A whopping three days after making Lucille mine, I hit the road with 3 amazing people. All members of the route safety crews for various events including the breast cancer walks, we were headed to a small town just west of Atlantic City to celebrate the life of another crew mate, Michael "Tiny" Ray. To many he was Michael "Big Daddy" Ray, but to the 2008 Breast Cancer 3-Day crew, he'll always be Tiny.
Mike and his wife, Michelle, ventured down to DC to do what we all love to do - kick cancer in it's ass. They fit into our family like two crazy gloves and were stuck with us from that day forward. Holy cute couple batman is the best way I can describe them. So when we learned that Mike was involved in a fatal car accident on Tuesday, June 29, heartbroken is only the beginning of the emotions that I can adequately describe. I mean here was this young guy - he had turned 43 in March - who had so many amazing things falling into place in his life. He and Michelle were to celebrate their 3rd wedding anniversary just days after his death, not to mention the sheer joy they were sharing with the news of a baby Ray on the way. I remember them talking about wanting kids when they were in DC with us.
The first few days after I found out about his death, I was a mess. I bounced between aching sadness to confusion at the pain I felt over a man I really only knew for 4 days to anger towards myself for questioning my emotions to an overpowering feeling of "life is short so start living it." It's taken time for me to be able to come to terms with it all - the death of such an amazing guy who had so much happiness in his life, the impact he had on my life and the lives of my friends regardless of the physical time we spent with him and the knowledge that living for today didn't mean I could run off and camp out on the beach for the rest of my life.
What I love about the moto crew is that we are in so many ways a family. We have many differences, but fundamentally we're all wired the same way. Just as I was speaking to one friend about making plans to attend the funeral, another was sending an email to the group saying "kickstands up at 8." Things like that helped me come to terms with the feelings I was going through - "you're not alone" is a nice feeling sometimes.
By the time all plans were made, there were 4 of us physically headed north, with the hearts and minds of the rest of our crew strapped to our backseats.
Now, normally when you head north it gets cooler and when you head south it gets warmer. This is a basic principle we all know and understand. Well, all of us except mother nature. The temperature just kept climbing and climbing and climbing... and I can't say that the ridiculous amount of traffic we battled helped keep the asphalt cool. Many pit stops and enough sweat to water a farm in the desert later...
We decided to have dinner in AC. Though we were there for somber reasons, we felt the need to at least experience the city a tad (that and my friend Mark was craving soft serve ice cream... we had to get him soft serve ice cream). This is where we encountered the most. awesome. mullet. ever.
- It's a mullet in AC
- It's on a Russian gentleman.
- He had semi-curly hair in the back
- He had TINY little curly-cues up top...
- ... which were pulled into - no joke - a faux hawk
I rest my case on le mullet.
In the morning we all polished ourselves up and rode over to the funeral home for the viewing. Upon arrival we learned that at the viewing the night before, there had been a line of people waiting to express their condolences for over 4 hours. This is a man who truly had an incredible impact on a ton of people from all walks of life. There were dozens of photos set up around the parlor of Mike - as he grew up, his siblings, his football days, his time as a DJ, photos from Mike and Michelle's wedding, and even several photos of the weekend they spent in DC with us for the walks. We were able to see sonograms of Baby Ray ("Peanut") and finally able to pay our respects to Michelle and their families.
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| Once a moto - Always a moto. |
As we headed out of the viewing room we spoke with a few people we met along the way and remarked at the number of cops. One woman we met was a close friend of the family and rode with Mike. After she found out we had riden in, she had a brief conversation with Michelle and we suddenly found ourselves escorting the processional through town to the church. Even now it brings tears to my eyes to remember the feeling of honor I know we all shared at that moment.
Now, as any woman rider knows, there are occasions that call for both a skirt/ dress and a motorcycle. Since you cannot control a motorcycle while side-saddle, it becomes a bit of a logistical problem - how do you ride your bike AND show up looking like a respectable member of female society? Though there are many ways to solve this dilemma, Alicia and I chose door #2 - hike your skirt up around your waist, put your jeans on under your skirt and throw your heels in a saddle bag. The major downside of this option is the "switcheroo" - aka making the change from rider to lady. You can either wander around looking for a bathroom/ private spot to change OR you can simply negotiate your skirt down to a respectable place while also convincing your jeans to come down as well. Warning: the latter may result in funny looks.
After the beautiful catholic ceremony, we said goodbye to Michelle and promised to visit. Though we wanted to stay, we knew that we had to hit the road or we'd never make it back. Sitting at a small diner table munching on lunch we all came up with a great way to stay in touch with Michelle and her baby - I won't share anymore so that I don't spoil the surprise :)
At this point we realized that mother nature hadn't quite had enough of the heat. In fact, she opened up her attic and found about another 5 degrees of the stuff and felt the need to share. We actually drove by a bank that couldn't register the temperature because it was higher than its gauge could measure! Turns out - it is in fact possible to sweat your ass literally off. I think I left mine in northern Maryland somewhere.
After a beer stop with other moto friends (we weren't ready to give up the feeling of camaraderie we'd been swelling with for the last couple of days) and a ri-donk-ulous amount of DC traffic at 9pm at night on the beltway, we finally made it home.
Two days.
500 miles.
Buckets of sweat.
Truckloads of love and emotion.
All in all - I could not have imagined a better maiden voyage for Lucille.
::UPDATE:: Michelle is having a baby boy! Her little daddy, Rexford James Ray (Rex) is due at the end of this year!!
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