Father's Day 2007

I have always wanted to ride a motorcycle. I never rode one as a kid and did not start riding as a young man. Marriage, full time job, family expansion with two boys came and the ‘practicality’ of starting a motorcycle riding career was not good.

I started talking more about riding a motorcycle as the boys made their way through high school. As my youngest son approached high school graduation, my wife gave me an encouraging comment about starting to ride a motorcycle. I signed up for the local riding course, earned my motorcycle license and bought a motorcycle. I started using the motorcycle as my primary commuting vehicle. I would ride all winter, as long as there was no snow.

Last summer we took a ~4,500 mile, two week trip to Yellowstone, Boise, Las Vegas and Flagstaff. It was one of the best vacations I have ever taken. We rode in a snow storm in Yellowstone and experienced 117° in Vegas.

So this brings us to last weekend. We had five of us and three motorcycles for a trip to St. Louis for the weekend. The one event was pizza at our favorite place in St. Louis, but the main event was riding the bike with my two boys. It was the best father’s day I have ever had. It was even better than the one when Tom Watson won the US Open (which is cheating because I was not a father at the time).

Advice that I would give to the young parent, spend time with your kids. Take trips, do special things that you will never be able to repeat at another time.