Thursday, May 29, 2008

Motorcycle Memories


Yes, I was once verging on cool.  Verging.  Before I was married I lived in Brooklyn and owned my very own Honda Hawk 650 motorcycle.  I loved it.  My (now) husband rode and I got such a thrill from riding on the back of his bike, that I started to think about getting my own ride.  I took a weekend intensive motorcycle safety course out in some abandoned airport in Brooklyn somewhere, passed with flying colors and proceeded to search out a motorcycle that fit me.  After seeing a few that didn't float my boat, I found an Army/Navy guy who brought this bike back from Germany on the Navy boat.  I bought it straight away.

I was young and inexperienced but I rode it in the country and in the crazy city (surprised I survived that looking back).  I rode in groups and alone and had a sense of freedom I never had before.  It also scared me to death because it was heavy and I was just a skinny thing.  Luckily the two times I dropped it (in a parking spot-embarrassing!) I was able to pick it up.  But barely.  It was bloody heavy and there I was 100 pounds of girl in a big, heavy helmet and my leather jacket and boots pulling the hunk of metal off the stinky pavement.  

I stopped riding when I started to try to conceive... for obvious reasons, but I miss riding solo sometimes.  I'm almost certain I'll never ride again.  I was spry, quick thinking and city savvy, and now I am a suburban slug driving an SUV in South Florida.  Oh, right, I had kids.  That is what happened.

I think I need to get some go-go boots, dye my hair and dip myself into the Fountain Of Youth.

Oh Hawkie....



7 comments:

Little Shadow Creations said...

~Joanna, you are such a bad ass!:) I can relate, I was a lot more of a bad ass befor I had kids. Believe it or not I was a (Union) construction chick in Seattle, untill baby #3.

P.S. When you gonna post your fat tat pic???

Heidi said...

Sweet! I always wanted a bike. I should have gotten that in before I had kids...my balance will never be the same = )

I can't believe you made it out of NYC alive on that thing lol!

Carrie Garvin said...

My kids all grew up with dirt bikes, 4-wheelers, mud-riding, etc... and to this day I'm surprised not one of them own a motorcyle. Whew...

Anonymous said...

Baby, you don't need no stinkin' fountain of youth. You're more fun-loving (and hotter) than the day we met.

Still, I certainly wouldn't object to you riding again (Joanna doesn't mention in her post how great her butt looked when she was riding, and how every guy wanted her to LEAD...leather jacket....jeans....motorcycle...YEAH, baby!)

Anonymous said...

You know, those go-go boots sound like a pretty good idea though, so uh...don't let me stop you there.

Anonymous said...

I always had you pegged as a cool, sexy kinda gal! And Brad confirms that you still are. ;)

My dad rode a beaut of a motocycle as a young man in Hong Kong, but I never had good enough balance for anything less than 3 wheels. Oh well.

Carrie Garvin said...

Hey- I forgot to mention~ The "Tradesmen" Harley group did the catering for the wedding we hosted here on our property last weekend. We lucked out, the President/Founder of the group is the husband of my husband's baby sister~ vrommmm.......... It was a blast having them!