Brad's new BFF |
The past few months I’ve been lucky. I’ve had the
opportunity to ride all over Canada with my Dad and from time to time my
siblings have also joined the trek. I’ve always loved going for a ride with my
Dad and my brother (its been nice getting to ride with Maddy the last few weeks
too!) but since we’ve left Vancouver, something has been different from those
childhood excursions. As far back as I can remember those rides, I always
remember Dad on the same bikes: a red Bottecchia road bike, a red Tesch road
bike and Bontrager Mountain Bike. All three bikes were top of the line when Dad
got them (as he always reminded us) but the newest of the bunch, the Bontrager,
he received in 1992 as a gift from his Red Wings teammates for playing his 1000th
game.
It was a thrill when I grew tall enough to ride those bikes
but as a young kid I never did fully appreciate their “vintage” appeal. That
said it was a little strange to be out for a ride with Dad and see him riding
on his new bike; its carbon frame with black on black finish far different from
the steel tubing and red finish of those old bikes. I’m just not used to seeing
Dad being up with the newest sporting technology. Heck, up until last year he
had the same Micron Medallion Skates he wore when he taught me to skate 23
years ago. He was finally was forced into a pair of Zdeno Chara’s old Bauer’s
and when I asked him about the new skates he said, “I’ll be dead before these
are broken in!” The stick he used when he played seemed more like a piece of
lumber than a scoring weapon, his shoulder pads have numbers from each team he
played for written in Sharpie on them because he hadn’t gotten a new pair his
whole career. All you need to do is look into his hockey bag to see that Brad
Marsh is a traditionalist when it comes to new technology.
This time though, it seems to be different. He has a little
extra power up the hills, he is a little quicker to match the tempo when Pat
tries to take off and drop us. Maybe this is a symbolic turning of the page.
After all, this year Dad has finally wrapped his head around Facebook (not Facepagebook
as he used to call it) and he even has a Twitter following. He’s got a
smartphone and no longer asks if we have the UPS with us on a long drive (it’s
a GPS, Dad). Maybe Dad is proving that you can teach an old dog new tricks, or
maybe he’s been training harder than ever and that’s why he looks so fast on
that new bike. Either way, Dad is looking right at home on his Trek 5.2 Madone
and I can’t wait to tackle “The Rock” and finish off the 10th and
final province of our ride.
Erik Marsh (son and co-pilot)
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