Return to the days of yesteryear for a story about my trip to Bob's place at the beach. It was the spring of 1969. I was twenty one years young, I had just paid off the loan for my 1967 Mercury convertible and I was at the Honda shop looking at a new 450 scrambler. I got a loan to purchase my new bike, and took it home for the first time. Because it was new I had to take it easy to break in the engine right. No high RPM's or wheelies till I had 500 miles on the odometer. I took the 500 miles seriously and break in the engine easily, but not too lazily. I wanted a fast running bike. It was a double overhead cam twin with twin carburetors. Very high tech and very fast! I got my 500 miles on quickly, because I wanted to test the power to run fast.
I planned to go to Bob's in Vineland, New Jersey for a test of the new bike. I was cruising to New Jersey before I knew it. The bike ran great, lots of power. I had 1000 miles on the engine, and it was running great. I changed the oil every 500 mile like my other bike that was a very good running bike. I passed a car in traveling close to the Gap, and inside is the mechanic from the Honda shop. I waved as I blew by. Later he told me that he knew I must have 500 miles on the engine already as I was going fast. I got to Bob's place with no problems and Steph his wife was waiting for me. Bob was still at work, when I arrived at 4:00 Friday afternoon. Bob took a job with Firestone Tire stores. When Bob got home about 5:30 in the afternoon, he admired the new bike. We reminisced about old times and adventures we had. Before we knew it, it was time for bed and we settled down.
Saturday morning we arose and got breakfast and headed for the beach with Bob and I on the bike and Steph following in the car. It was a very warm day, so I was in my swimsuit and shoes while riding around the beach. We took the bike to Higbee beach near Wildwood so we could ride on the sand to the water's edge. The picture of my new bike on the sand was hard to set up because I could not set the bike up because the side stand did not have a place to hold the bike up. I had to put my shoe down to hold the side stand so the bike would not fall over. You can see my shoe under the bike behind it. We rode around a lot that day. Bob is dark skinned, and does not burn. Myself on the other hand am light skinned and burn easily. You guessed it I got fried. The next morning I was red as a beet. I got blisters all over and was in pain. Sunday and Monday I laid around all day suffering. Tuesday when I was to leave I was suffering a lot. Steph helped me rub hand cream all over my fried skin. I had a lot of blisters that broke as I was putting my jeans and shirt on. It was very painful. My ride home took on a painful pitch, especially when it started to rain about halfway home. It felt like someone was hitting me with a hammer every time the rain drops hit my fried skin. I never rode in swimsuit and no shirt again. The mind does learn from painful experiences
I rode down to Bob's on the bike later that fall. This time the only dumb thing I did was wash my bike before I left and later that Friday evening the temp. went down and halfway there my brake cable froze and I had no front brake. I stopped in an all night gas station and put the bike inside to thaw out the front brake cable so I could stop. On the way home Sunday it got down to 20 degrees, and I was glad I took along my winter riding clothes. Well another adventure stored in my feeble brain. I am glad to have such good memories, especially since at the time they were painful. Now they are good memories! Another adventure in the mind to remember that it was not so bad when I remember it later. You tend to remember the good parts, and forget the bad. At least that is how it works for me! You can tell my bike is new, still had cardboard temporary license plate on back. same size as for a car.
Good times cancel out the bad stuff happening to you. And time cancels out the bad times you went through. We tend to remember the adventures as better than they were!
You can see my shoe holding the bike up on the back side.
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