The History of Me

I'll start with my family heritage of English, German and Cherokee as an excuse for the mixed up way I am. That being said I was born a Hoosier in Greenfield Ind. and for the next several years we moved from state to state as my father progress his way through college and the Mo-Pac Railroad. At the end of second grade we finally settled in St Louis, Missouri where I crashed my way through 10 plus years of public schools. Considering this to be era of 1965 to 1975, school was not my thing at all. I was in to more adventurous things like singing and playing in a local rock band and seeing just how far I could push my parents. And push indeed I did! Those late nights gigs, the groupies and the self induced drug/alcohol coma's I put myself into soon put me at odds with the "By the Book" Baptist family image my dad tried so hard to maintain. I even went as far as to buy a bike just to show him who was boss of my life.

I was a real rebel on my 350

As everyone knows all things must come to an end at some point and so it was with my party days in Missouri in the mid seventies. A brief stint in Uncle Sam's Navy and then a solo move to San Francisco put me right back into the party scene. Here's where the story turns to motorcycle riding.

Considering that I did have a degree in stupidity and many years of experience in being a hard-headed asshole I managed to acquire a blue collar job with Chevron Oil in Oakland Ca. Not much pay and allot of hours working to change over the meters inside gasoline pumps (right in the middle of the gas shortage) to be able to price the per gallon cost to over $1.00 a gallon. So about the only transportation I could afford at that time was a used 1976 full dressed Honda 750K. 



Same as my 1976-750 -Without the Vetters Fairing and Hard Bags



It turned out to be a really reliable bike and introduced me to a brand new world called "Touring". The touring/riding and partying continued on several other bikes in the late seventies and a bunch of friendships were formed out at Alice's Restaurant on the four corners of La Honda Rd. and Skyline Blvd.



Imagine This Place in 1978!



What a place to burn a couple of doobies, sip of few beers and ride on  Saturday and Sunday mornings. At times there where as many as 100 to 150 bikes at four corners. We'd take off in small groups and cruise out to the coast or down to Santa Cruz. Beautiful rides every where you went. Once again all things must come to an end and Chevron had finished their pump conversion project in the bay area and I figured it was only a matter of time before the lay-offs would start. I had family over in some po-dunk town call Houston so I thought I'd visit them and maybe check out the job scene while I was there. It took all of one day in Houston to realize this place had so many job openings that they where advertising them on huge billboards on the freeways and there were hundreds of small signs all over the place. This was a no-brainer for me considering my California situation so in May of 1980 I packed up my 1976 Kawasaki CHP KZ900 and rode to Houston.

California sold these at auctions, I bought one for $650.00

  I continued to ride a bit and then traded the "CHIPS" bike for a factory 76 KZ900- Z1.

To be honest this bike was way faster that I needed to be on so I stopped riding altogether in 1983 after a few tickets and the insurance companies cancellation.

For the next 27 years I opened up a new chapter and give my life to Jesus Christ, my new wife and family and Bass fishing and camping. It was cool watching the four kids grow up through school, sports and church. But whenever I saw a good looking bike or a biker going down the freeway that annoying little voice in my head would say, "You miss that, don't you"? So the Friday after Thanksgiving 2010 ( In the Snow in Houston TX.) I succumbed to that little voice and bought a bike. I'd call it a Barn Find-1986 Kawasaki Voyager 1200. Ended up costing me 800 bucks and about three weeks of jacking around with the title crap and stuff. Don't think that's to bad for an old fart on a weekly allowance. Ha!




The Cypress 86er

  It starts and  runs pretty good down the rode but it looks like hell. I never imagined there could be so many shades of maroon on one bike. Chrome, what chrome? It's more like rust on rust and then some more rust on top of that. But like I said, I can drive it every day and that puts me back in the saddle and twisting the throttle after being away for a long time.
So follow along if you please as I head down the roads less traveled and check some places off my bucket lists.

Who knows, maybe we'll meet somewhere out there and share some good times.