Just a quick Pic of my Cruiser!

Just a quick Pic of my "Cruiser"

2003 Kawasaki Vulcan Classic 1600

 A little about me...and motorcycles.

As a kid, I had a little minibike to ride all over the hills in Ramona, California. I was hooked! My best friend had a little 50cc motorcycle with gears and everything! She let me ride it occasionally, now I really took the bait! Hook, line and sinker! By the way... I LOVE to fish! LOL!

I became a San Diego Sheriff's Deputy, and my commute to work was 25 miles one way, down the mountain on a curvy 2 lane, Highway 67. I was a single mom and gas was high. So I bought a 1978 Honda CB750 (I think) It was MY first real motorcycle. I learned to ride it on my way to work. (Did I mention the nickname for Highway 67 is "Slaughter Alley?") a fairly tough road for a beginner, lot's of BAD, high speed drivers straddling the lanes, and cutting curves in cars and TRUCKS!

Well Cops love to ride and LOTS of GUYS had bikes, but I never saw a single girl for years (in my area). So I went on rides with the guys. Well being of the competitive nature, I was DETERMINED to ride as good or better than them, and I was envious of their BIG bikes. so I bought a Honda Goldwing 1000cc Fully Dressed. Bam! Wow! Loved it! And I could ride with the Big Dogs now! (Several of these guys were motorcycle cops,) so you can see what I set my sights on now.....

I started practicing drills with the CHP motorcycle officers and the Sheriff's Dept. M/C officers, trying to get MY FOOT IN THE DOOR, to be a M/C cop, but the MEN on the Department really had a hard time choking that down, (this is the early '80's) and guys kept getting picked over me, even tho I far out-shined them on the tests. I had some brass really rooting for me, they KNEW I earned it, but still I kept getting passed over.

Finally one of the testing dates was on MY TURF, and was kinda made PUBLIC, ALOT of folks were around for some reason watching the testing both days. Really made me nervous. The test was at the Fire Department, and was heavily attended by lots of city council members and firefighters, and paramedics, and outsiders. I don't know why all the outside folks were there...But I KICKED AZZ! Big Time! And there was a PUBLIC AUDIENCE, Let's see them pass over me this time! HA!

Well I got it! I was chosen! OMG! I earned my wings! (The M/C officers wear a patch with a M/C wheel that has wings on it.) Highly COVETED! And the first female to get them!

I had been working graveyards my entire career on the Department, because I was a single mom, and I went to work when my kids went to sleep, and got home in the morning to wake them for school, then I slept while they were in school, and had time with them after school until their bedtime., Plus a sleeping babysitter was less expensive. But now, they assign me to DAY SHIFT. Beginning MONDAY...

It's Friday, I worked all night and got off Saturday morning., and I get my FIRST weekend off EVER! I'm starting motorcycle school on MONDAY with San Diego PD, and CHP officers. Saturday morning I just dozed off and the phone rings. You HAVE to come in to work, and DRIVE a BUS load of prisoners from the jails, and transfer them to the Prisons. (I had a bus license from when I first started with the department and worked my first year in the jail, I got it to transport prisoners.) I was shocked, being as that was years before, and I was a patrol officer for years. But, they ONLY had me available and someone called in sick and I had the WEEKEND off, so I'm IT! Duty calls...

I get the bus, stop at 5 jails load it with 36 prisoners, and just start to leave Chula Vista. I come to a Stop at a RED light. It turns GREEN, I pull into the intersection (this is a big bus, so SLOW-MO,) A guy BLASTS into the intersection running his RED light, but somehow misses me. Then BAM a second car, female blasts through, CHASING him through the RED light, and PLOWS into the bus. I am driving and the other Deputy is sitting SHOTGUN (with a SHOTGUN) so he's not allowed to leave the bus. We are ALL fine, no injuries, but the lady that hit us is a bloody mess. I am the ONLY one allowed to exit the bus to help her. I climb out of the driver's seat and over the transmission housing, and over "Shotgun's" lap to exit in a heck of a hurry, catching my foot in the long chains we hook the prisoners together with. I leap from the bus, and get short-stopped by the chains ripping my right knee to shreds. Somehow I treated the lady until her ambulance arrived, not even noticing my knee was as big as a volleyball till the adrenalin rush subsided.

Well 5 Surgeries later, and my career as a Deputy is over, they FORCE Retired me. Didn't get to be a M/C cop starting that Monday...Shattered Dreams. So I discover that it's very difficult to ride my Goldwing with an extremely painful and destroyed right knee. I can't even lift my right foot to clear the peg at a stop to put my foot down, nor can I raise my knee to get on the bike. SOLD! Bike's gone.

25 years later... I just can't stand it. I hafta see if I can ride again, so I call my friend Vince, and tell him I'm going to get a bike. He was with me through all of that 25 years ago, and KNEW I was unable to handle the bike with my bad knee. (We hadn't spoke in 25 years...(another story.) He said he had a 1500cc bike. Ha! That's all I needed to hear, Bye! I found me the bike pictured above... It's 1600cc, LOL! (That's the competitive side coming out again) LOL! I went to a local M/C Safety class for 2 days and rode their TINY lil' bike and got my license the next day.

Well the bike I wanted was in Oklahoma, and I am in Colorado... So I find a ride (on Craigslist...another story...He had a gun!) and he drops me off at the Oklahoma dealer RIGHT at closing. I get the bike, and sit in the parking lot waiting for everyone to leave, so no witnesses to see me IF I DUMP it! (It's been 25 years.) Terrified, unsure if I can even hold this 1600cc MONSTER up, I wait for a CLEAR roadway and put it in gear, praying I don't come to a RED light. I didn't and made it to a back highway out of town, It's 104 degrees, windy, and I'm headed to COLORADO! It was WHITE KNUCKLE for 4 hours in the wind, and dark. I finally started feeling like I could handle the bike, (in Kansas) but still had not had to Fully STOP yet, so I did a few practice stops, Yes! I'm doing great! I make it the 900 miles to Colorado (alone) and the rest is history!

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