Best Summer Ever?
I have a friend on one of the motorcycle forums that I frequent who stated that I should have titled one of my threads Best Summer Ever. While it has been a really good one, I’m not sure if I can call it that. I’ve had some really good summers over the years, with some real high points in my life.
2008 was a magical Summer. Terri (my ex), Andrea (her daughter) and I rode to Buell’s 25th Anniversary on Buells. Andrea had learned to ride at a local Harley Dealer’s Rider’s Edge course. I tailored the route so that she would get time on her bike without it being too much of a stressful overload. The first day, we only covered about 150 miles. The second day we did more, but there were plentiful rest stops. Andrea got used to riding and she got comfortable on her Blast. Also, we were able to attend two 1/2 Mile dirt track races along the way. Bedford, PA and Lima, OH. Joe Kopp won both (he was the racer we all were pulling for) We also stopped at a College in Rockford, Illinois that Andrea was considering going to. Homecoming was a great time. The Loud Fans T-shirts that we had made up were a hit (the shirts had also been a family effort), and the Factory filmed and interviewed us as a Family who all rode Buells to the event. We took the high speed ferry across Lake Michigan, and came home through Ontario, stopping at Niagara Falls. It was an Adventure that had no major difficulties and many rewarding moments. It was like a dream come true for me.
Going back, 2001 was another magical Summer. That was the year we bought our house in Leominster. Did you ever get the feeling that you were meant to do something? That was how buying the house went. Every step of the way, there were things that looked like they would stop the purchase. Then those roadblocks would evaporate through nothing that we did. When we put in our initial offer, somebody beat us by two hours. Two weeks later, they withdrew their offer. The Mortgage guy told us that he didn’t think we’d get approved for a mortgage; yet it came through. There were a lot of things that went wrong (I won’t recall all of them now), but by the end of August, we had our house.
Looking back over the years, There have been a good number of Great summers. There have also been a few really bad summers, as well. In 1997, I was laid up most of the summer with a crushed ankle (a Jersey Barrier had fallen over on me at work). I spent most of that summer laying on my couch in pain. That was followed by the summer of ’98, when I got my Buell S3-T which was another Great summer. I’ve had several other memorable years going all the way back to 1967 (before that, I loved summer, but I was still a kid going to school).
It seems that there is no “Perfect” season in my life. Out of every really bad thing that’s happened to me, there has been something really Good that has come as a direct result. And, while this past summer has been a really good one, when I was trying to sleep in Columbus, Nebraska with countless trains blowing their horns at all the crossings in town, it wasn’t looking that good. Nor was it looking that good when I was hiding under a picnic shelter in Missouri while tornados were ravaging the area, or when I was riding through a hailstorm with lightning striking all around me in Utah. Still, I think that some adversity makes the trip more memorable. When I was trying to sleep in Indianapolis in a hellacious thunderstorm, and there was two inches of water in my tent, I wasn’t thinking good thoughts. I was reciting the old Marine Corps mantra, Improvise, Adapt and Overcome. But I won’t forget it.
It’s been adventurous and it’s been fun but the best part is that it’s not over. In just a few days, I’m going to get on a plane and fly to Australia, where it’s now late Spring. I’m going to be spending Summer “Down Under” until next May, when I come back here to spend another Summer.
Hmmm; maybe this IS my Best Summer Ever.
