I've been riding since I was born. We
lived on a ranch and from tractors to three-wheelers, if it had
wheels we were riding it. I can still remember my brothers
and I spending many a night making ramps and jumping ditches seeing
who could go the highest...and crash and burn the best. We
even tricked out our go-karts and riding lawn mowers. We had
fun!
A Honda Trail 70 was my first
baddest ride..followed by a Honda Rebel 250...Harley 883
Sportster...650 VStar...1100 VStar...Midnite Star...and now a
Kawasaki Nomad which I just love and my nickname and all my bikes
have been named Black Widow. Funny...I don't live up to my
nickname as I am only on my first
husband...
Never ever had a thought or clue about
writing...I didn't attend my English class. I didn't attend
school very well either...always out with my boyfriends and friends
spinning brodies and doing wheelies in the orange
groves....
When not spinning brodies or learning
new tricks on a bike I was on many softball teams traveling the
country since I was 12. That was the greatest! Made it
out of high school with the hopes of attending Fresno State as a
softball player and wanted to be an
anesthesiologist. Do you know how many courses you
have to take? Way, way, way too many for me. As much as
I hated attending any kind of school I seemed to be making myself a
career at it as I attended many colleges and somewhere
along the way I ended up being a respiratory therapist and
then I got the call from the Postal Service and have been in
their employ since '88 as a Letter
Carrier.
I married the GREATEST man ever to
come into my life and we are celebrating our Tenth
Anniversary this July 20th! WOOHOO!! Along with my
husband Mike came three of the most wonderful kids I could ever ask
for...Travis, who's graduating from Chico State with a major in
journalism this May and has a job with a newspaper in
Austin, Texas,...Jessica, who just turned 16 and is now
driving and is very involved in singing..and my youngest, Kirk,
who's 14 and he's our social boy and very into computers and the
many games out there. Being a stepmom is the hardest thing in
the world..everything you do is magnified 1000 times, what you
said or didn't say, went or didn't go...but I wouldn't change a
thing. I'm very lucky and it's been great watching these
three grow up and being a part of their lives. I also have a
niece and nephew, Jenica and Andrew, who I adore and love to spoil
when I can.
Mike and I ride all the time. We
are very involved with our riding club, TCFT, where Mike's the Road
Captain and I'm the Vice President. Then we have our own
private group called the Black Jackets, which is made up of friends
that we like to just hang with. No ego's or politics.
Just riding and eating. Then there's the rides I do for Biker
Ally. Most of the time I try and take as many of my friends
as I can to these events. I'm thrilled to be doing what I do
and try and share it with them when I can. Then there's the
dinner rides, social rides, rides just because we want to...Mike
and I just like to ride.
I'm really lucky with how I ended up
with Rain and Biker Ally. I had known about Biker Ally from
the Internet and was curious if Rain would be interested in
some pictures from California. I sent her an e-mail and never
received a reply. I knew Grace Pope from a group we were both
members of at the time and asked what to do next and if I was
sending them to the right place. Again I tried and no
response. I was ready to give up when I found out that Rain
had just had a major hard drive crash and wasn't receiving anything
from anybody. Again I sent her a few pictures and I got a
reply back that she wanted more and that she needed someone from
California and was I interested. Was I ever in the right
place at the right time! Of course I said
yes!
My first test articles were
basically lots of pictures and a few lines. Rain wants more
than I came,I saw,I conquered. She had to fight me tooth and
nail for three paragraphs. Her phone calls were filled
with the same five questions..who, what, when, where, and
why. I had to put those five words on a piece
of paper attached to the computer to stare at as I tried to
think of something to write. Now, when she calls it's What
are you doing to me? Writing a book? I couldn't get you
to write three sentences when you started now you write me
books. What are you doing to me? I love our phone
calls!
Working with Rain has been one of the
funnest and most trying times, and I mean that in a good way.
Rain's so easy to work with but some of the things we deal with are
challenging to say the least. I must give her credit for
staying in as long as she has. It's her magazine but yet she
listens to our ideas and doesn't slam them upon first hearing
them. We all have our ways of writing and areas of expertise
and Rain just guides us, gives us a few directions as to what she's
expecting and turns us loose. It works. Other than
working together I totally enjoy just talking with her and laughing
about all the goofy and stupid things we and all the staff
does. I really look forward to when the staff gets together
and am totally stoked about our upcoming rally in '07. And I
so totally enjoy meeting all the people I do and listening to their
stories. I've met the greatest people and looking forward to
meeting more. In one article I mentioned missing the sunrises
and I now have a guy who sends me pictures of both sunrises and
sunsets from his back deck...that's so totally
righteous!
I still wonder what Rain saw in me but
I'm glad she did. Riding is my passion and I'm having the
time of my life. Thanks Boss.
