One of the nice things about writing a blog, at least for me, is the ability to look back at the posts and see my "life" as it has been since the first post in mid-May 2011. As I was going through the different entries that I had made, many of them forgotten already by me, I happened upon the one from last November at just about this time. I had just finished one of my "Miller Bucket List" items from probably about List #5~"to ride on the back of a motorcycle very fast and live to tell about it". My dear friends, Ron and Sara Brubaker, knew of my wish and made sure that one cloudy and late November afternoon, it could be fulfilled. In between surgeries on "old lefty" and still wearing my neon-pink short arm splint, I climbed onto the back of Ron's motorcycle and took off. I decided to reprint that one here in today's blog post as a good reminder to me of the generosity of two wonderful people in this world and the desire I had (and still do) to enjoy life to its fullest. Probably a good thing I did this AFTER my parents had both passed away cause I would have been "so" grounded if they had found out about it. :)
From November 25, 2011~and I have no regrets whatsoever that I did it AND would do it again just like that!
Friday, November 25, 2011
to ride on the back of a motorcycle very fast and live to tell about it
As a mom with 3 kids, I cannot tell you the number of times they have told me about scary things they have gone through in this life. Thankfully, for me, I never learned about them until months or even years later. LOL~They always would say, "Mom, what good would it have been for you to know about it when it was happening? Like you were going to change it or something?" Point well taken Ursela, Grahame, and Ricky.
One particular incident (although there have been hundreds that I could have chosen from) involved my oldest son, Ricky. That boy is an adventurer and in 2007 he decided to mountain bike along the Continental Divide for a month. He camped out along the way amid the beautiful and majestic Rocky Mountain scenery. I gave little thought to his camping sites until one day when he was back home again, he happened to show me a photo of him standing next to a sign in his camping area. The sign said, "DANGER-MOUNTAIN LION AREA". In his haste and in the dark of the night before, he had unknowingly pitched his tent in an area alongside "mountain lion highway". And he told me that he had one of his best night's sleep there!
My middle child, Grahame, also an adventuresome guy, spent a month along the Appalachian Trail this past spring. Of course I worried about him, pretty much non-stop the whole time. But wouldn't you know it, the one night that for some reason I didn't worry was the night that his food bag was attacked by a bear. So thankful that I didn't learn about it until days later...like the kids kept telling me, what would I have been able to do about it anyways?
The baby of the family, Ursela, has so far not divulged any scary moments and if she's had them...well, she's saving them up for a "special time" to share them with me. If she takes after her brothers, then I shall rest assured that sometime in the near future, I can count on a few more gray hairs.
I have always encouraged them to live their lives to the fullest each and every day. As their mom, I want them to have NO regrets about the choices they make. And I, dear friends, want to have no regrets either cause we all know that this life is way too short. So that's why today, November 25th, 2011, I worked on accomplishing item #3 on the "Miller Bucket List"-to ride on the back of a motorcycle very fast and live to tell about it.
I know what some of you must be thinking...."old lefty" is still in fairly fragile condition. I've already been in a bicycle accident and spent the better part of 2 months in a cast. Why take a chance today by going for a motorcycle ride? And guys, I've said before that Item #3 is NOT a death wish, but a life wish! I've wanted to have a motorcycle ride for as long as I can remember. Now the "going fast" part, well, I'm going to have to chalk that one up to seeing the IMAX movie, "Speed" at the Kansas Cosmosphere 13 times in a row. Speed fascinates me and although I dang sure don't need daily or even monthly doses of it, I did want to take this ride.
Luckily for me, I have two very wonderful friends, Sara and Ron Brubaker. When Sara learned this summer that Item #3 had to do with riding a motorcycle, she immediately thought of her good husband, Ron. Being the great guy that he is, Ron volunteered to help me out by giving me the ride on his motorcycle. Summer's incessant heat and then my biking accident kept postponing taking the ride. But today it was arranged, kind of on the spur of the moment, and I fulfilled my wish.
Here we are, prior to leaving this afternoon from in front of Sara's salon in South Hutchinson. Ron has a really nice Honda VTX 1800, a smooth ride. My dear young friend, Amy Brittain Pratt, should be very happy to see that her old first grade teacher was indeed wearing a helmet (thanks to my good friend Kalisha for providing it for me). And "old lefty" was tucked safely into the "get out my way neon pink colored" splint. I wasn't worried in the least~if you ever take a motorcycle ride, then you should only hope and pray that the person driving it is half as careful as Ron Brubaker is.
Since this was only my 4th motorcycle ride ever in life, I wasn't even sure how to get on and off of one, or what in the world to hang on to. But Sara and Ron talked me through it and I had absolutely no problems whatsoever. When we pulled out of the parking lot of "It's All About You", I had no regrets in the least. I was getting ready to do what I wanted to do...and it felt so very good.
And so, we were off....heading south out of South Hutchinson, via 96 and then 17 highways. Boy, what a feeling~very amazing in fact to fly down the road like that. I thought of how, as a cyclist, I was always so thrilled to go down the hill of the bike path at 23 mph. That always seemed like super sonic speed to me. Today I learned what moving along fast really feels like. And how fast DID we go? Well, let's see since I'm a teacher, I'm going to put it you this way....If I was teaching math and talking place value, then the highest speed we attained had a "2" in the tens place and a "0" in the ones place and in the hundreds place......dang you will have to figure that one out on your own. The bottom line is, for that brief moment in time, Peggy Miller was having the time of her life and living her life to the utmost. Keeping in mind, the last part of that Bucket List wish....and live to tell about it is shown below.
We made it back in one piece just a little over 30 minutes from when we left. I think I must have had a smile on my face the entire time. I wasn't afraid in the least and had all the faith and trust in the world with the driving ability of Ron Brubaker. For the first half of the ride, I had my fingers clutched around the back of his jacket (like THAT would do anything if we had a crash) but by the time were about 6 miles from town my hands just rested at my side. We made it back to South Hutch by 2:15 and I was alive and very well. My spirit soared, my heart was light, and peace was inside of me.
Friends, what is it that you have left to do in this life that seems a little scary to you? Is there something, no matter how big or small, that you've meaning to accomplish but just don't quite have the courage to do it? Being a "risk taker" can be quite frightening and sometimes it seems like the smartest thing to do, perhaps the ONLY thing to do, is to NOT take a risk. Risks are everywhere in this life...and from the moment you arise in the morning until you lay your head on the pillow in sleep each night, you really have to face that fact. Only you can make the decision as to whether or not you want to embrace the risk or turn away from it. What ever your decision is, you can only hope that it is one you can live with. As for me, this day, I chose to take the risk and rest assured, I have absolutely no regrets!
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