Summer was upon us, the air was fresh, the trees were green, and the unknown was calling our name. I had an old Kawasaki KZ400, a girls bike really, and I was going to put the old lady through her paces on the roads of New England. Enlisting my good friend Brian Blass (Uncle Merle), to join me on this freedom ride, we hit the road with our hopes high. After the first 5 hours on the road we had already been soaked by rain and threatened with thunder and lighting. Ominous shadows hung over our trip and I was shaken. We hadn’t even reached Mass. and my bike was already sputtering and stalling out in the darkness of the Litchfield hills. The next morning we arose and limped into the nearest country town. We brought the bike to a mechanic who quickly and accurately pinpointed the problem (water in the gas due to a faulty gas cap). From there he replaced the gasket, drained out the tank, and had us back on the road within an hour. Feeling like I had just been given a new lease on life we headed to Limerock Park, a race track. The mechanic had given us a line on his buddy who was racing BMW M5′s at the track and would be more than willing to bring us around the track for a few high speed laps. We hadn’t even been on the road for a full day and we were already having a great adventure, screaming around a race track at high speeds without wearing a seat belt (Merle!). The next 20 days would offer us proof positive that having a normal job year-in-and-year-out wouldn’t be on the agenda for a few, that kind of commitment doesn’t correspond with being a renegade biker!
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