All five Grandsons were at the house yesterday along with a couple of my sons and their families. We played "call of duty" till 4 AM and laughed till our faces hurt. Then it was a big breakfast of bacon, sausage and eggs to get the day started.

Around noon I headed out for a motorcycle ride through my favorite place on earth, Rural Indiana.

I took some of the same back roads around Raccoon SRA (Cecil M. Harden Lake) that my Dad loved driving in his pickup 50-55 years ago. Man those memories of riding with him (and Mom) in that truck are as fresh as spring grass when I'm riding on the same rough old country roads we used to drive. We went back and forth on those roads with boats, campers, coolers and lawnchairs way back then.

In those days my brothers would sit in lawn chairs in the bed of Dad's truck and drink beer on the way to the lake and on the way home that night. I was maybe 10 and thought I was some kinda king getting to ride in the truck bed with them. Obviously that was before the "do gooders" ruined the world. And just in case you're wondering, the driver never drank and the drinkers never drove.

Today I rode past a couple of Amish teenagers walking down a gravel road holding hands. I rode past dogs, chickens, tractors, buzzards, boats, creeks and woods. Then it was time for some twisty highways ridden at the slightly slower wintertime pace nearly invisible sand on the road requires.

By the time I was close to home the wind was picking up, some rain was hitting the windshield and I even saw a little lightning. Man I love riding in that kind of weather but the bike was still mostly clean and I had work to do so I forced her to turn into the driveway.

Funny, I don't have the patience to drive a car or truck 50 miles but when I throw a leg over a good motorcycle the wind calls me like a moth to a flame.