feeling you get when you’re trailing a freighter more closely than you should be and you suddenly notice the blood smear crawling out from beneath the trailer and you know what’s coming, but you don’t know where it’s going to be and all you can do is shift your weight to your feet, grip the bars firmly and whimper a short prayer? What is that feeling?

What’s that feeling that you get when the wind is in your face and the sun is dancing between the clouds and it seems like all of nature is a part of you and you a part of it and you can smell the world and you can taste the world and it feels like you could reach out and touch the world to the edge of the horizon and that you could go on like this forever? What is that feeling?

What’s that feeling that you get when you’re easing past a cage and the little boy in the back seat presses his face against the window with his eyes as big as tomorrow and he moves his right hand ever so slightly as if he’s so enthralled that he’s almost afraid to wave and you nod in his direction and see his face light up like he was right there with you? What’s that feeling?

What’s that feeling that you get when your heart seems to slow and the roar of the wind seems to fade into a whisper and you and the dragon melt into one single unit and she sways beneath you and she moves to your every thought and there is almost no sound and there is nothing but you and she gliding to the smooth hum of the road? What’s that feeling?

What’s that feeling that you get when you awaken in the night and you can hear her calling out to you and you know that you can’t go and you want to answer her, but you know you shouldn’t go, but you can’t push away the sound of her calling out to you to ride? What’s that feeling?

What’s that feeling that you get when the sun is rising to your back, the road stretches out forever to your front and you know there is no place that you have to be, no schedule that you have to keep, and no one to call your name for the rest of the day? What is that feeling?

I’ve felt that way sometimes.