Best Friend Lost...

…It’s been years and yet I never really talked about this in depth to anyone, but it was so painful I think that I tuned it out. These days I’m letting everything meet me face to face. No more rocks unturned. I will deal with whatever comes my way…

Still the memories seem like yesterday. He had an infectious laugh. You think I’m bad around the gals? Ha! This guy could out dog me blindfolded. I used to tell people that we rode to the moon and back…and we did. He was with me when I won my first race. I remember how we worked together and I just pulled it off in the end. He wasn’t very happy for me. The two of us were very, very competitive and we both knew that.

His riding style was smooth and fluid. It was strange to me that I actually would love to watch someone pedal…He was artful, he was an artist. I learned a lot from him and so much of my riding style was derived from his superb technique. I’ve had people tell me they like my style of riding and I look like a pro, well I learned from the best.

He was not one to promote his problems, he kept things pretty light, I don’t think I ever once saw him get mad, and yes again he had a way with the ladies. I still to these days use a lot of his flirting chops! He was the the Casanova…He was an artist.

He was a photographer but yet I never had the opportunity to really see too much of it. I know married life was not easy for him sometimes, although he never talked about it there were dark places in his life. He had beautiful children. I remember when I heard he had been separated from his wife, it saddened me. I liked Bonnie very much and I can say I had a little crush on her and I told him that and He laughed! “You’re in love with my wife?” It was accepted and I’d always ask…isn’t Bonnie coming? He’d laugh! “Can we switch wives for a week?” We knew neither of them would ever agree.

I did my second Davis double with him, but we were competing and he won. I had more flats than him. To compare us I would say that I was a little rough around the edges. I had just come off years of addiction and still beat up from a hard life that I hadn’t learned how to deal with yet. I would have anger fits, I didn’t know at the time I was bi-polar. My teeth were bad I felt like a horrible person at the time…I was damaged, flawed, but He liked me and we were best friends. I wished I could be like him…part of me was jealous.

I remember how he liked my music and he and the gang came to see me play. I wish I had been the person I am now…I would have told him how much I really care and how cool he really was. I miss him, I miss the bike club “Allosuari’s”. We were a great bunch together. Thank God for the “NorCal club” now. I make sure to tell everyone how much I care for them. They think I’m sappy, but I don’t care, it’s important that they know. Some how the club fell by the wayside. People grew up, got married, moved, the usual things that get in the way. I really hadn’t seen anyone in about two years and then…

One month before he passed from this life I had an extraordinary experience…

I was driving a taxi and my hours would start 4am till whatever. At about 4:15 I get a dispatch to pick up at an address that seemed familiar…I thought, Wow! this is interesting. Larry was waiting outside and when he got in my cab it was a brilliant moment! I was surprised at how excited he was and how much he missed me. I remembered we were still best friends…we hadn’t changed. That was my all time favorite cab ride. We talked of the hundreds of experiences we had riding and laughed the stories we lived through again. I felt so sad when the door closed and just like that he was gone!

I received the call from my friend Dorothy…Pretty sure it was July of 97. Larry had had a catastrophic accident on the Marin Headlands, I’m still not sure what happened, all I know was that I was devastated. I went right to my bike and rode. I rode with Larry for the last time that day…it was tough. I cried at the memorial…I had never cried for a man before…I guess I loved the guy, he was an artist…