Dirt Bike History

Wow, It's been a while since I thought I'd like to have a blog and posted the initial entry. Basically, my life wasn't all that interesting to blog about it. But now I decided to use this as the documentation site for my foot injury and the progress I make.

My son has had a dirt bike, a Honda XR 100, for a few years. He can ride a bit on a few short trails around our house with another friend up the street. My husband got a Honda XR 250 shortly after so they could ride together. We've ridden a place called Flint Creek about an hour and a half from our house. Also, a friend of my son, has a dirt bike that he keeps in Trussville at a family friend's place. In Trussville, they have over 1000 acres of private land with all kinds of trails. We've been a few times to ride down there, too. It's the greatest place to ride. The problem with it being a family activity, is that we could rarely ride together, all three of us, because we only had two bikes. I had hinted on occasion that I'd like one so we all three could go out together. Even though we also have a daughter, she doesn't have much interest in riding.

Christmas 2008 - I had no idea what was in store for Christmas but my husband bought a used Honda CRF 150 for me. He bought it from our friend who had gone from a 100 to 150 and was outgrowing the 150. The 150 was perfect size for my son now but he'd be outgrowing it in the next few years, too. The present was a complete surprise for me. The kids spent Christmas Eve busy, secretively putting together a scavenger hunt for me to find this new dirt bike. So Christmas morning we do this scavenger hunt through the house. I joked before it started, "What am I going to have at the end? A new car? A dirt bike?". I was only joking. So the last hint was to go down to what we call the horse barn. It was for a horse before we moved in but is now just our place to store the lawn mower and other stuff. So I get down to the barn and see a dirt bike all covered up. But it didn't register that all the other dirt bikes are in the garage and what the heck is this one doing down here. Well, I knew our friend wanted to sell their bike and suddenly it all clicked with my defunct slow brain. They had bought that bike for ME! A few weeks before Christmas dad and son had been down to Trussville to ride. They bought the bike then, with the promise to pay later. They brought the bike back, stored it at my father-in-law's house up the street. My son got up early Christmas morning moved the bike from house to the horse barn.

I have always liked dirt bikes ever since I was young. I went to summer camp when I was 8 years old and there were these mini bikes (50s or whatever). I wanted to ride them SO bad but my dad wouldn't let me. It cost extra and my dad was very conscious of safety. He wouldn't even let us shoot off fireworks 4th of July or even hardly play with sparklers. He had been in the war, was a doctor, and guess just felt like he had seen or heard of too much, and didn't want us involved with such stuff. When I was a teenager though we had some family friends that got dirt bikes. They lived on a farm and it made for easy transportation to get around. We loved to visit their place because it was just good outdoor fun every time we went. So I had learned to ride a dirt bike (dad permitted it by then) and have liked them ever since.

When I met my husband he had a early 70's Kawasaki Trail Boss 100. I've ridden it a few times over the years. It is still in our garage with the plans for a rebuild (so we actually did already have 3 bikes). My cumulative experience though is not that much riding. I like to ride slowly on the trails and have never been adventurous in trying anything daring.