Bound and Determined

A mother’s inspired devotion.

On Thursday, September 7 I received an email with a unique request. A woman named Maria asked if our Sunday Moto Club would visit her son Kaleb at the Palo Alto VA Medical Center, about six miles up the road from Red Rock Coffee.

After several messages, the story unfolded. Two days later Jean, Brian and I rode to the Defender’s Lodge parking lot after clearing through the main gate.

According to Maria, Kaleb was serving in the Middle East for the Air Force when he suffered a stroke in August 2020. Now 24, Kaleb was first sent to Germany, then Maryland, before beginning rehab in Palo Alto. Kaleb, she added, doesn’t remember any of the travel and still cannot walk. His intense physical therapy has brought him light years ahead of where his body was when he arrived in California a year ago.

After quitting her job and selling her house in northeastern Ohio she moved to California to be closer to her son. Maria spent months looking for a local motorcycle group to visit Kaleb at the VA hospital and talk bikes to lift his spirits. She visited Red Rock and saw our Sunday Moto Club poster, which connected us.

Kaleb is a member of a riding club in Clovis, New Mexico, where he was stationed at the Cannon Air Force Base. His first bike was a Suzuki 600 GSX, which he bought at 19. He wisely moved on to a Suzuki DR650 after crashing the gixxer, then was bitten by the Harley-Davidson bug after test riding a 2013 V-Rod.

We learned all about Kaleb’s path to motorcycling directly. After waiting in the parking lot near our bikes at 9 a.m. we saw Kaleb roll toward us in his electric wheelchair, Maria all smiles at his side. We walked to the edge of the lot to introduce ourselves to Kaleb, who had no idea who we were or why we were there. His smile grew considerably after Maria pointed at the three bikes and recommended he check them out. She hadn’t told him that three motorcyclists were visiting him that morning.

With a sly grin and a determined effort to get beyond his slurred speech, he told us about buying that first bike, and the slow progression toward buying his V-Rod. He asked about my Moto Guzzi California cruiser, and was smitten with Jean’s Triumph Speedmaster. He also has a buddy who owns a Triumph Tiger 800 nearly identical to Brian’s. The conversation flowed as it always does after meeting a fellow rider: dream machines, roads ridden and roads to ride, the ideal California weather, and what makes good gear.

Then, in true military fashion, Kaleb glanced at his watch and reminded Maria of his 10 a.m. physical therapy appointment. We walked alongside them back to his care facility and said our farewells. We gave him one of Henri’s wire motorcycle sculptures and a Sunday Moto Club sticker, making him an official member.

Maria can only visit him three days a week due to Covid-19. Her determination and dedication to Kaleb’s recovery is amazing, and with a long road to recovery ahead we hope to ride with Kaleb and share the experiences we discussed on a cloudy Saturday morning in Palo Alto.