Goodbye to a childhood hero...

I remember watching a replay of Evil Knievel's Caesar's Palace jump when I was a young boy. Even though he ended up a crumpled heap with a multitude of broken bones and a 29 day coma, all I could think of was "Cooool! Mom! When can I have a motorcycle?" Needless to say my mother never bought me a motorcycle, or a mini-bike, or anything with a motor in it for that matter. In fact, when she did buy me a bicycle, it was the two wheeled equivalent of an armored vehicle, and I'm sure it was her way of trying to keep those two wheels on the ground.

It didn't work. As soon as I figured out how to make a ramp it was over. That 60 pound wonder of a bike could get off the ground if you got it going fast enough. I have vivid memories of me and my friends sitting outside my grandparents house waiting turns to launch our fragile young bodies into the air. You also have to remember that this was before all of those new fancy BMX type bikes that those crazy X Games riders ride. No. no, no. We had bikes with banana seats. Seats that if you landed wrong, well, let's just say you'd be lucky to ever be able to have kids. Did that stop us. Hell no. We'd continue to launch ourselves in to the air with all of the aplomb of a gymnastics troop.

I remember the day that I not only got grounded from riding my bike, but also the day that ramp jumping was made illegal in front of my grandparents house (upheld by the mother police). Somehow I had convinced my younger cousin to lay in front of the ramp. A darwin award situation if ever there was one. I cleared her with not so much as a scratch on either of us. What I didn't plan on was my mother and my aunt coming around the corner from grocery shopping just as I had launched into the air. I landed, my cousin jumped up, and it was all over from that point. I got chastised for being stupid enough to try a stunt like that, and my cousin got chastised for being dumb enough to lay in front of the ramp. When I thought about it I felt bad, but I also remember that adrenaline rush. I knew why Evel Knievel did the crazy stuff he did. I knew why he launched himself into the air.

Here's to the man that taught me to take some chances to do some crazy stuff. Wherever you are, I hope they have some sweet jumps there.