My Daughter's 7th Birthday ride that almost didn't happen.

[manshack_one]

The following is the story of my 7 yr old's birthday ride.
It didn't happen the way you plan for it to but that's usually for the best.
This story contains a broad assortment of things captured on digital film.
Festivals, camping, Goldwings and even Elvis! So, let's get to it, shall we?

I was shoveling some grub to my youngest one evening while
trying to decide what would make a perfect gift for my daughters 7th birthday.
And as most evenings go my son eventually makes the face that tells me he's full.

Go ahead son, show them the face.



So, while watching my son's head bob around as it searched for a place to rest
a thought entered my brain like lightning. Apparently my son was having a
similar thought.



After much head nodding and chin rubbing we agreed that my daughter should
have a motorcycle helmet of her own. One that fits. One that doesn't require
me to give mine up every ride. As I thought about what a great idea we
had just come up with my son made another face indicating that "number 2" was
in progress. I'll spare you that picture.

So, (I'll probably say 'so' a lot during this thread, sorry, I wasn't an english major)
I introduce the idea to my wife who wholeheartedly agrees that helmets are good
and not wearing them is bad. Ha! We both agree so there's no way for the plan to fail now.
But we can't just run out and buy a helmet. She has to be there to try it on.
And since I'm 2 hrs from anything, buying a helmet without trying it on first
is a sure way to ruin a trip before it starts because you can't just run down
and exchange it. So, it is decided that a father/daughter trip is required.
To make it all work out there's some scheduling to deal with. There's the aforementioned
festival, a scholastic competition, a trip to buy the helmet, a birthday party, a camping
trip and other miscellaneous errands to schedule all together. So, to my daughter
she's having a 2 week birthday party. I was just praying I could keep enough batteries
handy to get it all on camera.

On to the festival. Every year the little town of Lovelady, TX puts on the Lovefest.
Not sure why it's a Lovefest exactly. There's nothing outwardly adult about it
the way a Love-in might be. I'm guessing it's got something to do with mixing
the words Lovelady and Festival. Pretty tame and scaled down if you're used to festivals
in metro areas but there's a little something for everyone. Here's me and the older
two heading down to watch the parade.



Mom took the youngest to the baby contest. Not much sport in it. They just try and figure out
who's the cutest. Mine got 3rd Place.



The parade had mostly a bunch of vehicles of different types.

Old ones.



Old fast ones.



And New ones.




Then the showstopper of course, ELVIS!!




With so much to do the kids couldn't decide which way to run first.




My son ended up at the playground and my daughter got her face painted.




So, time flies and we're ready to head out, 3rd place trophy in hand.
I decided my wallet was a little thin so I drove down to the bank to hit up
the ATM for a withdrawal. What I found was more fun. A flock of Goldwings!



This one even had a trailer that looked like one of the cars in the parade.



Now that I was alert to the Goldwing meeting I noticed even more strewn about
the festival. Here's another group.



And some more hiding behind the post office.

[manshack_one]

part 2

So, the festival was over and it's into the next week. I take off on a Thursday
to get ready for my daughter's Friday scholastic competition in Tyler, TX. Again, 2 hrs away.
Being that it was valentines day finding a place to eat was next to impossible but lucky
for us no one else seemed to want mexican food so Casa Ole was more than happy to accommodate
our appetites. (Sorry, left the camera in the car, besides, you see one burrito, you've seen them all).
Here we are at the hotel after checking in and checking out the room.



And the next morning a hearty breakfast of Fruit Loops. The breakfast of scholastic champions!



The competition is like UIL but for private schools. Trust me, she may go to a private
school but I'm not rich. She's there on a scholarship.

We meet up with her best friend in the whole world and start going over the checklist
for the day's events.



After a long day and 2 grueling competitions in Storytelling and Creative Writing, with a congratulatory
lunch at Chuck E. Cheese, Hannah walked away with 6th place in Story Telling. Her friend
came up big with 2nd in Creative Writing.

My plan was to go after the competition to whatever bike shops I could find in Tyler to try on helmets.
I didn't have that many places to visit and after spending a few minutes at Scooter Pete's
and then driving around looking for the recently relocated Broadway Yamaha we gave up the
search for the day. We headed home just glad that her first competition was behind us
and with the knowledge that it wasn't as scary as she thought it was going to be. 1st grade is a great
year for breaking kids into new things at school.

So, after a full nights rest we decided the whole family should get in on the helmet hunt
and decide to travel 2 hrs in the opposite direction and headed to Cycle Gear on I45 North
in Houston. And behold, the helmet was found, fitted and purchased.



My son likes trying on the gear but getting him on the bike is like trying to bathe a cat.

He still has a few years to go before things start to fit.



Again, we headed back home trimphantly. This time however, we had a helmet instead
of a contest ribbon. Next it's time for the actual birthday party. Here she is showing
off her new helmet to every one.




Now, the plan was to take a ride that day. It was also to give rides to the party-goers
whose feet could reach the pegs. Just around the block and back. Well, the bike didn't
cooperate. I had recently put new exhaust gaskets on it and gave it a shot at synchronizing
my carbs. Well, apparently during the sync I messed up something worse and then being frustrated
left my petcocks on which by coincidence flowed gas right past my stuck float (because I ran it
bone dry by not turning on the petcocks) and down in to my crankcase where it severely thinned
out my oil. I fired that thing up and a cloud of smoke appeared behind me. I knew what
it was but decided against trying to fix it right then. People were starting to show up
so I had to play host. So we save the ride for another day.


In to the next week and I'm trying to find time to do an oil change on my bike. Being a metric
I had to go and buy a 19mm socket the first time I changed it and now I can't find it again.
So I put it off for the weekend. But the weekend rolls around and I see that the weather is
going to be nice so instead of fooling with the bike I decide to take the kids camping.
It was going to be cool that night down to 50 so the wife and baby decided they would stay home.
They did come out and visit during the day but left at dark. Here's some camping pics.









Waiting for breakfast.


Visiting the Mission.

We camped at Mission Tejas State Park in Weches, TX. It's a small park with only about
7 tent pad sites. They're nice though with water, electric, a fire ring with grill, a standalone
grill, picnic table on a pad and even a newly remodeled restroom area with a shower up on the
hill. Super cheap too. If you ever go there ask for Ranger John and tell him Robert
Manshack said nice things about the place. He was my high school science teacher and he can
give you the grand tour.

So, camping trip over and another week goes by. I finally find my 19mm socket so I make plans
to try and get the bike ready for the ride. First is draining the gas/oil out of the bike.



Then we gear up.



Because of my poor sync job the bike is running like crap and trying to flood out so the ride
only lasted for about 15 miles around Loop 304 here in Crockett and back through town. We did stop
to take a few pictures though.








So, it took almost 3 weeks but we finally got out for a ride. The helmet is a pretty plain silver helmet
but we embellished it with some butterfly tattoo looking stickers on the back. By the time my middle child
is old enough to wear it I'll have to scrape it off and put a bikini model sticker on it or something with some
flames so it looks proper for a girl. Well, after all this time I look back and am glad I was able
to keep the batteries in the camera to catch it all. I took the next two weekends off to relax. Now
I'm sending my carbs off to another xs1100 owner to get them straightened out then I'll be back on the road.
Like a said before, every trip is an adventure when you're bike is 30 yrs old. Hope you enjoyed my ride report.

[Brent]

Nice report

Manshack,
Thanks for sharing that. Nice job with pics. Good tip on camping too. Sometimes it is not the length of the trip, but the people, circumstances etc that make it into an ADVENTURE.

My daughter liked the highway pegs that i put below the passenger seat on the frame behind the side covers on my XS.

Enjoy while you can. They grow up.

Happy motoring,
Brent in GA

[DJinNH]

Back in Dec is when I purchased my two XS1100's from ebay. It's been a while since I rode much. My boss in FL let me take his Harley from time to time.

Now, I am back in NH. I have a 13 yr old son who lives with his mom nearby. To be honest, I am nervous about taking him on any rides in the near future. I need to get comfortable on a bike again before I do. Hopefully, that won't take me too long.

Thanks for sharing the photos.

Stay safe,

Don

[prometheus578]

Manshack....
A fine report and a fine story.
Pictures make all the difference.
Sadly... you made all the good comments and left nothing for me to snipe about!
Even the photos... no odd items in the background for me to discover.
I enjoyed your narrative... But you denied me the pleasure of enjoying it at your expense.
Nex time... leave me some openings, huh ?

[manshack_one]

Actually Prom, I slipped up at the end and said I would have to put stickers of girls and flames so it's proper "for a girl" even though I was talking about my son. I try to stay open-minded. My son may like the helmet like it is, who knows? For right now I just try and remind him that his sister's nail polish does not make good eye shadow as we're trying to peel it off with a wet rag because eyes and nail polish remover don't mix well. He's 4 and she's 7.

[Wayne]

Great story manshack.
Hey, its no easy task to Prom proof a post. nice job.

Ride safe (especially when you have that precious cargo onboard)

Cheers,