For many years, I owned and rode a mint condition '87 Kawasaki ZL1000. I loved that bike, but had a hard time being taken seriously by Harley riders. One day, I had an issue with it and brought it into a shop. That was the beginning of the end for that bike.

Luckily, when it finally did get to the point where I couldn't get the parts to fix it, I was at a dealership and started looking at new Indians on the floor. The new Roadmaster caught my eye, but I couldn't imagine myself on such a beast! Almost 1,000 pounds unladen, a 111ci engine, just looking at it had my brain doing a Tim Allen impression "ARR-ARR-ARRRR!". I was in love.

So, I dropped some cash and had the dealer put on an extended seat (I'm 6'2" / 300lbs) and rode home giddy. I was not expecting what happened next.

My first ride was a Honda 305 Scrambler that I bought while in high school. I sold that and bought a brand-new Kawasaki 400 two stroke when I started working. I met my wife of 47 years because of that bike. When our child came it was obvious that 3 did not sit well on a bike and I thought my riding days were over, so I sold it. When we came to our 25^th anniversary, Carol decided that “we met on a bike so we should get another bike” We bought a Harley Road King and kept it for 11 years. At this time, I decided that we were getting too old for too heavy a bike that we only rode less than 1000 miles per year.

Last year I was approached by a group of riders who wanted to be associated with the Carl G. Davis American Legion Post #34 that I was Commander of. After several meetings during which time, I learned the passion and comradery that this group has, I realized that I still wanted to ride. I not only worked to get them into our post, I bought a Honda Shadow so I could be an active member.

Some of you may wonder what it actually means to be a Legion Rider, I want to explain that definition in Red terms.

I started out as my husband's "Sinister's" wife, just helping out, being there, that went on for over a year. I have to say that made me perfectly happy. I couldn't wear the cut, and I wasn't on the roster, but I got to hang out with this amazing group of people. As Sinister's wife I was automatically accepted as well, everyone was nice to me, the guys without a backseat 'passanger " always offered me a ride when we had an event, and I got to know everyone rather quickly. My husband had been riding for years, and I really had never given a thought to riding alone, that is, until about 9 months into hanging around the Manchester NH Sweeney Post Riders.