and they had been doing missionary work for the Mennonite Church. Andy and Sue have been simply amazing. They've been back about two months now. Basically starting from scratch, in that time they've bought a house and furniture, bought a car, enrolled thier two boys in school, kept up family and church connections and jumped both feet in and enthusiasticaly set about integrating themselves into the community without stopping to catch their breath. Makes me tired just watching.
Before they came home Andy informed me he wanted to get a sidecar rig and learn to ride. Now Andy has ridden with me in the sidecar a few times( you may have met at the BlackDog two years ago when he was my navigator) , but he has no motorcycle experience at all. Well, that's not exactly true. Years ago I tried to show him how to ride my little 250 Triumph single and he rode it straight up the trunk of a large Ponderosa!
Within a week of getting back he bought this sidecar(that's his youngest boy, Nic, trying it on for size):
and a couple of weeks ago he got this KLR off of Craig's List:
Monday he went to DMV, got the bike registered and insured and passed his test for the motorcycle learners permit.
He is signed up to take my S/TEP class to learn to drive a sidecar Sept 19 , and takes the Team Oregon motorcycle class to get his endorsement in October.
The other day we went up in the woods and I found an open area to practice in and ran him through the first four S/TEP exercises just to get him familiar with the clutch and the brakes. He did real well! He doesn't look like a beginner with no experience, does he?
The S/TEP class, coming up September 19-21 will be the last class of the season. I plan on doing some classes next summer but probably won't schedule as many. There are still a few openings for this class-call Hood River Community Ed 5413862055 if you want to get signed up.