BK’s back for
January 2009!
It’s been a while since I have written one of
these so I figured I’d fill you guys in. As a few of you may know, I
followed one of my dreams of a while to move out to sunny
California. It was in September when I had finally pulled the
trigger and decided to make the big move. October came around and I
had put in my two weeks in my awesome work place. Now this was one
of the hardest parts of the whole decision. I had an amazing job
with a bunch of amazing people at Pure Honda in Minot, ND.
I had been around the block in motorcycle shops in the state
and I have to definitely hand it to Pure Honda being, in my opinion,
one of the better ones in the state, so leaving there was extremely
tough.
So a week after my last trip home to Grand Forks to see the family,
I loaded up everything I owned (my bike, acoustic guitar, and
clothes) in my extremely huge single cab Ford Ranger, and started my
two thousand mile journey. Now I have a bad habit of biting my
nails, but this trip was one to wreck havoc on them. Not knowing if
my truck was going to completely yard-sale or blow up in the middle
of nowhere and it being a scene from a horror film. I had originally
planed on driving this all in one shot but got about 5 hours away
and had to pull over and get a little sleep. Remember when I said
that I had everything I owned with me. Well I sure as hell wasn’t
going to trust it outside my hotel, so I had to unload everything,
even my bike, and bring it in the room for the night. After sleeping
for just 4 hours I got up at the butt crack of dawn, loaded
everything up and got back on the road.
Everything went pretty smoothly until ‘Viva Las
Vegas,’ when I took a little detour downtown, not planned of course.
Talking to people that have been to California before, they say it
will take some getting used to driving on the freeways, and they
were not kidding. It is like the Daytona 500 out there! You got the
speed limit at 70 mph, the flow of traffic going at about 80 mph,
and you still have people passing you at 100 mph on both sides of
you. Then there’s me… in the power ranger absolutely pinned going
about 80 tops with my big load. It made for quite the first
impression. But needles to say, now I would feel comfortable hoping
in the drivers seat for Joe Gibbs at any time!
I arrived at my destination with no car problems. I think I only
killed one bird, on accident I swear, and about a million bugs.
Being my very first time to California it was definitely different
than I had imagined. Its not all sandy beaches and palm trees,
although there are tons of palm trees, the state as a whole is very
dirty looking and not very green like the nice Red River Valley I
grew up in.
I am super glad I took the huge chance on moving out here to pursue
my passion in the motocross industry. Even with the economy as bad
as it is, and it putting a huge dent in the motocross industry as a
whole. I plan to continue putting myself out there and meeting as
many new people as I can, hoping I land my dream job.
About a month ago, I had the chance to go and play mini-golf with a
friend of mine and I couldn't pass up the opportunity! Now, ever
since I can remember, I've been a pretty competitive kid and there
was no way I was going to lose—especially to a girl. Upon arrival,
I’d asked my partner if she had brought her notebook for the lessons
I was about to give her. Needless-to-say, she laughed in my face. As
it turned out, I was going to have my hands full, because she had a
golf background. Things started out alright, but quickly turned
downhill for me. It was not a good feeling. It felt like a day of
riding when nothing seemed to click: The ball wouldn’t find the damn
hole to save my life! Much to my surprise though, she had only
beaten me by eight strokes.
After nearly two weeks of hearing about my defeat, I got a
second chance to prove my skills. This time I had my good old pal
Casey along for moral support, and as my caddy. There was no way I
could let her beat me again! Let’s just say this round of 18 holes
went way better. I was sinking my puts left and right and felt
pretty good that I was on the top of the leader board. All said and
done, I came out victorious! I ended up winning by five strokes, at
one over par. Let’s just say that I had contracts from Nike, and Top
Flight in my mail box the next day.
No matter what it is: mini golf, go karts, board games or
even a good game of go-fish, I go into it with the same mindset as I
go to the starting line with, and that’s to win. I think this great
sport we love puts a little bit of competitive spirit into all of
us.
BK#122
