I have to talk about my bike now.

My first bike ever.

On June 1st, I passed the Team Oregon class and was able to transfer that passing grade as an endorsement on my license. In the class, we had range riding (parking lot to be exact) and I learned on a Kawasaki 125cc. It was such a small bike and the brake pedal was very difficult to use. The first day it did rain but I was ready to quit for some reason. But I stuck with it and went the second day. To challenge myself even further, it was raining the second day. Despite the rain, I passed, as did my friend from work.

I was anxious to ride. I was fortunate to ride my friends bikes a couple of times. But it was not satisfying. Money was an issue and I did try to get a loan or two, but some black marks still haunted me a little. I prayed as well about being able to get a bike one day.

Then it happened. One Saturday morning in September, the 13th, I was feeling like visiting a dealership in Hillsboro to look at bikes. They always have a large selection of used bikes and sitting there was this Honda Shadow. It was a 2003 Honda Shadow VLX, pearl blue with saddle bags, wind shield and sissy bar. The sales person asked if I was interested and I played cool and said sort of. I told him that I had some black marks on my credit and that I just figure that I won’t be able to get a loan. After some playing with numbers, I was signing a loan for the used bike. One of the guys rode it home for me and I took him back to work. But wow, my first bike.

I rode it over to my old roommates to finish watching a game with his friends. While we were sitting there, he asked, “Ok, truthfully, whose bike!” “Mine!” I said…the game paused and out we went to look her over.

I have never had so much fun in all my life. My only regret is that I wish I had it sooner. But I got the spring to look towards.