As I have been writing the story about one of our Road Trips...I got to thinking....now where did it all get started and what has happened since! Well, for me, I was 19 and in college when I got my first motorcycle. Using it to go to school and get around town was about the use of it except for a couple of weekend camping trips up in the close by Jemez Mountains. But I had gotten hooked. It was in the Army though that things really started to change. After coming home from Korea and back in the Monterey area of California, I was stationed there and Joe and I lived in the same apartment building. What fun....and ok...we got is some trouble with the wives! He had a 400cc bike...sold it shortly for a 550cc bike. Well I knew I needed one...had some re-enlistment money and went and bought an 850 Suzuki. What a beauty. It was only weeks later that Joe bought one too. Probably his third purchase of a bike in less than a year. If I was hooked....well Joe was a complete addict! Now...both in the Army and only having weekends to ride...there were no road trips...but lots of day trips....late night rides! Often we would sit together at the appartment with the wifes and kids but when they all retired...it was on to our bikes and off on a bike ride. The whole pennisula was ours. Very little traffic. We would cruise along and stop at the all night diners for some coffee. Gas and coffee was all we could afford! Sometimes it wouldn't be till 0630am that we would return...to quietly climb in bed. I know this sounds heartless and inconciderate. But that was the time we could go and ride...so we did. We loved it. During the weekends we would get on our bikes and cruise California Highway 1! It really doesn't get any better than that. Well....it does...but not by much!
We shipped our bikes to Hawaii for our 3 year tour there and our riding continued. It was wonderful having a bike out there. It was there when my brother Chip came and visited for a summer. He would ride behind me and off we would go and explore the island and visit a beach or two. I think he got the taste of motorcycle riding there and it would remain until he finally bought his own!
Well, years passed...motorcycle after motorcycle up through the years while I was a police officer in New Mexico. Let's see...after the first Kawasaki in college, I had a couple of Susukis, several Hondas, and a few Yamahas. But it was sometime in the 90s that Chip purchased his first bike...a 750 Yamaha. He drove down to New Mexico and I met him on my 650 Yamaha around Cimarron. We spent one day driving around those mountains and just loving it. We decided that 400 miles in a day was nothing but plain fun. We made a pact that we would take a vacation and go on a road trip. That day arrived...we loaded up our bikes with a tent, sleeping bags, camping gear, and headed north over some of the most beautiful passes of Colorado. We slipped out into the deserts of Utah and Arizona. Visited the Grand Canyon. Blew into Las Vegas. Road long and hard days coming on back. There are some great stories made on this trip..but for another time. But it was this trip that hooked us. And after this trip we knew Joe needed to come on the next one.
And that is how the Road Trips started. And more and more people and family have gotten involved. Let's see......Chip and I have done one every year since the first I think. Joe has missed only one year's boys Road Trip. Bobby, my son, and I have been on trips to California and Canada to mention a couple. My daughter Meleah and her Husband Steve went with Sharon and me on their first Road Trip to Vegas and back.....through Capitol Reef, Zion, Bryce, and beautiful country along the way! My sisters Jean and Wenda with their husbands Johnny and Jerry, went on a wonderful roadtrip with me up into Montana to see the re-inactment of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. We have also roadtripped with Jeanne and Johnny to Red River, NM and the Farm out in Kansas. Sharon and I, the first summer after marriage, did 15,000 miles on the motorcycle...and I can't even remember where all we went but it included the west coast and Canada!
So you can see that this family has become well aquainted with Road Tripping. Wenda and Jerry ride their Goldwing and enjoy camping with it in Colorado. Jeanne and Johnny have traveled all over Colorado and back east as far in Indiana a couple of times. Daughter Billie Jo has been riding for years and I think she is still in shock about her mother riding off in the sunset on her Goldwing wearing her pink chaps and jacket!
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