A N N A

DEEP

Brenda's adopted daughter, Anna is quite the handful at times.  Like most 14 y.o. girls she can be vewwwwy persistent when she wants something.

She hasn't shown a lot of interest in riding motorized stuff but today as it turns out, she was all for it.

I heard the door close about 7 am.  It was cold, blustery and overcast.  Looking outside I see her spindly little form heading up the right of way road to "the pit" carrying something in her hand which turned out to be one of our ice cream containers!

This snow bank will still be here June 21st!

I got dressed, fired up the Big Bear and hit the trail hoping to catch up with her.  At the top of the hill I came to a major obstacle, a snow drift about 10' deep and measuring about 100' long x30' in width.  Turning back I did an alternate trail through the woods and came across her standing next to a still smoldering fire pit in the pit.  Bottles and cans of previously filled alcoholic beverages, littered the area.  Boys from school, she tells me... naming a few.  All around 13-15 years of age living in the general vicinity.  They come on their (Dad's quads) and their dirt bikes and smoke and drink.  I notice that there are no quantities of a single beverage container, I suspect it's easier to "pinch" one or two of this or that from Dad's supply without raising suspicion. 

In any case, it was so pleasant sheltered in the woods, I went and woke Brenda up from her peaceful Sunday slumber and with smokies and buns in in hand, we headed back up the hill.

She sure likes poking around campfires.

We spent a very satisfying morning and while Mom and I sat on a log, I let Anna ride the Bear around the shale pit.

Me thinks Mom would rather be in bed!

She did so well and after our campfire was firmly out with sand and clay she continued riding in the yard.  In fact she rode the Big bear Yamaha much of the day, round and round, standing at times, taking turns, stopping where the driveway meets the lane.  Not surprising, she looked almost like a natural and believe me, in the many years I spent teaching Motorcycle courses, I can tell.  Most of my students over the years could learn to ride quite well, but it would take concentration and practice to do so.  Every now and again, we got someone that was just made to sit on a bike, in my estimation that happened about 5% of the time.  Certainly no higher than 10.

The shale pit above our property.

Take Lisa my younger daughter and Holly a couple of years older.  Lisa at a very young age just sat right and balanced the bike as if she had been born on it.  Holly, had to learn to ride.  She is a good rider but that came from her intelligence and smarts and practice.  Surprisingly, Lisa has never shown much interest in riding Motorcycles and Holly rides whenever we get together.

Favorite spot for kids of many ages...

14 years old.

By late in the afternoon, I had to literally 'peel' Anna off the quad so Mom and I could run into town on the Velo scooter and pick up a couple of coffees for Mike and Isabelle, who were working on getting their paper out this week.

Looks pretty comfortable at the controls.

As it turned out, the sun came and made a pretty good showing although the wind is still steady at least it's changed from North to South and we cruised back to our home at an indicated



60mph.

Ahhh... the wind at one's back!