William Byatt
Jul 28, 2017 · 3 min read

Back in the 70s I left New Mexico. I traveled and worked all over the country and out of it as well. I rode bicycles in the Andes, I sailed the Atlantic, I flew sailplanes in South Carolina, I drove exotic cars in Europe. My best friend, a Parris Island Marine and I went on long coastal bicycle rides, rode a century in the hills of South Carolina with Lon Haldeman and Sue Notarangelo, fishing and hiking in the mountains of North Carolina; I fell in love with an exotic beauty who is now an ICE agent in California. He is still my best friend, she is still an exotic beauty though I have not seen her in person since 1984.

I wandered the US in 84 and 85. I went to the LA Olympics in 84, bounced from east coast to west a couple of times more with a trip or two south of the border, chased the beauty to Idaho and met her family and sadly realized we were done, but in October of 85, I found myself back in New Mexico. I met a great group of cyclists there and found myself riding hundreds of miles a week with a phenomenal group of men and women.

In January of 1986 I was dating several women and I met this girl…an incredible athlete; a soccer player, a college girl, daddy’s baby girl. Fortunately for me one of the incredible women I was riding with recognized a couple of things: I was kind of a jerk and this girl was sort of special. This friend, Michelle, (I called her Butch, not in derision but because she was such a badass!), called me out every time I acted the ass. That spring of 86 I went back to the Carolinas and then took an assignment investigating a potential check kiting scheme in St. Augustine, Florida. Somehow, that girl in New Mexico had wormed her way in to my brain and my heart so I invited her out to Florida for the summer break.

We spent a couple of idyllic summer weeks together and parted ways as I was still doing this investigation. We communicated often and I started thinking about horrible things like getting a job where I sat in an office and did not move every month. I lived on a sailboat those days along with the world’s smartest and most wonderful dog, Thunder. I raced bicycles, I sailed boats, I chased girls…what the hell was wrong with me? Could I possibly be “adulting”?

Within two years I was married. 1990 I became a Dad. 95 I was a two son Dad. Michelle was a two son Mom. I had not seen her in twenty years until yesterday. It felt like moments.

We both wondered how the hell we had grown children, where had 30 plus years gone? We are certainly no older, we have not changed, the world has changed around us.

Thirty plus years later I am married to that wonderful girl. Michelle is still a dear friend, my best friend is my other brother from a different mother to this day, the exotic beauty still communicates with me through Facebook,and her baby sister, now a grandmother, who was at the baptism of my first son, and I are still pals. Time is, indeed, relative. It has flown by. I have more years behind me than in front. I can only hope that the adventures yet to come are as fulfilling as those I have been blessed with to date. Friends, old and new; my wife and fine sons, all will be a part and I eagerly look forward to it.

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