72, and holding.......

It was my seventy-second birthday yesterday. My lovely wife gave me a new bicycle saddle, a new bicycling jersey, and a new bicycling helmet for my birthday presents, and then went with me on a leisurely Goldwing ride up to Lake Cle Elum and Salmon la Sac in central Washington State for my birthday dinner..... We stopped at the Past Time restaurant/lounge/tavern on the way home for two delicious rib eye steaks..... a rustic, 100 year old building, good service, friendly people, good food, all for $23 total, including an alcohol-free beer! Can't beat that, no matter where you are! Sometimes, half-charred, fatty meat is the only thing that will do; I felt like Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapas after a successful buffalo hunt....

And have I told you lately that the Honda Goldwing GL1800 is the best motorcycle ever devised? That it's the greatest motorcycle ever built? Well, consider yourself told... any ride, from 100 to a 1000 miles, is fast and smooth and effortless..... and with it's streamed lines, and a three dollar can of Pledge furniture polish, I can clean and polish the thing from front to back in under 10 minutes.......

Harleys are nice, and I love them, but...... When I was a boy, Harley had nothing for me, nothing I could afford, but Honda had a 50cc Super Cub -- which I could afford, and did; when I came home from Vietnam, Harley had nothing for me, nothing I could afford, but Honda had a high pipe 305 CL scrambler -- which I could afford, and did; when I re-entered the motorcycle world in midlife, I looked for a used Harley Sporster, which I couldn't afford -- but I could afford the 750 GS Suzuki inline four, and I did; and when I decided to tour the world a piece at a time with my darling wife on the back, Harley had nothing I could afford on my teacher's salary that could do that job, but Honda did, a used 1981 GL1100 Goldwing ($2349), which had 73,000 miles on it when we bought it -- and we put on 160,000 miles more; And now. after three Goldwings, one CB750 Nighthawk, one Honda Magna 700cc, and one Honda ST1300.....and after give or take 350,000 touring miles, Harley still has nothing I can afford, especially now that I'm retired, but Honda does, and seemingly always will.....

And when I get old, someday years and years from now, and feel like I'm in danger of dropping it, will I sell this beautiful, Angel-White bike? Oh, heck, no..... I'll put on an Angel-White sidecar, get an ugly black dog to ride in it, and go up into upper Kittitas county on my birthdays where Red and I and ol' Jowl Face will order three, half-charred, fatty steaks at the Past Time Tavern...... the hell with thoughts of mortality.... I plan to live forever; and so far, so good!