Kevin inherited a Honda 750 motorcycle from me when he was old enough to drive. He quickly became an excellent street rider - as you know, if you have read any of these stories, he had been riding since he was around 9 years old and was already a proficient dirt-bike rider.

The local Motorcycle Safety Foundation chapter held a motorcycle rodeo where riders could test their skills against other riders in a variety of competitions. Kevin did very well in all the events, placing in the top 3 many times but never taking a first.

One of the final events of the day was a race. All the bikes were lined up and placed on their kick stands on the starting line with the finish line only about 50 feet away. Each of the riders had to remove his boots, tie them together, and place them in a pile about 100 feet from motorcycles - one of the officials then mixed up all the boots. The riders then reported to the front of their motorcycles. The deal was - each rider had to run to the pile, retrieve his boots, put them on, run back to his motorcycle, start his motorcycle, and drive to the finish line. At the start signal, Kevin took off like a shot of lightning and beat everyone by 25 feet - I remember thinking: "My God, that kid can really run!" He quickly found his boots, put them on and was heading back before some of the riders reached the pile. He started his motorcycle and was across the finish line way, way, ahead of the next fellow. For this first place finish, he was awarded a custom seat for his motorcycle - which, as you can imagine was a valuable prize. He was really proud of that seat.