My Yellowstone Odyessy

Chapter 11

10 Fellowship

Terry and I both had to hit the restroom right away, but then strolled over to where the group of bikers were camped, Ann saw us coming and welcomed us in, "you kids just have a seat over there, there pop in that red cooler, help yourselves." Moments later, her husband Larry and another couple returned from the store and greeted us, "Hey there, I'm Tom Jeffers and this is Sue, my fiancee, we're from Boulder." We shook hands; I smiled at Sue and said, "Has anyone ever told you, you have a strong resemblance to Katy Perry?" Sue laughed and replied "Oh All the time, tom wants me to wear a blue wig, then people would think he was dating Katy Perry." We all laughed over that one. The others are still out, they should be back pretty soon," said Larry, it wasn't long before Terry joined him and Tom over by the bikes talking motorcycles.

I engaged in conversation with Ann and Sue who told me both she and Tom worked for United Airlines, she was a flight attendant and he was a co-pilot, their common link was a love of motorcycles, when she told me she owned a 2009 Sportster that was all she wrote, we were as thick as thieves talking Harley, Sportster's women riders and just becoming friends. About an hour later, the rest of the group came riding in, like before introductions were made all around, Diane and Jeff Wilson also from Colorado springs, Kristin and Ken Sommers from Denver, and Marla Mason also from Denver. Marla was a year older than me but was riding a 2001 Softtail like mom's, I was immediately jealous, She was attending the University of Colorado at Boulder majoring in Computer Science, later we would talk quite a bit about that.

Kristen was also a member of Ladies of Harley as well as Marla (we laughingly proclaimed ourselves "sisters"). Kristen worked for the city of Denver as a comptroller and her husband worked for an Insurance company. At one point Marla asked me about Terry, "Are you two married?" "No, he's just my boyfriend," "Umm, you certainly have real catch there, most of the guys I know aren't interested in bikes, and I tend to be a little stand-offish because of it, most are these political and metro s****l types, for some reason I make them nervous, they can't figure me out," she then shrugged her shoulders and chuckled, "Oh well, f**k 'em" "You sound an awful lot like me Marla." "Maybe that's why we're in Ladies of Harley." "Maybe?"

Once she removed her leather jacket I noticed Marla had a tee-shirt with the words "Bikes, Boobs and Beer" over a Harley Davidson logo, I asked her about that, " This shirt draws more comment, you should see what happens when I wear it to class, the other girls hate me and think me as some traitor to the gender or some bullshit like that or smile, the guys think I'm ready to party, which usually I am, but that's another story hah!" As guests, Terry and I were treated to a cookout consisting of burgers sweet corn and beer, "You guys are over 21 aren't you?" asked Sue, "Aw Hell we won't say anything!" from then on I always had a longneck in my hand slowly getting drunker as the evening wore on. After supper Larry and Terry built up the fire and we all sat on the ground around it like the pioneers, Terry spread his legs wide and I sat inside them leaning against him, Sue and Tom did the same. Eventually he wrapped one arm around my waist, the other holding a beer, as did I.

I can't think when I've had a more interesting conversation, we covered everything from western politics to what we were seeing here in Yellowstone to Harley's our jobs, everything, it was fantastic. To top things off, Larry brought out his guitar and sang, he sounded almost like Gordon Lightfoot Terry and I cuddled and hugged our heads together in love. I was especially glad as my dark thoughts of the day had disappeared, for the time being, replaced by gladness in my heart.