No, you don’t understand. In 3 weeks I’ll be 32 and I’ve never seen his chin. (For good reason, my dad’s ugly af without a beard)
But he did more than that. He took off work, stopped the gears of life that have been grinding for 30 years, got on an airplane (he would say “fuck you, I got IN the airplane) flew across the country to someplace he’d never want to be on his own, away from trees, away from home, and then hopped on a motorcycle he’s only ridden one time, and despite his concerns for his safety, and the massive pile of ‘honey-do’s’ at home, he went and had a vacation. He tried my crazy hectic “it doesn’t matter lets just go” lifestyle. We went to a car museum, we rode cliffside canyon roads up into the mountains, and laughed and joked the entire time. Little did I know how much of a shutter bug he actually is. We spent a good 30 minutes and the most ridiculous attempts at capturing the mountains behind my little suburban home, before we gave up and just snapped a selfie in the driveway 🤣
Luckily, my friend Brandy was handy, and snapped the most amazing pics of us while riding, repairing a flat tire, and all while juggling being a mom to a 7 seven year old. It was pretty impressive.
Oh yea. Flat tire. This is a long “and den” story, so skip if you’re looking for deep meaning and reflections.
So, we were told the pavement between fernley and virginia city was “pretty gnarly”, plus the idea of riding fernley-virginia city-lake tahoe- fallon- fernley (about 260 miles, plus walking around) was a bit much for my dad, who honestly hasn’t even sat on a bike since 2016. So we loaded the z1000 into the truck, and I rode the tiger. About halfway there, I noticed the front tire felt a little funny. Sure enough, next stop sign, flat. Drat. Oh, and I distinctly remember cleaning out the tools out of the back of the truck the previous day. Welp, luckily, I had brought a spare motorcycle!
Unloaded the z, loaded up the tigger, hopped on the z1000, and headed home. Got home, started looking around where the tigger’s tool roll should be, aaaaand…..
No….
Yep.
*calls dad*
Heyyyyy… yea, can you look behind the driver’s seat… yea, on the floor, yellow wolfman logo…. mmmhmm… yep.
Tool roll, and everything i needed to remove the front tire and repair the flat, was 7 feet in front of us while we were deciding to let me make the trip 30 miles back to the house to get said tool roll.
There’s something to be said for STOP. TAKE A BREATH. REMOVE YOUR HEAD FROM YOUR ASS. AND THEN MAKE A DECISION in the moments you find yourself deep in catastrophe.
Thanks to minimal traffic, Brandy having errands to run, and my z1000 having no problem slipping into triple digits, grand total time lost was only about 15 minutes, but the 2 hours we spent in virginia city swapping a tire tube was…. stereotypical of every maintenance task my dad and i have ever done 😂: i just wanna throw it together, dad wants to torque his shoelaces to specifications noted in the Clymer Manual (based on a complete teardown and rebuild). It sounds like a headache, and at the time it feels like it, but its truly an effective symbiotic exercise. I make him go faster, and he makes sure I haven’t tied my shoes to each other. I have the benefit of my dad’s grief to apply and share with you now:
I don’t care how much of a headache it is, I don’t care if you fight and bicker and argue the whole time. You’re going to miss it. You’re going to be changing a tire 5 or 10 or 30 years from now and think back to the time dad stripped out the retaining nut on the valve stem and Brandys son Noah was jumping up and down in the truck while you were trying to feed the valve stem thru the hole. That memory will never leave you.
According to my dad, the real treat came that evening. We got the tire on, and headed back to the house. It was dark, but we decided to chance it. Brandy, dad, and I piled into the truck and booked it to Fallon. Tahoe will have to wait until next time. The look on my dad’s face when he saw what i work on and where i work… priceless. He was on cloud nine. It was funny how something so mundane and aggravating as my daily job was just the most captivating thing in my dad’s world. Perspective, i guess. Never lose it. Brandy enjoyed it as well, as she has to hear me bitch and complain about work so often, it was good to put a place to the bitching. Not to mention some of the same fun stuff my dad enjoyed, she got to experience as well.
The next day, we went back to Virginia City, where we had a pretty incredible photoshoot with Brandy on the bikes in the Canyons. I’ll post some of the photos on Instagram and Facebook if you’re interested. Brandy does amazing work with a camera, and I’m really grateful for everything she helped with that weekend. From babysitting raiden to entertaining my dad when I was working, it really helped the weekend go that much smoother.
Watching my dad climb out of his comfort zone, fly out to see me, and jumping on that bike was one of the highlights of my entire year. There were a few “camping promises” to come back for the release of the new TopGun movie. I really hope it happens. Maybe I’ll park the bike and just enjoy his company and not scare the shit out of him on 2 wheels!
HA. just kidding 😈
Stand On It 