First Ride w/Son

First Ride w/Son:

Shirley! Fill everyone's glasses! This is a story about one of
those great Dad/son bonding moments.

Took my #2 son on his first ride today. Joey's 12 and in town for the summer. This was his first chance to ride the Deuce since I bought it last fall. So, this morning Mary took off for a day of shopping with the girls, and Joey and I decided to catch a movie. I suggested we take the bike and he jumped all over that idea. As he'd only ridden a few blocks before, and that was several years ago, I explained that his two jobs are to sit like a bag of potatoes on the back and to wave at every bike we saw.

The first leg was a short, easy one to the local megaplex for a movie (Bruce Almighty). He thought it was pretty cool that we managed to make a few cars chirp and set off one alarm in the parking garage. After the movie, we figured it was time for ice cream ... and I knew just the place. We hopped back on the bike and rode about 40 miles through some twisty, hilly country roads that took us past farms, a recently abandoned prison, through an old neighborhood, across a high bridge with a great view of the Occoquan River and into the village of Occoquan. We drove through the quaint little village full of gift shops catering to the blue-haired crowd and hit the old fashioned ice cream shop featuring Nestles Ice Cream. We sat on the stoop, quaffed down our cones, and washed them down with a Pepsi chaser. (That made us feel like Real Bikers). Back on the bike for the homeward bound leg. We headed west towards Manassas, took the bridge over Bull Run, and rode through hilly country roads with sweeping turns through forest and horse farms.

Not a terribly long ride, but a most excellent one. One of those defining moments. Joey dug every minute and was the perfect passenger. I took it easy, but as he was got acclimated, I pushed a little harder and leaned a little more through the sweepers. He responded with a bigger and bigger grin. After we got home, he said we should ride to the bike show ... he thought the Ride Home party we went to in Baltimore last year was there every year. I told him no, that it was a traveling show that would end up in Milwaukee this year. He said we should ride the bike there ... Brought a tear to my eye!

Chilly Willie
03 FXSTDi (Il Duce)
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