My grandson lives 800 miles from me, so needless to say when we're able to be together, we want to make the most of it. Reid is 5 years old and all boy. He's crazy about Zombies, Motorcycling and me. His love of dirt bikes comes from a very short exposure that up until recently, had been limited to setting on some of my old trials bikes in the garage, or watching me ride around the yard...from a safe distance. This past summer that changed when I spotted him holding one of my old helmets, down out of sight, as he watched me ride around in circles from his position in a doorway. That action said to me, "I'm ready to feel that for myself!" Short story is that I carefully coaxed him onto the spot between me and the handlebars, we made a few slow rounds, then faster a little faster and just like that, he was in love.
When he got back home in Tampa, he obsessed over the experience. He talked of nothing else; spending hours watching motocross videos and drawing pictures of me and him racing around some imaginary course, each on a brightly colored bike of our own.
I could not not stand it. Here's a LINK to a little video of the moment that both of our lives changed in an instant, when he came for a visit a couple of weeks ago and dragged me (as usual) out to the shop to sit on the machines housed there.
Later that same day... LINK
