Write about a trip you have taken, one that may not have turned out as you planned but was nevertheless a gift.
My husband is, as he would say, "scooter trash from way back." He was building motorcycles from age 14 and kept it up into his thirties. Then, he stopped. Life gets in the way sometimes.
When we married in 1999, that was in his past. Several years later, he got interested again and found a motorcycle that he truly loves, a Triumph Rocket III. It's a big ole bike.
(Here we are on the Rocket at Tail of the Dragon, North Carolina/Tennessee, in May 2013)
At a motorcycle rally, he found a group of running buddies who named themselves the Rally Riders, and they hung out together in lots of places in this area. He also started riding with a group of Rocket riders all over the U.S. This sounds like he rides a lot; he doesn't. He works too much, too hard (IMHO) but occasionally he will take time away for a rally. I totally support it.
For several years, the Rally Riders have met up in Galveston for the Lone Star Rally, usually held in early November. The second year we went (2008), it was moved to the first week of December, because Galveston had been devastated that fall by Hurricane Ike. What an experience. I know that the small island's dwellers are heartily sick of half a million motorcycles overtaking their city each year, but that year, it was one of the first tourist events to come back and it did a lot to help the city reboot. We love Galveston.
All this is background that you need if you don't know me...So...
In summer of 2011, my husband had treatment for throat cancer. Suffice it to say that the treatment was devastating. He really thought he was dying and at times he really wanted to. One of the things he lived toward was getting back onto the motorcycle. It's a big bike, 850 pounds. He lost about 75 pounds in the course of treatment, and certainly most of his strength. The Rockets Across America group got together and bought him a Kindle Fire to ease his recovery. So awesome.
As Fall of that year approached, he wanted to go to the Galveston Rally. I was worried that it would be too much for him. His Rally Rider friends packed him up, helped him trailer his bike down there, and put him on the bike to ride. I think if I'd realized how unready he was I might have tried to say no...
He was still taking all his food through a PEG tube at that time. He was *not* well. He was surely not well enough for that trip. But he did it. He did it!!! Our friends Lefty and Top and Kathy and Bebop watched after him, didn't let him get too tired, made sure he had what he needed until I joined him a few days later.
Here we are on the 61st St. Fishing Pier during that trip:
I look back at this picture and I'm amazed. Ken did NOT have the strength or will to get there on his own. It was because of our friends that he was able to do it. And what a shot in the arm it was. I think it wasn't the trip either of us had envisioned, but it was more healing than anything we could have imagined.
This morning I stood in the driveway and watched him ride away on the Rocket. He's headed to Burleson to meet our friends Top and Kathy and trailer the bike down to the Island. I'll join them in a few days. We'll try to get another photo like this. There's more of him now. And there's more of us: because we have friends.
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