Chris and Tom's Excellent Adventure

I got the call from my wife on September 17^th, asking me if I would be willing to do her a favor. She works for Home Life, a company that serves people with disabilities, and she asked me if I would be willing to take one of the clients, Tom, for a ride on my motorcycle for his 27^th birthday.

Of course I said yes, as I believe that everyone should experience the freedom of the motorcycle, and told her that as long as it could be cleared through all of the management then I was in. Luckily, everyone who was involved with the decision process thought that it was a good idea, so it didn’t take long to get it approved.

I checked the weather for the coming up week and Friday looked like the day. That morning I had my wife take my spare helmet with her into work to get it adjusted for him. During the day Desiree, my wife, and the support staff, Hal, worked with Tom during the day to explain to him how to safely ride on the back of a motorcycle. They explained to him that he needed to hang on to the driver at all times, lean the same direction as the driver and not squirm around very much.

When I arrived on my 1982 Yamaha Turbo Seca, he was more than ready to go. As I came around the corner, he threw the helmet on before I could even make it into the parking lot. Before we could take off though, I wanted to make sure that I got a picture for him as a reminder. Hal grabbed a quick picture of Tom and I standing in front of my bike and even with the helmet on, you can see the smile on his face. After a quick reminder of what to do while on the back of the bike, we took off.

Tom hung onto the sides of my jacket as I carefully took off from the parking lot. I could feel the tension in his grip, but by the time we had made it three blocks away, it had ebbed. We got to Harrison Blvd, took a right and headed towards 53^rd street. While we were at a stop light, I asked Tom if he would like to go fast. I heard, “Yeah!” from behind me, so I kept going.

Once we hit 53^rd, I headed north right into the 55mph zone. I could feel Tom grip a little tighter, but it wasn’t a grip to convey to me that he was scared. We followed 53^rd north, going around the corner where it turns into Walnut Blvd, and then continuing past a shopping center and residential neighborhoods, on to 10^th St. At 10^th, we went right, heading through more residential areas towards the downtown area of Corvallis.

As we arrived at the north end of downtown, I realized that it may not have been such a great idea. It was almost 5pm on a Friday afternoon, rush hour. Although only a town of about 50,000 people, the rush hour traffic of Corvallis can still be a huge pain, especially if you are on a motorcycle. Even through all the start and stop, Tom held on without wiggling around. We made it through downtown, over the bridge, and into south town Corvallis.

A couple blocks past the bridge into south town there is the turn off for Avery Park. We had to travel slowly through here as there are huge speed bumps along the way. This road dumps out right across the highway from the OSU campus.

I took some surface streets through campus, vaguely making my way back to Tom’s house. Before I knew it though, we were heading down the street he lived on, approaching his house quickly. After we pulled into the parking lot, we both headed into the house. Tom announced to everyone that he was back as others were asking him if he had fun. I assured Hal that Tom did a great job of leaning with me through the turns, and told him about the route that we had taken.

In the end, I felt good because I had brought a huge smile to someone’s face, and I hoped that Tom would talk about that ride for a long time to come. As they were ordering the pizza for Tom’s birthday dinner, I headed back home having enjoyed this ride more than any I had taken by myself.