Motorcycle Eulogy!

Well I decided to keep the truck, avoid any more car payments and deal with the bad gas mileage and drive as little as possible. With the bike being gone I oddly enough felt like going for a quick ride today, then dawned on me that the bike was no longer and the remnants of my riding gear, leathers and jackets, helmets and gloves reminded me that an era had come and gone and I made it out alive with only 1 accident that threatened my life! So I look back on all of those hard solo rides and rides with buddies  where triple digit speeds in sweeping turns were commonplace. I remember thinking how cool this was to be able to enjoy the roads and feel the freedoms of the skills that the rider and the bike presented me.   can honestly say there was never a ride that scared me only some riders that we rode with that were less than safe at times, I stayed as far away as possible and knew where I needed to be on a given ride. No more trucking the bike to Yucaipa for the 200 mile Idyllwild run through mountain communities and down to the desert, then back up again, or the 33 rides up the famous highway 33 where the speeds were ridiculously over 120 mph for most of the ride. The most common and familiar ride was around my favorite and most road worthy ride was always LAke Casitas and that 71 mile roundtrip that gave me so much pleasure and yet almost killed me at the same time! That ride around the lake on Nov 22 ,2009 definitely changed my life and the lives of those around me but that was one bad ride amongst probably over 1500 rides in 12 years and well over 125,000 motorcycle miles if not more, and the greatest pleasure was having Terria riding along side of me when we rode together and enjoyed each others company for the ride and a good lunch or coffee somewhere along the route, those were the days but they are gone and I am good with it as we move onto another passion besides each other, Golf, Cars, something will crop up that will catch our fancy! I do bid a farewell to The great sport of motorcycling, i went out at the top of my game and was one of the best in the area for sport riders who didn't race at the track, and for that I  am proud that I taught myself to ride and get better and get really really fast! So I, we move on to something new and something fun, what that will be is the greatest question. Goodbye 98 , all my Gixxers, my busas, my R1 the 3 TLR's and the 2 Ducatis that were so damn beautiful, the KTM duke and any other bike I may have forgotten, I have ridden and owned over 20 motorcycles in my day, so much time effort and money spent on what was a passion, that is now an after thought of good times and thrills! Very lucky and Blessed to walk away intact and happy to be here...Goodnight!