Thankful for a bike that remind me of the things (and people) I love

A little teaser...I will explain below. :o)

Besides the newly found freedom that I have from my job I also recently made a new purchase that has rekindled my love for riding and is causing me to become nostalgic.

The whole story is that my dad would come home after a day long hunt of junkyards far and wide with a trailer stacked high with a burned car carcass and filthy twisted and crumbled pieces of metal.  When he drove up in the driveway I never quite understood his excitement.  He would tell me found the coolest car (I must have looked at him like he was crazy, but he didn't care) letting me know what year Corvette it used to be and all of the plans he had for it.

Over the next year I would spend hours in the garage with him holding the flashlight in just the right spot, my arm cramping feeling like it's going to fall off. Running back and forth to the tool box a million times (give or take)picking the perfect tool he would need next.  But, I got to spend time with him...and watch as he excitedly polished, shined and replaced pieces to someone's "piece of junk" that would be reborn as someone's treasure. I never got the bloody knuckles or burns he got from twisting and turning his hands to fit in the smallest of places, but I was there...experiencing everything with him and more importantly, helping. When we would finish a days work, somehow I would always end up with grease on my face and hands and got to use the special "goop" soap in the garage that only people working the garage got to use. He never let me hang out when he got to the fiberglass part. But, somehow I always ended up being in the garage to get the little glass fibers stuck in my feet, fingers or hands. It's messy stuff.  Still to this day, many homes and decades later, I still can't walk in the garage barefoot for fear of getting fiberglass threads stuck in my toes.

I know what you're thinking.  "What does this trip down memory lane have to do with your new bike?!"

Well, growing up, we always had a corvette in the garage..in one form or another. He would fix up the car, build the engine, repair the body, interior and get it painted a beautiful color.  Then, I would never see it again. He would sell it to someone (we never talked about that part, it would just disappear) and then a couple of weekends later, we had another project car show up in our driveway.

So, when I saw that Schwinn also made a Corvette in the 50's and 60's I knew this had to be my next bike....and so the quest began. Did I need another bike, no not really.  Especially not a cruiser.  But, I did have use for a mountain bike so I could ride on some of the dirt roads around my town. The Corvette was not a mountain bike. Not even close.  But, I just loved the idea of having an old corvette in our garage just like when I was little.  Even though he's been gone for almost 6 years now, I know my dad would love that too. In a way, it felt like a tribute to him.

Almost every weekend I would do the random search....and there are a few corvette's out there...but none really made me want to purchase them.  Mainly because I already have a cruiser I like and couldn't justify getting a second one.

But, last weekend....I saw it.  A 1957 Schwinn Corvette. She was a beauty.  While my dad would always try to restore his Chevy Corvettes back to their original beauty, sometimes he would take liberties with the engine, making it just a little more powerful and beautiful.

Back to the Schwinn.  This one had undergone a complete restoration (if you want to call it that, really it was what I affectionately call a Franken-bike) and almost nothing on it was original, but it was perfect.  I LOVE flowers...and someone had gone and hand painted flowers all over it. Plus, it had been turned into a mountain, perfectly rounding out my group of bikes and filling several needs/wants at the same time.

But most importantly, I now have a Corvette in my garage...and am paying homage to my dearly departed dad.  I know that he is smiling knowing that his daughter had a Corvette now too...hope he doesn't mind that it's made by Schwinn and not Chevy. ;o)

And without further ado, here she is.  I know she's not perfect for everyone...but she is absolutely perfect for me! :o)

I am thankful to this bike for helping to make me feel closer to my dad (silly, but true) I can't help but smile whenever I see it and think of him.  Also, she had called to me, yes called to me to go out and ride.  Reminding me of how much I loved it.  I feel very luck and blessed to have found this new companion. I look forward to our adventures together. :)

Roo