Road Trippin’: Retired U.S. Vet Tours Harley Dealership
Longtime motorcyclist is overwhelmed by surprise visit to Harley-Davidson showroom.
“I can’t believe this! This is just too much,” says Jim Nef as he tours the showroom of a local Harley-Davidson dealership in Pennsylvania. We can understand the excitement of stepping into a Harley-packed showroom, but Nef is no ordinary customer who strolled into the dealership. And his story is as cool as chrome.
For Nef, nothing could ever capture the joy he and his wife would feel when they rode around on their motorcycles. However, in recent years, Nef hasn’t been able to ride, and he misses it dearly. So, the staff at Pennsylvania’s Elmcroft of Shippensburg, the retirement community where Nef resides, decided to give the retired U.S. military veteran a chance to go on a road trip.
And just where did he want to go? The longtime motorcyclist wanted to see the latest bikes, of course, and the local Shippensburg News-Chronicle was there to document the whole thing.
The star of the show was a gold Harley that brought back memories of when the retiree bought his first bike.
Once at M & S Harley-Davidson in Chambersburg, the U.S. military veteran was drawn towards a motorcycle that reminded him of those that were ridden while he was serving.
The real star of the show for Nef, however, was a gold Harley trike that he fell in love with. These bikes brought back memories for the man that began his love of motorcycles when the retiree bought his first motorcycle when he was in his forties.
Nef went on to own various bikes over the decades as he and his wife, Janet, put thousands of miles traveling around the country. The couple would travel around in a camper, with a bike on the back, after his retirement. When they would stop at a campground, the Nefs would hop on their bike and see the sights.
Nef reminisced about all this during that showroom visit that was a surprise by the staff of his retirement community. Their Second Wind Dreams program allows the staff to take residents and give them a chance to relieve memories they once had or to experience things they were never able to in their younger lives. For Nef, he never stopped loving bikes, even when he became physically unable to ride them.
So for Nef, this trip to the Harley showroom was a dream come true, and the huge smile on his face was proof enough.
