When
I was 14, my dad bought a Honda 50 Motorbike. I was learning how to ride it,
shift gears etc (it shifted like a motorcycle). We lived out in the country- on
the Kettle River, near Barstow, WA. There was an old road on the property that
just went around in a circle and Dad told me to stay on that road. I got bored doing that after awhile and took
off down a dirt road that was next to the river bank and headed south toward the neighbors
property. When I got to the fence line,
I turned the bike around, not really knowing how tight you could turn,
and made a wide turn that had me headed right toward the river bank. I got scared, pulled back on the hand throttle and dove over the side of the 40 foot river
bank. I came-to with my face in the water, I looked
up the bank, saw my dad and passed out again. My red and white TV shirt was all
red. I had a skull fracture and a concussion.
The Statesman Examiner (Colville paper) came out and took a photo of me with my head
wrapped up in a bandage, sitting on my motorbike in my PJ's, with mama standing
in the background.
When
I was 16, I was a Miss Kettle Falls Princess and as "royalty"- we had our
pictures in the paper.
At 18 I had a photo in the "weddings
section" of the paper.
