Angel Flight and motorcycle update

Well, due to the bad weather, we only had a handful of people show up for our rally but we called it a success. We had a cancer patient hear of us that very day and came out to meet us. This gentleman and his wife had been driving between Kansas and Houston every 2 weeks for quite some time. Just because of the time spent on the road, they'd make a round trip to Houston and back home, and start it all over 7 days later. Add in the cost of meals and hotel rooms during the journey and you can begin to imagine the time and financial burden on these patients. With Angel Flight, this patient is going to be able to drive to a small local airport near his home and be in Houston just a few hours later. After receiving treatment, they can be home the next day with almost no transportation expense to the patient. Quality of life is improved, out of pocket expenses drop a LOT, and they just have less to worry about. Pass the word along about angel flight to everyone you see. The more folks who can learn about Angel Flight the better. We can't help them if they don't know about us!

On the motorcycle front, I'm scheduled to take the basic rider course next weekend. I bought my own full-face helmet yesterday so I don't have to use a loaner at the class. It's a HJC CL-SP Phoenix and it feels great and doesn't look too shabby. I think it will look good with my new bike...that's right, my new bike. We have been looking around this past week and tracked down a nice used 2004 Honda 599. We looked all over it and just loved it. It's low mileage, bright yellow, and still has a Honda warranty through 2009! We did not want to buy anything before taking the riding class, so we asked the dealer, "What would it take for you to hold this bike for us until we get our class and written test over?" Well, when they said it was $200 refundable to hold it for 30 days, we said, "You've got a deal."

We originally weren't going to spend any bike money until after the class, but it was such a nice bike for a great deal that we knew that we'd be SO disappointed if we came back after Memorial Day and it had been sold. In fact, as we were signing the papers, another salesman stuck his head in the room and asked, "Did you put a deposit on the yellow 599?" We said, "Yes we did!" He said, "Ok, I wanted to be sure because a guy who was in earlier just walked in and asked to see the bike again. I'll tell him it's no longer available." In the end, it appears that the bike had been in the showroom for a couple of weeks with one or 2 people looking at it and if we hadn't put the deposit down, it would have likely been gone when we came back next week.

So anyway, I am all set to take the class. I have my helmet and I already had jeans, boots (I'm in Texas, remember!), and gloves. I bought a long-sleeve undershirt that the military and pro sports are wearing to keep cool. It's made so you can wear it by itself or under another shirt or riding jacket. I'll probably just wear one of my old air force BDU shirts over it for a second layer to block the sun (the undershirt is black) so I'm set to go. I just have to show up on time Friday night for classroom and then Saturday and Sunday mornings for class and driving. I'll let you know how it goes. Assuming that all goes as planned, I'll take the class next weekend, take the written test at the DPS office Tuesday morning, and then pick up the bike either Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon, depending on how much free time I have. My boys have swim lessons on Tuesday evening, so I probably won't have time to get it on Tuesday. Suffice it to say that I'm pretty darned excited!!! Stay tuned.