LD Bench Riding in the Covid era...

kwthom

=o&o>
Premier Member
IBA Member
#1
A cool story to relate to this esteemed group of riders...

My great-niece is 13, going on 30. :) She's been around my recent motorcycle addiction...since she was an infant. I have a few photos of her at a bit less than two years of age, helping me wash my prior bike. Her younger brother now is roughly the same age as she was then, and is nearly ready to get those same photos taken. I truly consider these two as surrogate grandchildren. Kid One and Kid Two.

Anyway, the story!

She was over here with my wife yesterday, working on a school project - covid masks. My wife does a bit of sewing, and has already generated a few masks for immediate family recently. Her assignment was to create 'no-sew' masks. So, she and my wife spent the afternoon on the project. I believe she got an 'A'; made two different styles of mask, so that was reasonably easy task to complete.

As I was preparing dinner, I caught my niece looking over the certs/maps I have on the wall. I've put up framed 50cc ride & 48 state ride certs, along with the maps of those rides.

I quizzed her about how many states she's been in - eight was the number. Not bad, I tell her. Of course, by the time I was 13, my dad, being in the military, had us in four different locations. We'd travel by vehicle, so I possibly had 20-odd states that I'd been in, simply due to moving from one region of the country to another.

Her next question "Been to Hawaii?" Yep, for work; didn't get a chance to motorcycle there.

"Been to Alaska?" Nope. I then relate the Hyder to Hyder story, and have her look up where each community is.

"Going to do that ride?" I told her it's on a short list, but not certain about doing that one one-up or two-up.

She was then interested in the stories behind the other LD rides that my wife and I have both accomplished. The first one related to the "Why to Whynot" ride I did; the first themed ride on my (short) resume. I then retrieved my 'brag-notebook' - the one that has all my certs, along with route maps of each ride.

What a pleasant 45 minutes, reliving the ride stories and explaining the other stories behind the rides with her.

I think she'll be another one that enjoys travel as she gets older.

So, even if you can't actually ride, consider doing some bench riding. It's almost as satisfying.