A Passenger Joins the Trip

I’ve decided to take a passenger along with me on my crazy trip.  My passenger is a she.  “She” is joining us guys - us guys being Herm and me.  Herm is my bike.  Why my bike is a male, and why his name is Herm, is not quite clear to me, and I don’t care to spend a lot of time speculating on it.  That’s just the way it is.  The fact is that two guys cannot go 9000 miles in two weeks without a little female companionship.  So I’m taking along my new friend, Sigourney.  

 

Sigourney, as you can see, is a shark.   Why a shark?  I’m not quite sure.  Maybe because the Road Glide’s fairing somewhat resembles a shark’s nose.  Members on the roadglide.org internet forum have even been known to refer to themselves as the Shark Nose Society - a secret one, in fact.  But really, I just think sharks are cool. 

So why Sigourney?  I actually spent a great deal of time trying to come up with an appropriate name.  Names are hard. I figured that a shark’s name should have a shhh sound.  Seems natural enough, right?  Let’s see, there’s Cheryl, Shannon, Charmaine. Ugh, none of those seemed right.  Great name for a girlfriend/wife/sister, but not for a shark.  So it was off to the baby name directory where I decided that my passenger’s name should have some meaning behind it.  I considered Scirocco, which means “warm wind,”  hopefully what I will feel along the way.  But that went out the door because I once had a roommate who had a VW Scirocco car, and that was one awful piece of crap.  Bad karma in so many ways.  I liked Sasha, “one who defends.”  But defense is not really what I need (I hope).  Shamira seemed like a good name, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a stripper name.  And I don’t have room or a need for a stripper pole.  (Apologies to anyone named Shamira who might be reading this).  Then I came across Sigourney.  Sigourney is cool. Sharks are cool. And Sigourney rhymes with journey, and that’s cool.  An internet search revealed that Sigourney means “Conqueror.”  Perfect.  I should be riding with a conqueror.  This is a competition after all.  I thus christen my new passenger Sigourney. 

I suppose this all seems a little like Tom Hanks in Cast Away, who named his volleyball “Wilson,” and made an imaginary companion out of him.  But that’s what kept him sane, right?  Will Sigourney keep me sane?  I think it’s too late for that.  But hopefully she will give me some guidance and provide a little companionship.  But one suggestion from her that I ask for directions, and…well, let’s just hope that never happens.