Crashing Motorcycles and Fighting Hurricanes

Fall, 2003

Hey all. Just wanted to say Hi to all my friends out there. I suppose the last time I wrote to everyone was at the end of my summer motorcycle trip, so I’m much overdue bringing you an update. It was great to catch up, reconnect, and see a handful of you as I traveled. I’d love to hear back from you guys and see what’s happening in your world.

It’s been an interesting summer and fall. Since I’ve been back from my six week motorcycle trip, life has been one crazy series of ups and downs. I had ten million things to catch up on when I got back in town. A lot of them revolved around work, and a lot of them revolved around hanging with old pals. I went through a serial dating phase in an attempt to find that one girl I wanted to spend some time with. I met some really cool girls, and had a ton of fun, (you know who you are – thanks : ) I’m still single officially, but I am spending a lot of time with one really great girl and I’m really glad to be taking a break from the dating scene.

I had a pretty bad motorcycle accident this fall too. I’m still trying to figure out just went wrong. Maybe God just wanted to teach me a little bit of humility. I was coming back from rock climbing with my friend and the front end of the motorcycle skidded out as I was tipping it into the corner. Front wheel skids usually happen a bit deeper in a turn unless you’re trying to break and turn at the same time. I just messed up and wound up crashing, not sure exactly how, but it was my fault. I need to spend some time at the track getting my confidence and my skills honed back in.

I spent about a week in bed healing from some pretty bad road rash. Safety gear on ALL the time from now on! I was pretty bummed, but it wound up being a blessing in disguise. I bought my bike back from the insurance company for really cheap. It was totaled in the crash, but it was a cosmetic total. Functionally, the bike is fine. Now I own an incredible bike free and clear.

About the time I was mostly healed up, Hurricane Isabel decided to tear up the east coast. My dad called me up and asked if I wanted to come back east and cut trees off of house for fun and profit…..heavy on the profit. I booked my ticket five minutes later and got on a plane with my friend Jake.

Me my dad and Jake all drove up to Richmond, VA and started busting our asses. The place was devastated. It was pretty incredible to see such destruction and to rip through it with my chainsaw. We patched a lot of roofs, cut lots of trees, had lots of fun, and made lots of money.

It was really cool being able to spend that much time with my dad. Jake wound up flying back to SLC and my friends Angie and Rachael (my honey) flew into Baltimore to take his place.

We took a few days off and did the tourist thing in DC, worked some more then bailed out and went home to Asheville, NC. All in all I spent close to a month in VA doing work. It was really nice to show Angie and Rachael where I grew up and to spend some time with my mom, dad and baby sister back home.

Well my dad had this junker car that he didn’t want, so he gave it to me. Me and the girls loaded into my six dollar car and started driving. We visited some friends in Charlotte, NC, Atlanta, GA, and saw my grandfolks in FL. My grandpa took us out in the Gulf of Mexico on his boat. The girls caught a couple of Mackerel, and I caught a little hammer head shark. Fun times.

The day after Halloween we were in New Orleans. Rachael’s step mom lives there, so we had a place to stay. That place is crazy! I wish we had a week to party and play there. The next day we got back in the car and spent 31 hours driving straight back to Salt Lake. I wish I could have taken my time and visited all you folks along the way. Maybe next year.

Right now I’m in sunny San Diego with Angie. It was great being home, but a couple of days of rain was enough to send me searching for sun and surf. I’m only going to be here a few days, but plan to do a load of surfing. Since disaster relief was so prosperous back east, I’m looking for opportunities here in Southern California after the fires. If any of you know anything let me know.

I suppose I’ll be back in Salt Lake early next week. I’m considering doing a fat Thanksgiving day at my house for all you SLC folks that don’t have other plans. Let me know if you’d be interested.

Well that’s me. I’d love to hear from you guys, and I’m excited to spend time with you SLC kids when I get back.

Take care all,

miah