Ridin' High

What's up world? Over a year since my last blog entry? Wow! What have I been doing? Well, I bought a motorcycle... If you've known me for any amount of time you might not have pictured me as the motorcycle type, and if that's the case then boo on you! Ha, ha. Just kidding. You would probably be right considering that I have had limited experience riding motorcycles up to this point. I have ridden some ATV's and Jetski's but not a lot of motorcycle. I took the beginner rider safety course which also qualified as my motorcycle driving test and passed with flying colors, of course. A couple of weeks later I bought a 2008 Victory Hammer. I'm officially a biker.

As a point of reference, this all took place late last August and I bought the bike early September. I have put over 1400 miles on it to date and that is without riding it much during the winter. The weather is nice enough out here that I can ride it to work almost every day during the summer, and I do. It is a lot of fun and I feel fortunate to be able to afford it and enjoy it.

For those of you who know my wife, Thuy, you may be asking, "Does Thuy ride on that thing with you?" The answer would be, yes she does and I'm just as surprised as you are! Owning a motorcycle is one of those things that, as a guy, a lot of us dream of buying but perhaps many never do or it's just a thought. I shared this idea with my wife early on in our relationship and her response was something to the effect of, "well, I'm not riding on that thing with you". Privately I thought, that's fine, I don't need you on it anyway, but I knew that the reality was that I would need her on board with the idea if I was going to purchase a nice bike, which was what I wanted. As luck may have it, she became friends with one of her co-workers who's husband owned a motorcycle and she began talking to Thuy about how much fun it was and that we could all go riding together if I owned a motorcycle as well. Opportunity had knocked and I was there to rip the door off the hinges so that opportunity could come in as easily as possible. Any married man will tell you that their ideas are met with due skepticism by their wives, but if one of their wives girlfriends has the same idea it is the greatest idea in the history of mankind! Well, the die was cast! The tables had turned! The girlfriend had spoken and fate had decided that it was high time that Todd Boardman owned a motorcycle. It's that simple.

I have been pleasantly surprised, in the short time that I have been riding, to find that the motorcycling community is somewhat of a brotherhood. More often than not you get a friendly extended left hand when passing another biker on the road and many are more than happy to chat with you about bikes and where are the good places to ride when you run into them at the gas station or in a parking lot. I reminds me of going camping with my family as a child. The other people at the campground were generally friendly and willing to chat with their fellow campers. I'm not 100% sure that this was because they were friendly or because my Father never met someone he couldn't strike up a conversation with but either way it seemed that we were always talking to someone who had come there to camp as well.

I'm looking forward to a great summer of fun day rides with our friends and on Memorial day we are all going down to LA to ride Pacific Coast Highway. Should be fun! Whatever your plans are this summer I hope you have fun and be safe!