about 9 months ago I received an e-mail from a girl I used to date way back in 1989. She was 16 I was 18 going on 19. We never really split up we just seemed to drift apart, and I ended up in London Ontario and she ended up in Prince Rupert BC.

We started chatting here and there, nothing too serious just the usual "hi how ya doing what's new with you?" type of thing. Everything was cool and pleasant and a-ok.

Around the first week or so of April I was looking through her online photo album and came across a picture of a beautiful young girl. I asked her..."who the **** is that??" to which she replied "Ariel"....well.....ok......that does me alot of good....."so who the **** is Ariel?"....

Well I guess you all can see where this is going..................

I was told that Ariel is my 17 year old daughter.

it was a good thing I was sitting down at the time.

her mom and I talked alot after that...times...dates....and so on......even though we haven't had a paternity test, (and we are going to have one probably around the end of september) I really don't feel we need one to tell that Ariel is mine.

I was originally going to Sturgis this summer but that trip was changed to Prince George because I just had to meet this girl for myself.

As soon as I was finished work before my holidays I went home packed and got the bike ready for the 12 hour trip North.

I caught the ferry that morning at 06:20 god damn what an early start but I figured I'd get to PG about dinner time or shortly after. First stop was Trev Deeley in Vancouver at 08:30 to get the front brakes fixed as they decided to stop working. $160 and 2 1/2 hours later I was on the road again.

Now mapquest told me the fastest route to get to PG was by way of Pemberton to Lillooet and then straight up HWY 97 to PG. well they didn't take into concideration (and neither did I) of the construction taking place on the Sea-to-Sky HWY for the 2010 olympics. I never had my bike out of 3rd gear the whole way to Whistler Village which is about 1 1/2 hours from Vancouver.

I got about 40 Kms past Squamish ( about 50 min north of Vancouver) when my throttle cable snapped. Now I have absolutely no way of getting anywhere. So, I called Trev Deeley and asked if they could help me either get my bike back to town or if they knew of a shop around where I was. JIM in the service department took my number and he took care of bussiness. he called all over the Lower Mainland and finally tracked down a cable that would fit my bars in Squamish. He also arranged a tow for me and he kept calling me back every 20 minutes or so just to see how I was coming along and if I was ok. Next was the $170 tow bill back to Squamish on a flatdeck from PAYLESS TOWING( BTW, if anyone breaks down in this area call Payless Towing and ask for DAVE, Truck #58 he's awesome and knows his **** and cut me a break on the Kms to make the bill smaller) to the only shop in the area that has a cable long enough for my apes. BEAVER CUSTOM CYCLE stop in and see ***** there....he too knows his **** and is a great guy. was nice enough to give me the cable for $20 when he found out I had to make it to PG to meet a daughter I never knew I had.

well finally on my way......just west of Lillooet it started to thunder and lightning the kind which I haven't seen since leaving Ontario. Now I'm soaked and running on a wet rag. I had to stand over the tank to keep the rain from getting in it was coming down so badly. The weather didn't look like it was going to co-operate and it was coming down so hard it couldn't last for too long so I booked it. just east of Lillooet the rain turned to hail. It hailed so hard the highway was white and I was back down to 3rd gear till almost Cache Creek or about 40 minutes.

Once I hit Cache Creek the sun came out again and the temp jacked to a humid 30* so now not only am I soaked but I'm a warm, gross, soaked. it stayed sunny and nice all the way to 100 mile house where the sun started to set. By this time it's about 8pm and it's smooth sailing.

Now for those of you in Ontario, we've all hit our highbeams in snowstorms just because, well that is EXACTLY what the bugs look like in Northern BC. when I finally stopped in Quesnel for gas I got off the bike and looked at it. I couldn't tell if the headlight was on or not there were so ,any bugs plastered to the front of my bike. I could barely see through my glasses. I was about ready to give my left nut for a windscreen. Because it was now about 11:00 pm and blacker than toby's *** I found a tractor trailer heading to PG. I came in right behind him, so he blocked most of the bugs and he'd hit any moose that happened to wander onto the HWY.

At about 12:30 I finally pull into PG and find my ex's street. She, however, failed to mention that the bushes had grown up infront of the house numbers. so here I am roaring up the street and back again looking for these damn numbers. I see 2 teenagers standing on the porch of one of the houses so i figure, what the hell, and cruise into the driveway and asked if this was the house. YUP it is...****ing A!

So I get off my bike, take my glasses and lid off and look up.......

there she is......standing in the doorway.......

she said "hi there"......so I replied "Hey there darlin', how you doing?"

Ariel launched herself off the top step, ran into the driveway and hugged me. While we were holding each other, she started to shake and cry and kept whispering "I finally have my Daddy"....well ****........I started to cry too. We held onto each other for a few minutes not wanting to let go.

The feelings I was having at that moment I can't explain.....it felt like the most natural thing in the world and at the same time felt like a lightning bolt had hit me. There was no awkwardness or anything like that.

The sweetest sound to my ears was hearing Ariel call for her Daddy from the other room.....

"Dad...can you make me some eggs...I'm hungry"
"Dad, can you drive me to London Drugs so I can get some hairdye?"
"night Dad, I love you"

I've never been happier and I've never loved anyone as much as I love my little girl and she definately is my little girl...so much so it drives her mom nuts. She told me that she sees my face every damn day she looks at Ariel..

I missed out on the first 17 years but I have the rest of her life to enjoy. I'm planning on taking her with me to the Oyster Run on her birthday weekend. I hope she likes it and has fun.

these pics posted below are from my trip to PG to meet her.

 

Awesome, simply awesome. Damn, I must have something in my eye