Motorcycle Beginnings

I mentioned in my last Post that I'd have more to share about and around the Sport Touring ride that I took last weekend.  There was more than one reason that I decided to ride the 60's era Honda Trail bike and, more importantly, more than one reason that I decided to go where I did.  It really was a sort of Two-Fer Touring Adventure.

Topography was mentioned, an almost endless choice of small paved roads to ride was as well.  The area and the bike took me back more than 45 years ago to where my riding roots began, a place and time I wanted to revisit and remember.  It wasn't really my brother or I that were the first riders in our family.....Gramp did it, he and Gram starting everything off.

Dad did it.......

Then WE started doing it.....

Gramp was the one that bridged the gap, reintroducing motorcycle riding to the 3rd generation.  Here he is in 1969, not with Grandma but with the neighbor lady :)

It wasn't just Gramp, Dad and our Trixie made it go too.

Dad gave me rides .....

My brother got rides....

As you can imagine, it was a lot more satisfying for brother and I to actually do the piloting ourselves......that little 1964 Honda 55cc Trailbike with the overlay sprocket got ridden a lot by my brother and I, to the point that we had trails worn in the small-town lawn.

The next season, Gramp went and bought a brand new Yamaha 125 Twin Scrambler and that's when things really started to change.

It wasn't long and there were 4 machines spread between 3 generations.....then only a couple of years later, 4 having grown to double digits in number, shuffling necessary in the garage at home.....In this photo, we both had our "Endorsements".

Before we had our "Endorsements", there were rides taken on neighboring roads, the distance of those loops from the Pea Green garage growing ever larger as we gained Experience....

What the place looks like now.....remodeling, more (lots of) "stuff" where Gramp's zinnias and glads used to grow.....45 years later.

Gramp carried Rural Mail, most of the time in summer finished his Route early afternoons and that left Lots and Lots of time for his flowers and vegetables.

Summers weren't the only time that we did our riding.....

 

But northern Wisconsin winters gave way to summers, after a few more of them....

Dad's '76 Anniversary HD Electra Glide....(sorry Dad, end of the film roll)

Mom reminded me last month that it had been 65 years ago that Dad had almost met his demise at the intersection just to the north of here on WI 25 so I stopped to get a photo, a corner I'd been told about and still remember.  Following a milk truck that was signalling right, dad passed on the left and was run over.  The milk truck driver was drunk, dad was in a coma for months and eventually, years later when his boys wanted to go, Got Back On.

The rural roads around Hillsdale haven't really changed all that much, the farms, many if not most of the buildings, names on the mailboxes, etc. just don't look all that much different.  Summertime and the fragrance of oak burning in more than one stove as I passed by common, unconfined livestock and freshly cut hay smell like they always will.  It was a pretty good trip back in time on my Sport Touring machine.