Youth Fire Side

Sunday was a balmy 39 degrees in our area, we even had some snow fall. Monday cleared up and the temp came up a little to the mid 40s. I tell you this, just so you can get a mental picture of want was happening in the days just prior to the Tuesday evening youth fireside the TRA was invited to put on for the YM/YW of the Willow Creek 2nd Ward.

Tuesday came, the the temp had made it up to 54 when Jan and I were suppose to leave for the meeting place. We donned the cold weather gear, fired up the bike and headed out. Fifty four degrees really isn't to bad of a temperature, maybe a jacket, sweater or heavy long sleeve shirt, but when you jump on a motorcycle and go down the freeway, it can be down right cold.

We all met at the Rite-Aid a block away from the church house. Given the temperature and the oppotunity many had to go see Michael McLean's "The Ark" on the same night, I thought that participation would be on the light side. Twenty plus bikes showed up, including at least three from the Ogden area.

A little after 7:00 the YM/YW were taken outside to greet us as we rode up and parked. The youth (and the leaders) milled around the bikes for a little bit and some of them took the opportunity to check out how the seats felt. One YW leader even took a short trip on the back of the trike that was there.

After moving inside, we heard some information on how the TRA started and what it's goals are. Also, we heard of some of the special experiences that members of the group have had and one sister talked about the special challenges that the women have while on a motorcycle (going to the temple and changing from pants and skirts and of course, helmet hair)

The main point of the fireside was to teach the youth about protecting yourself with the "whole armour of God". This was demonstrated by the use of the riding gear used to protect you while riding.

I don't believe I had even heard (or maybe I should say - not heard) the youth so quiet during a fireside.

The TRA has done a few of these fireside but this was the first that we were able to participate in. It was a great experience and I hope that we do many more.

SOLD!!

Jan's bike sold last night. For some reason even Jan can't explain, she hasn't ridden her bike much this year because she's felt uneasy about it. Probably for good reason because in July, Jan & I had left Friday night to go stay at the cabin and do some maintainence work there. We were just pulling in (11:00 PM) when we got a voice message that "our son Sam had been in a motorcycle accident".

Jan reached the hospital while I unloaded the trailer with scaffolding etc at the cabin and we headed back. A couple more calls with the info Jan received from the hospital to our daughters to let them know and solicite their help. Audrey was able to get a hold of her husband at FedEx where Sam was heading to work and let them know what happened and not to expect him at work. Vivian, along with her husband, made arrangements for some friends to come stay with their little boy and went over to the hospital to be with Sam while we traveled back. Good thing, or maybe not at that hour, that they live close to the hospital. Thanks to both of our awesome girls and their spouses!!

What the hospital said was that Sam was on the freeway and the bike went down. Sam had been wearing a helmet which did it's job and protected him. He was also wearing a leather jacket and SHORTS. Sam broke his collar bone and shoulder blade, both on the left side and had some pretty good road rash on mostly his legs.

What we found out later when we got to the hospital was that he wasn't riding his bike (1981 Honda Silverwing) but had ridden his mom's bike that night. The front end had started to wobble and he couldn't get it to stop. After slowing what he could and feeling the bike was getting away from him, he put it down on the left side so he could have some control of his destiny. Because it was late at night, traffic was light. A lady in an SUV was behind him and saw what was going on when he went down. She stopped and used her vehicle to block the lane of traffic to protect Sam and called for help. Thank you! Sam had the presence of mind and the strength to move from out of the lane of traffice and get to the median to wait for help.

Sam is almost all of the way healed now, he has returned to work after 7 or so weeks off, and the bike has been repaired. For having been laid down, it didn't suffer to bad of damage. It bent the front forks but the rest was mostly cosmetic or minor to repair.

After all of this, Jan's comfort level was less than before and for good reason so --- SOLD.