I neglected to add an event that occurred quite some time ago. I entered a Harley Davidson contest for a chance to win a new Sportster or Nightster. The contest had you fill out your basic info and then they gave you a chance to write down why you think you deserve this bike. Well, I really wish I could remember what I wrote but it was a somewhat passionate paragraph on why I want to get into riding. I wasn't aware of this at the time but 100 runner ups received a free Rider's Edge course from Harley Davidson, worth up to $400, and turns out I was 1 of the 100.
Word! A similar thing happened to me. I read about Che when I was younger and thought what an amazing thing to do. Take a crappy old Norton and ride it all the way up South America. What a great adventure that must have been. Then freshmen year in college I had a English Lit professor that told us about his road trip across the USA when he was younger. I thought how amazing that would be to do. (oddly enough Ryan was in this same class WELL be before we ever become friends). These stories stuck in the back of my head for years and years never to be forgotten but gaining more cobwebs as the years past. I never had any plans to go cross country anywhere really. I never EVER had any intentions of ever riding a motorcycle. One day a friend of mine came to me at just the right point of my life. I was feeling rather empty and felt like I really needed something special to fill this void I had in my life. He asked if I wanted to circumnavigate Japan on a motorcycle. It was just fate that at the moment in my life he asked such a ludicrous question. With these two stories just dangling in the back of my mind and without even 1 minutes hesitation I said yes, the rest is history. Had Alwyn never asked me that one "simple" question on that day, I probably would die an old man never have ever ridden a motorcycle. Now I can't imagine life with out one.
ReplyDeleteI remember that class, and remember those stories. I remember the professor telling a story about the smell of riding through the mountains of Northern California through a forest of cedar trees. I remember him saying that ofcourse that close connection between memory and smell, but that he would never forget that, and there was no other experience to compare to it. That is definitely something that has stuck with me. I also remember going to Chick-Fila after class and chatting on the walk home. We would usually go back to your place and play video games or listen to music, along with other recreational things :)I could almost say that during that class is probably when we started to become friends.
ReplyDelete