Is it the season or something in the water?

Ya know, when a man comes to a point where he has to admit to himself that he can no longer do something he's done for most if not all his life. It's rough. Our bodies start to fail. It's a fact of life. It doesn't mean the man is weak, or is giving up. He just knows what his body will and will no longer do.

Myself for example. I used to be a runner. I've set records for speed and distance in my youth. Now, if I run from one side of the street to the other it HURTS. And it doesn't even resemble fast. I know I prolly have about 8 to 10 years left before I either have to give up riding or get a trike. And it will probably only be about 5 years before I have to get something smaller than my Hondapotomus.

Giving a guy grief for accepting his limitations and moving forward in a way that compensates for them...well that's just sh1tty if you ask me.

Do what you enjoy as long as you can. Then do something else. When you quit dreaming, you quit trying. When you quit trying, you die. I will ride my Wing until I can't hold it up any longer, then I plan to trike it out. When I become a danger to others I will quit. If I want to be a danger to myself it's my business. You can warn me that i'm screwing up, but if I don't listen, back off and watch me self-destruct. Life is about choices and I am in no position to make yours. I am 67 and in relatively good health. I have led an exceptionally good life. I am aware of it and I am thankful for it. I want more of it. To stop living just to survive is a concept I do not understand.

Nobody is shooting at me and I don't have to sleep in the rain. What more can I ask for?

Let's Ride!

Chief

Quality of life is not judged by those who observe it, but by those who have to live it. A quadraplegic can still have a very good quality of life because they want to continue living and enjoying life. To where someone who observe their life, may say that they don't have a good qaulity of life because they are dependent on somebody to do everything for them and they just lay around and do nothing.

I would like to add something I have learned about the desires and willingness to continue to live life.

If there is a will there is a way. Carol was diagnosised with Mutiple Sclerosis before I met her and lived a non-exciting life, those were her words. She met the bad boy that rode motorcycles, me, and started enjoying life. I took her for rides and she fell in love with riding and started to live again. Her family was dead set against her riding because "it is dangerous with her condition." She didn't care what her family thought, she wanted to enjoy life. In 2008 she had a major relapse that took away her ability to balance and could no longer sit up straight on a motorcycle. When the bike leaned over, she would counter lean because she felt like she was falling off the bike. That made for a very dangerous sceneario for us but she didn't want to give it up. One of our friends let me try taking Carol out on his trike to see if that would work for her since it didn't lean. She still didn't feel safe and thought she was going to fall off. She was so depressed that she finally had found something that made her feel alive and now it was being taken from her. I searched and searched for a side car that I might be able to attach to the 1100. Everything we looked at was way more than we could afford and I felt bad because she no longer able to enjoy life like she wanted. We eventually found the 1200 wing with a sidecar here on this website we could afford. The PO was nice enough to hold the rig for two months till we was able to go get it. After we got it home and made it legal to ride on the street, tags and state inspection, I took Carol for a ride in it. She again was so happy now that she could continue on riding feeling free. At first Carol was able to get out of the rig by herself with a little help but she kept on going. Her health slowly deteriorated and as it did we did want ever it took to keep her riding. Carol's last out town trip was his past March when we went to Houston to celebrate my mom's 70th b-day. At the time she couldn't get up by herself so I would have to pick her up and put her in and out of the sidecar but she WANTED to take the trip on the motorcycle. I know this because I had asked her if she would rather just take the truck. Her reply to me was, "Will it matter in 5 years what we take?" At first I said not really. Her reply back to me was, "How many more trips do you think I am going to be able to make. I know I can make this one." So we rode the sidecar rig to Houston and back. At the time we probably had the best time ever on this particular trip than any other one we have ever took before in the past. Then within two weeks of that trip, Carol started having another relapse that put her in the hospital. She never recovered and passed away on June 3rd. I know look back on that trip and IT WAS the best time because she could have easliy have said lets just take the truck. She wanted to continue to live life to the fullest till her time on this earth was over. Carol taught me so much about being strong and having the courage to fight to live life. Some of you had met her and know what I mean. In the 12 years her and I were together, she NEVER complained what MS had done to her nor did she ever say why me?

So here is what I have to say to all this, enjoy life while you can. Do what ever it takes and never give up living life to the fullest.

After 42 years of riding I thought I was a goner after having had brain surgery in October 2009. I'm still not 100% but for a while I thought I had ridden my last ride. I had just bought a new 2009 UC a few months before my surgery and only could look at it for several months. It turned out to be a good thing because the Harley turned out to be a piece of junk. After almost 3 years, the Harley UC only had 16,000 miles on it before I finally sold it. It has taken some serious consideration to buy another new GL1800. I hope my anticipation about getting back into a Goldwing saddle will be as exciting as I hoped it to be. My best riding years were 1994-1997 when I had a '94 GL1500 SE. We had just found out that my wife had a fatal disease (transverse myelitis). We got as much riding in as she could possibly tolerate before finally losing her battle in August 1997. I had the '94 Goldwing for a total of 11 years and racked up 211,000 wonderful miles on it.

The last few years have been challenging to say the least and have nothing but great memories have kept me going.

Dane