Maynard Hershon
A look at the Covid-19 situation from across the water
The pandemic has had a worldwide impact. This is how it changed biking for Maynard.
Ifeel sure that our lockdown hasn’t been nearly as severe as yours in the UK. We’ve been advised by our states to stay home and to leave only for essential trips. We’ve been advised by our states to wear masks around others outside our homes. None of that has had the force of law behind it. None of it came from the federal government. Most people stayed home from fear of contracting the virus. Many businesses were closed. In March and April, streets were quiet. Here in Denver you could cross even major urban street easily on foot.
Few people were walking. When you talked with your neighbours, conversations tended to be about the shortages: toilet paper, disinfectant…
We could always ride motorcycles. I did, and never had a problem with law enforcement or heard of anyone who did. I don’t know anyone who travelled on a motorcycle during the first month or so of the pandemic, but I suppose it was possible. I’m sure riding and camping would have been the same as it always had been.
Now, when I ride out of Denver to nearby motorcycle destination towns, streams of cruisers and sportbikes roar by my table outside the cafe, undeterred. Just like before.
The particularly American aspects of this pandemic are the anti-maskers and anti-vaccination folks. No law says you have to wear a mask.
Most businesses post signs at their entrances stating that if you don’t wear a mask you won’t be served. Fights have resulted from such signs, perhaps a shooting or two. No kidding.
No one here is surprised to hear that. A certain segment of us, concentrated in certain areas, is fiercely jealous of what that segment considers its freedoms, its rights as Americans. It’s the old Don’t Tread on Me mentality, and it’s as intense as ever.
Asking many an American, man or woman, to wear a mask is restricting that American’s liberty. That just won’t do – no matter the possible consequences. Don’t tell ME to wear a damn mask!
I haven’t left Colorado since the pandemic began in March. As the weeks and months have passed I’ve watched the driving by a significant minority grow worse. Drivers act out their frustrations more often and more dramatically than I’ve seen – ever.
I don’t see it so much in civilised Denver, but on the highways into and out of town, almost daily I see flagrant acts of reckless, get-your-vehicle-seized-andand-go-to-jail driving.
I’ll be riding 5mph or 10mph over the 65mph limit, fast enough to attract police attention. And I will be bullied out of the fast lane, the safe lane for motorcycling, by a huge pickup or SUV, filling my mirrors, wanting to do 25mph over the limit. I’ve seen an old Hyundai sedan swerving violently from lane to lane, passing cars on the right, on the left, 20 over the limit, only to dive off the highway at the very next exit.
There has been no law enforcement presence at any of the incidents I’ve seen. I’ve heard from reliable sources that local police do not like to enforce traffic laws... and I believe it. I see so many flagrant violations and so few vehicles parked on the shoulder in front of a lights-flashing black-and-white…
There’s effectively no enforcement. You’ll probably get away with it, no matter how outrageous.
And if this Covid-19 ‘thing’ is just too inconvenient and the mask too uncomfortable and confining and you hate standing in line with the six-foot distancing… Well, you can surely show the world that you hate it all... right there on US Highway 6 West out of Denver.
As I write this in early July the virus numbers are rising alarmingly in most states here in This Great Nation. I suspect that our spoiled, freedom-loving people are doing their best to spread the disease among their friends and neighbours and at rallies to support political candidates who support their right to spread the disease among their friends and neighbours.
I had wonderful plans for 2020, including two
Moto Guzzi rallies, both coincidentally in Kansas, our neighbouring state to the east. There was my high school reunion in June and a Four-Stroke Single National Owners Club lunch in August, both in Indiana, a thousand miles east. And I want to visit two friends, one in Montana and one in Arizona.
Both Guzzi rallies were cancelled. My reunion was cancelled. The FSSNOC rally may happen, hoo-ray! I hope to see my friends in Bozeman, MT, and Naco, AZ, each hundreds of miles in different directions from Denver.
I’m worried about staying in the inexpensive smalltown motels I’ve used for years. Will the rooms be clean? I’ve written about my friend Jim in Arizona many times. He’s in his mid-90s now. I can’t wait forever to visit him, can I?
Lots of us MSL readers are no longer youngsters. Have we put our lives on hold since this Spring? Every day I dread getting bad news about my friend Jim while I wait until the right moment to ride there and see him.
Damn virus. Damn virus.