“Riding with the ‘rents”

Just when I’m thinking I should have invested my money in boat building, and specifically arks, the rains stops, the sun appears and the temperatures soar. Next I find myself with an unexpected and gratefully accepted three day weekend! I role Blaze out of the “barn” and off Andy and I go for six hours of riding time. We stop and visit a friend, ride over to Derry to try to find my brother, and investigate roads we’ve never ridden before. We had no time clock, no destination. It was all about feeling like two kids playing hooky, or kicking up ones heals on the last day of school.

Saturday all the dealerships are having open houses, and while we are on the bikes, our destination this day is more somber. We are heading to see Barb, Brian and the rest of their family to remember Bill. We feel it fitting to arrive together with Lee and Debbie in tribute to Bill and the great trip we all took together two summers ago. It felt good to be with people who knew Bill for so much longer than we, yet we feel blessed to have been a part of his life too.

With Sunday comes Easter and again the blessings unfold with Kyla and Aiden spending alone time with Memere and Papo. Aiden and Papo are two peas in a pod with the way they love the outdoors. Papo shows Aiden a miniature motorcycle out in the yard, and it doesn’t take Aiden long to know what to do with it, his tiny feet propelling him along, while Papo encourages motorcycle noise imitation, which Aiden obligingly provides. Memere and Kyla chuckle as we watch the two of them. Then Aiden is off with his Dad and we have our Kyla to ourselves.

“Want to go for a ride?” Andy asks and without hesitation Kyla agrees. We don’t have a lot of time as Kyla has a long ride home ahead of her. To my recollection Kyla’s only motorcycle ride has been on Jade, and that was before Aiden. I’m a bit curious the way she so readily agrees to the ride. Before we leave Kyla asks for the camera. Now this girl I’m thinking will want her two hands for hanging on. “I don’t have a lanyard for the camera.” I tell her. But she is all about the ride.

Before we mount, true to her generation, she’s tapping away. Texting? Email? Twitter? I’m not sure and I don’t pay it much mind. We deck her out in leathers and helmet, put her on the back of the Vulcan, with Blaze following behind.We take a wonderful loop over hill and dale through Wilton and Lyndeborough. I see Kyla snapping away. Is she envious of her cousin’s trip to Vermont with us I wonder? I put that out of my mind as I mentally will nothing unfortunate to occur as she does have a little one to consider. In the end, I think its bragging rights she’s after. Once she is waved goodbye and on her way home, I boot up the PC and she here Facebook wall. “Riding with the ‘rents” it reads. It takes me a while but I finally realize I’m one of the ‘rents. Just when I thought I was cool, even the word is so yesterday!


Enjoy Kyla’s first attempt at snapshots from the back of a bike!
Love you kiddo!