life on the road for a female solo rider

Lack of energy due to busy riding schedule and lack of free internet access has prevented me from sharing my thoughts and experiences with you on this ride.  Today, I find myself closer to my final days on the road alone with my beloved Triumph Bonneville.  Throughout this ride, I have been bombarded with everyone's fears for me riding alone.  Today's comments really agitated me.

I checked into a hotel at these coordinates, Latitude: 35.3266 Longitude: -83.80710.  I prefer not to share the motel name but the owner is a sweetheart of a lady.  I asked for a room stating that I am riding alone and seek a safe place for my motorcycle with security with well lit area and a non-smoking room.  I had read reviews about the place and knew it was a bike friendly place.  While checking in, she says, "I have a room with a single bed, non-smoking for $$$ dollars".  She looks at me through her security glass and says, "you alone? you not scared?"  I said, "no Mam, I ride everywhere alone and not scared."  While she is signing me in, she says, "I changed my mind about putting you in the back, you should be in the front with all the other people, I feel it is safer for you but it will cost more money."  I asked why and she responds by, "oh, you can come out an sit around with the other guests."  I asked, "who stays in the back of the motel?"  She says, "workers".  I thought to myself, must be workers that help her out in the motel but it turned out that it is just working folks that come and stay at the motel while they work, usually for week long stays.  When I pulled into the room, a man comes out of his room to greet me.  He told me that the forecast looks grim for his work of painting because he cannot paint when it rains, he would rather be home doing things versus sitting in the motel room.  Based on the conversation with him, I concluded that she was referring to the tourist motel guests stay in the front.  However, her fear for me commenting like that made me feel uncomfortable. 

A couple was checking out and the guy noticed my bike and comments, "you riding alone?"  Here we go again, another one.......  His girlfriend says, "you are brave to be alone, you go everywhere alone?"  Then, the guy says, "you be careful, there are many bad people in the world, you should carry a stun gun and you should poke the eye out of the person that wants to hurt you.... "  he goes on and on and on explaining how to defend myself, then his girlfriend says, "stop, she looks like she knows how to take care of herself".  I thought, "deary Me, what is wrong with these people here?"

So, why is it that throughout this ride, I have so many people commenting about how I should not be riding alone?   Only a few of my female motorcycle riding friends truly understand.  Women travel the world alone, mostly in a car, they are not treated like that.   Is it the motorcycle?  Do I look like I am a fragile little thing that needs caring?  Is it my clothes?  Maybe my red lipstick - LOL!!! 

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