Racing...a way of life!

From L to R: My Dad driving me down the "aisle", Brother Patton performing our ceremony, and my hubby and I taking our first sip of non-alcoholic (lol) champagne together.

My husband and I met on a motocross race track in 1976. It was a dreary, rainy, wet day and I had only been in town for 3 days, when my Dad urged me to go watch a dirtbike race. Turns out his girlfriend's son was going to make his first attempt at it. I had no desire whatsoever to go to this race!

I guess I should add that I had taken a bus from Liberal, KS three days before, my boxes which held almost everything I owned had gotten lost (interesting since I was on the same bus the whole trip!) and did I mention that I had to wear my Dad's clothes (yes, you heard me right) and I was 17 at the time.

Long story short, my Dad's girlfriend just happened to be my mother--in-law's cousin. They were both at the race and my mother-in-law was insistant that I meet her son and take a ride on his bike after the race. I had no idea why she wanted me to do this so bad so I made it conditional that I would but only if she asked him FIRST!!

Race ends, I walk over to the finish line and I see this amazing smile and gorgeous, warm brown eyes looking at me. I found out later he had no shirt on and only race pants and boots...hey, I was falling in love and that didn't seem important at the time. Oh, but those eyes....

I was instructed to go to a specific part of the course and he (oh, yeah..his name is Tuffy, by the way) would give me the ride of my life.

He approached in a tee shirt, race pants and that smile! I have to admit, I was excited...it didn't matter that I found out just prior to my ride that my mother-in-law had NOT asked him first. I hopped on the bike, put my arms around him and my Dad stood nearby yelled, "You better bring her back after one lap around the track". We both shook our heads in agreement.

As my husband to be began taking off, I naturally put my arms around him and I have never let go. I just got the feeling at that moment that he was "the one". I couldn't explain it, heck, we still can't explain it. But 34 years after we met and after 32 years of marriage, we are still together and our kids and grandkids share our love of racing.

This, folks, is just the beginning. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to many more posts, comments, etc. in the future.

PS-My Dad's girfriend's son never showed up. lol..and as you can see in the pic at top of page, we were married on the motocross track we both raced on and he helped design back then. ©Leslie Howard 2010