Background - A "Bucket List" Item from the 1970's

My first exposure to motorcycling was facilitated by a dear priest friend (now deceased) who financed the purchase of my first motorcycle the summer after I graduated high school in 1969. At the time I was committed to working at his parish (St. Francis, Seaside, CA) for the summer -- and he indulged me by providing the $300 needed to purchase a small "street" motorcycle - a used Yamaha 100 purchased from my Uncle Joe, then a Yamaha dealer in Paso Robles.
[This photo is of one similar to the one I owned.]

I took no classes -- and had no experience on a motorcycle -- and just learned by doing -- and quickly fell in love with the freedom that motorcycle gave me. A year or so later I sold that motorcycle to my next younger brother when my interests turned toward the new 1970 VW bug that I bought.

Fast forward to 1973 during the first year of married life when Deb and I decided to purchase a used street motorcycle -- a Yamaha 350. I don't remember the cost -- but I believe it may have been around $400 or $450. Because we owned a car, this motorcycle was strictly for recreation -- but we had such fun on it that we rode it lots both for fun and for commutting. We still laugh about the many times that Deb would hike up her then-popular mini-skirt to climb on the back and we'd ride into the heavily secured CIA Headquarters in McLean, VA where Deb worked.

[Our 1972 Datsun 240Z, 1972 Yamaha 350 & Deb circa 1973)
We kept that motorcycle until around October 1974 when I was transferred to Atlanta -- and it got too complicated/expensive to move two vehicles.

The desire to have a motorcycle never arose again until 25 years later -- but in the intervening years we would sometimes comment on our hope that someday we might get to ride a motorcycle across the USA. I think it would be fair to characterize this wistful thinking/commenting as the formulation of a "bucket list" goal -- though I don't ever remember using the "bucket list" term until after watching the 2007 movie called "The Bucket List" with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson.