Love on a pair of two wheels.

I ride he rides what could be better but it started long before we had bikes. Riders who meet us assume we met through riding or that I learned to ride after years of riding on the back of my husband’s bike. Neither is true.

I have been married for under 3 years and riding for 4 but I have known I wanted to marry my husband since I was 16 not long after I met him.

My 19th birthday at Cedar Point

The really short version of the story is that we dated for a number of years often long distance. During that time we would both talk about riding when we grew up. We where going to get Harleys some day. Even when I was a teenage girl I wanted my own bike. When I was 20 he asked me to marry him and I said yes. When I was 21 I freaked out and ran off to save the world. I loved him very much but was young. I thought I had to choose between him and what I was feeling called to do with my life. It never occurred to me I could have both. Did I mention I was young? The saying youth is wasted on the young comes to mind. For a few years we tried to figure it out but at some point he decided that being my back up plan wasn’t very fun and he stopped talking to me. Who can blame  him ?

Rick and me with our first bikes

We went on with our lives and didn’t talk for 14 years. But once did talk again we knew we had never gotten over each other. Honestly, it took one phone call and it all came back to both of us. It took awhile for us to get back together but we knew right away. When we did get back together we both had motorcycles. I had a Harley Sporster 883 Custom named the red mistress and he had a Vulcan 1500 Classic. We now have different bikes since now I ride a 2011 Harley Deluxe and my husband rides a 2002 Harley Roadking Classic. 

Right after we eloped

On December 28, 2010, a month after we got back together, we secretly rode our two motorcycles to the courthouse and we eloped.  

Our beach ceremony at Lovers Key State park in FL

 A few months later  we had a ceremony on a beach for our close friends and family. I loved my beach ceremony but I wouldn’t give up the day it was just the two of us eloping on our motorcycles.

Since then we have riding our bikes all over the place.

We have taken 12 multi-day and multi-state trips. Many of them involved camping off of the bikes.

Sturgis 2011

Me on the Tail of the Dragon

The most epic of these trips was our honeymoon that was a 4700 mile, 14 state, 21 day trip that included 9 days camping at the sturgis rally and also riding the tail of the dragon on the way home to Maryland.

Rick on the Tail of the Dragon 

 

I am going to try to tell some of our crazy riding stories on this blog. Needless to say we have a number of lost years to make up for. and have the joy of living our lives out on a pair of two wheels.

The Vixen packed for a work meeting in Pittsburgh Oct 2013

I was bummed that I was going to have to miss a pretty great biker Halloween party thrown by a friend I know from Biker or Not. This party is pretty amazing. It is filled with bikers I know from the region having a really good time. Well I had a out of state work trip for the whole weekend. I decided that I would ride the 500 miles round trip from MD to the other side of PA. It was so nice to get out into the PA country side on a beautiful fall day (both there and back).

I had one funny moment on my return trip. When I was in a gas station the young male cashier says to me "I guess this is one of your last days of riding for the year".  I laughed and replied not for me I ride year round.

Which is true. I do. Except if there is snow on the ground. I do have heated gear which helps a ton. By December I wouldn't take my bike on a 500 mile multi state multi day trip since the weather could turn to snow and ice at any time. But I will ride every month of the year.
There was that one time ......
The only time that wasn't true was when the DC area got slammed with two back to back mega snow storms in 2010 when my old bike (aka the red mistress) was buried for 3 weeks. 

The Red Mistress after the first mega storm in 2010

The Red Mistress after the second mega storm in 2010

It took hours to shovel out the Red Mistress in 2010

This took have a day to dig out when I finally got around to trying to dig out the red mistress. Since then I have gotten a canvass garage for the Deluxe and the Roadking so the bikes never get buried under a mound of snow again. Lesson learned.

The joy of bike camping

One of the things that I love to do is camp while on a multi day, multi state motorcycle trip. In fact, my husband and I rode our two motorcycles from MD on a 14 state 21 day trip that included sturgis and the dragon for our honeymoon. During that trip we spent 9 days camping during the sturgis motorcycle rally at the broken spoke camp ground.

Our tent and bikes during sturgis

Bikes packed for our honeymoon

Hanging out during Sturgis at the Broken Spoke Campground

First ones at Broken Spoke Campground

This was when I still had my 2008 Harley Sporster 883 Custom which I put 4700 miles on in that trip. But anyhow people ask me a lot about camping off of a bike and how the heck we fit everything. 

One thing I created on Pintrest was a list of my favorite bike camping gear.  You can check it out by clicking on this link Pintrest board Glamping / motorcycle camping stuff I use and few things I want.

One of the camping gear pieces you will see on the pintrest board is the REI Kingdome 8. YES we take that on our bikes. This summer we decide to get this macdaddy of all tents. With the tent we got the garage addition. All told it is 190 plus of covered area and over 100 square feet inside the two room tent. The peak height is over 6 feet. There is NOTHING that is roughing it in this tent. When we go back to sturgis in two years you can look for this tent and find two bikers living in luxury while living it up at the rally. But if you have every been interested in camping in comfort off of a motorcycle check out my pintrest board for ideas on how. 

Ocean City Bikeweek camping at Frontier Town

Riding my 2011 Deluxe during Ocean City Bike Week 2013

After almost four years I decided that I wanted to start writing about my experiences on two wheels. So this is me. If you already know me it might be as Lizdc which is my name on multi biker sites. Anyhow I ride a 2011 Harley Softail Deluxe named the Vixen. I love to ride mostly on crazy solo adventures or with my partner in mischief (aka the hubby) who has a 2002 Harley Roadking.