Okay, I wanted to get Stephanie something special for Christmas. For awhile my cousin Mike and I had been discussing getting Quads for our special gals. In reality we both wanted to get motorcycles for ourselves (the two wheel variety) but we knew that would never fly unless the ladies had something they could ride as well. heh heh.

 

Well, anyway I discussed with Mike the idea of purchasing Quads as our Christmas gifts. Mike was into it, but he was very hesitant because he and Jen were getting married soon after Christmas (January 15, 2000) and he wasn't sure he wanted to spend the money. I didn't really want to go it alone but I figured if I didn't do it now I never would.

 

Now before you go getting all judgemental on me....Steph and I had talked about getting Quads, although not seriously. Steph didn't seem opposed to the idea, she just never really seemed like it was top on her priority list.

 

I had been doing some research trying to find a nice used quad. Just before Thanksgiving I went down to Tucson to visit Mike and look around. We had a great time going to all the cycle dealerships and I found one that I liked. Of course it was a Honda (you just can't beat Honda for quality & reliability) but I wasn't sure I should do it. Especially since Mike told me he wasn't going to buy one until after the wedding. That meant I was going to take all the heat myself if this didn't go over well with Stephanie.

 

The following week I went to work and told my colleagues what I was thinking about. Now keep in mind that I was working with almost all women at the time... women who knew Steph well... and they all told me they thought Steph would love it. Didn't take much arm twisiting so I called up and made the purchase.

 

Right after Thanksgiving Steph started to do her Christmas shopping. One evening she came to me and said "why don't we not give each other a gift this year. Instead, maybe we could buy something for the house...like a new sofa". New sofa?!? Was she nuts? What could I say? I just told her I wasn't really into that idea and I wanted to get her a gift.

 

A week or so before Christmas I was at my dad's house fixing up the Quad, getting it all pretty for Christmas day. When I returned home, Steph told me that Mike had been trying to get ahold of me. When I called him back he confessed that he broke down and bought one for Jennifer as well. Woohoo! Partners in crime! As it turns out, Mike was really stressed about the whole thing and was actually losing sleep. Finally he just decided to go for it and he had absolutely no buyer's remorse. In fact he felt great!

 

Christmas eve, dad and I stayed up long after everyone else had gone to bed. At 2AM we snuck the thing upstairs and parked it in front of the tree. Of course we were getting pretty tired and pretty loopy by this time so of course dad posed for a picture.

 

Christmas morning came and Steph saw the Quad. I think at first she thought my dad had bought it for me. When she looked at the tag and saw it was for her, all she could say was "You bought me a Quad?...You bought me a Quad?" When I said "Yes I did" I noticed her eyes shift towards me. She had been looking at my dad! She thought he had bought her the Quad. The she exclaimed again "You bought me a Quad?!" I think she felt bad because the had bought me socks and underwear (which I desperately needed, by the way).

 

Anyway, it is a Honda 300EX fully manual motorcycle and Steph has learned to handle it like a pro. She's a little speed demon. Whereas I like the more technical riding, Steph loves to get in a sandy wash and just haul ass! We're having a great time with it and we leave it at my dad's so it gives us something to do when we go to visit. I bought a trailer for it so now we are mobile and can take it on weekend trips if we want to.

 

Come out and ride with us sometime.