My current husband, Jack is the ying to my yang. He is my stabilizing force. We compliment each other. Where I am wild, he is calm. Where I have lofty ideas, he is earth bound. He doesn't ever discourage me and my ideas. He will allow me to dream then will bring up other aspects that I hadn't considered.

We met back when I was 18. I was smitten immediately but he was married at the time. I had thought she was his sister but no such luck. I could listen to him for hours tell me stories. He was so intelligent and wise. Time passed (about 20 years, 2 husbands ) when I moved back to Galesburg.

I had put my information on classmates.com when I was living in Chicago. My profile basically said that I had 5 children and worked in human resources. I hadn't updated any information since moving to Galesburg.

One day when I was at work, I received an email saying that John wanted to talk to me. John? I wondered if this was Jack. I had always known him as Jack. I took a chance and wrote back to him. It was my Jack. This began a wonderful email relationship. His wife had recently died and I was involved in a crazy relationship with a Nicaraguan Sandinista loon. Soon I was free of the loon and Jack and I began seeing each other. He bought a Harley. We decided to go to Sturgis.

Little did I know how that would test our relationship. Jack had this idea that we would drive straight through to Sturgis....972 miles. Looking back, I realize that this was good that we did this early in our relationship because there is no way it would have happened later. We were still in the polite stage with each other. Considerate to a point.

Now I am a good passenger on a bike. I love to be a passenger. Just not for 972 miles straight. We drove and drove and drove. Getting on and off of the bike became a feat of stamina in itself. Every bone, muscle in my body ached. We had started out wearing leather jackets. By the time we got to South Dakota it was so hot I was pouring bottles of water down myself. We saw bikers pulled over by Do Not Pass signs, standing in the shade from the sign. The wind would blow hot sand/dirt at us. There was no breeze when we stopped.

We finally arrived at the campsite. Now, I remember a time when my parents had rented a camper to take us kids camping. We had gone not too far from my grandmother and grandfather's house in Griggsville. We went to set up camp and when dad handed us a shovel and told us that this was to dig our bathroom spots with...well, we ended up back at our grandparent's house in their yard camping.

So it is safe to say that my camping experience was about nil. Jack told me clear out a spot so he could set the tent up on it. We had a small tent. I didn't truly understand what he was saying so I looked on the ground for broken glass or something. I didn't see any, and yes, I did see the sticks and pine cones but I didn't think that was what he was talking about. We set the tent up...it was starting to get dusk. We did have an air mattress (thank god, I am way too old to sleep on the ground) but I didn't have a pillow because when you are packing things to take on a motorcycle, you have to be conscious of everything you pack. And there is limited room.

It may have been the next night. We went to bed and about 5 in the morning (the sun was up), Jack and I were laying there when all of a sudden we hear psssssssssssss. I looked over at him and he looked at me. psssssssssss and then we started sinking. Slowly. Ever so slowly. Jack says to me in his wonderful deep voice, "Susan, I thought you cleared out the spot under this tent."

"Well, I thought I did. Well. What do you really mean, clear out the area?"

Jack looked at me as if he was regarding a child. A really young child.

"Did you move the branches and sticks out of the way?"

"Oh, those. Well, I didn't find any broken glass or anything. I didn't really think you were talking about the sticks."

"That would be why we are now on a deflated air mattress."

"oh." I said, sorry that I didn't understand.

Truly understanding the consequences of my not clearing out a spot when we slept that night with no air mattress. Didn't know that I could feel so many of my bones through my ample body. The next day we went and bought another air mattress. The small things in life mean so much.

We rode all over in the beautiful Black Hills. Unbelievable. It was wonderful. One time it rained horribly while we were on the bike. Poor Jack. We had our Frogg Toggs on (lightweight rainsuits) and I thought I was helping him by putting my hands into his pockets on his jacket and pulling it down. I thought I was keeping his hood on but rather I find out later, I was actually pulling the hood over his eyes which is why he pushed my hands out of the way. Oops.

Soon, too soon, it was time to head home. By this time, the camping, the not being home, was taking its toll. I was dead tired and cranky. Jack wasn't much better. And he had stopped taking his Zoloft which then affected his personality. He changed into this person that did not care that he was pushing me beyond my physical limits. Riding riding riding. At one point, I thought there was a hitchiker standing next to us as we traveled down the road and was asking us for a ride. That was when I realized I had fallen asleep. Not good. And Jack was driven. Not wanting to stop except for gas. Accusing me of sipping my cappucino longer than I should because I didn't want to get back on the bike. It was truly that the cappucino was hot and I hate drinking hot liquids but he thought it was because my body was screaming in agony each time I got back on the bike. We stopped at the rest stop in Iowa. I just started crying. I don't know if you can appreciate the pain of riding that long on a bike. My entire body had every nerve inflamed in pain. It was all I could do to pull my pants up after using the bathroom. I truly didn't care if he left me there at that rest stop. I just wanted to lay down on the wooden slatted bench. And yet he still pressed on.

We arrived at home and he looked at me and said if we just rode to Peoria and back we would have completed over 1000 miles straight of riding.

Boy, I thought. It is in his favor that this was early in our relationship. I looked at him and said that he was more than welcomed to do that. I was going to just crawl into bed and sleep. And sleep. And sleep.

All in all it was a fun great trip. Getting there and back wasn't so fun but South Dakota is a beautiful state by the Black Hills. And I was glad that we went. Jack was already talking about going again the next year. I knew then there was no way I was going to be able to go straight through ever again in this lifetime.