To give you some info on my family, I have a lovely and understanding wife. We were married in 1989. Her name is Melissa. We have one daughter born in 1994. We currently have two dogs. One is a blonde cocker spaniel that is very loving, but dumb as a stump. The other is a border collie that adopted us July 3, 2000 by sitting on our porch. Poor Buddy (named by our daughter) was covered with "... hundreds of ticks..." - that was the estimation the vet gave us. Four hundred dollars later, Buddy was ours. To think that our pure bred cocker cost $250 and this wandering dog cost nearly twice as much, I was sceptical if he would be any good. Well, he's very intelligent and loving - I'm glad he found us. Oh, we make sure he doesn't bring home any ticks.

Melissa and myself share a joy for riding motorcycles. She has been riding since the Spring of 1998. She started by takeing the MSF "beginner's course" and started riding a Rebel 450 in the Spring of 1998, then progressed up to the Pacific Coast. Once on the PC, she found it too tall, wide and heavy for her. Thus the purchase of the Shadow in December of 1998. After getting used to riding the Shadow and a tag team of MSF instructors giving her 2 on 1 instruction, she has now gotten back on the PC800. She progressed far enough to enjoy riding some very twisty roads in the North Carolina mountains in June of 1999 as well as taking her first trip through Deal's Gap. She rode it like a pro! We also sold the Rebel in May of 1999 to a new rider.

Our daughter loves being my co-rider on the Wing. She is equipped with all the riding gear and even has her own headset installed in her helmet. Talk about having it nice! I love to spoil her, but she has yet to act spoiled. We also like to camp as a family, but we never seem to find the time to get our tent trailer out much. Maybe this year.... Of course, I say that every year.

In the Summer of 2000, I brought Christ back into my life. I was mad at God for many years and became disolutioned with religion. It had been years since I had gone to church. Then, a man named Dr. Dwight St. Andre broke down with his Gold Wing in my town and he gave me a call out of his GWRRA Gold Book. Little did I know that God had put me in Lebanon to help him. I soon realized that God also put Dwight and his wife Jeanie in the position of having bike trouble in my town to help me with my religious questions. You see, Dwight is a retired minister. A fantastic minister and wonderful human being. Both he and Jeanie are now more like parents than friends. Two months after they were stuck in my town, my wife, daughter and I made a trip to their home in Louisiana. It was during that weekend that I saw what was missing from my life and my family. I got baptised in October 2000. Dwight made a trip up to Lebanon and my pastor requested that he deliver the message for the service. From that point on, I've always known that he is with me at all times and life is so wonderful and my life is so blessed.

If you don't have a relationship with the Lord and you are reading this and think that it can't happen to you, just open your soul and let him come in. It is very easy once you let it happen. It works. It's great too.

It looks like riding for the near future will be limited. I own a business called Carpetbagger Enterprises (see link to that page for more info). Carpetbagger Enterprises creates custom cocoa entrance mats - any logo, any image, you pick what you want. I also work with a neighbor that is a general contractor (residential and commercial). That keeps me pretty busy. Hopefully, we should still be able to see some old friends and make new ones during our rides around the country.

Again, thanks for dropping in. Maybe some day we can meet up on the road somewhere and share some greetings.