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Uncle Bob was the biker, but Aunt Lou knew that if she wanted to spend any quality time with her husband, she'd better become a biker too. She began riding behind him on road trips with friends, arms wrapped tightly around his torso and a savvy helmet on her head. "If I'd known biking could be so fun, I'd have done this a long time ago!" She touted.

Then Bob planned a cross-country trip with another couple that loved the sport. "Sure, I'll do it!" She enthusiastically complied. It seemed rather romantic to her, the notion of exploring new territory behind her man on the seat of a motorcycle. Uncle Bob, however, envisioned the trip a little differently.

A week before the big trip, he pulled up to their house with a brand, new shiny pink Harley in the back of his pick-up truck. His face was beaming as he announced, "Look what I bought ya, Baby!"

Now Auntie Lou is a short little runt, so he'd carefully picked out a bike that would accommodate her short little legs-or so he thought. She'd never in her life driven a cycle, and wasn't too thrilled at the idea of learning how to ride one well enough to take a cross-country trip in a week's time, but she tried to be a good sport about it and they begin taking practice cruises together.

Every time they had to stop at a stop sign or traffic light, Lou's legs wouldn't quite reach the pavement and the bike would fall over with her. This happened time and time again, so she got pretty good at barreling right through stop signs and traffic lights to prevent the mishaps from happening. Finally, with Bob's helpful hints, she learned how to master most stops without falling over.

Finally the big day arrived, and the trip began. She bought a snazzy little pink jumpsuit and helmet to match her new pink Harley. She was a real biker woman now. She was so proud when she pulled up next to the others in her pretty bike. Ready, set, go! They took off like the speed demons they were, leaving her trailing way behind. She just wasn't ready to tackle the high speeds yet. Uncle Bob would get upset with her for driving like a "granny" and was frustrated that he had to spend so much of the trip lagging behind with her.

And then there were the frequent falls every time they hit a town with a main street and traffic lights. There were lots of ha-has and finger-pointing every time the bike fell over with her. As the trip continued on through the heavy traffic of big cities, she actually began to fear for her life. There were heavy rainfalls, a wind storm and even a hail storm before the trip was over.

Finally, beside the bed in a motel room halfway through the trip, Aunt Lou fell to her knees and promised God that if he'd only get her home alive, she'd never, ever be so stupid as to ride a motorcycle again.

She kept her promise. As soon as they pulled up in their own drive-way in Abilene, Texas, two weeks later-she fell to the pavement and kissed it. Then she ran into the garage and found a "For Sale" sign to tape to the Harley. Some other dumb husband bought it for his naive little wanna-be-a-biker-woman wife.

As for Uncle Bob and Aunt Lou, he eventually sold his bike too, and they went to truck-driving school together. She graduated from biker woman to big-rig woman, and created a whole new chapter to her life-but we always love to hear the story of her brief history as a hot little biker-mama!

Learn more about this author, Sheila-Ann Bender.
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