This was the motorcycle that Mike Shaklee was riding on a nice Friday evening ride over to Nash to fuel up... after a young lady from Jet pulled out in front of him.

nothing pretty after a near death van vs. cycle experience for 65 year old Mike Shaklee, who has his 66th birthday this month.

Ann and brother Mike... David was there,  but all I had was my phone camera and didn't think to get a photo him and Mike ... darn it!
Anyway... what we know ....
Mike had been working on a water line all afternoon, and his neighbor on the hill east and his wife road into Helena to fuel up their bike and were returning home and stopped to visit with Mike, who had gotten the fever to ride too and had saddled up and was heading out too.  Jerry LaGrow had been checking cattle and drove by his home and saw the two sets of bikes and folks visiting. About an hour later, the call came in. Connie LaGrow had gotten the call first from a friend of hers that had been following Mike when the van pulled out in front of him and had stopped to help till first responders got there. Connie called Grandma Moffat to get our number and then called us. quite an evening.... after that...
Today we know
He has many 'splintered' ribs, a really bad messed up right eye and fractures of the bones around it, his brain in the center left rear lobe has some leakage behind it, and his back has some twisting, and he has a very swollen left hand and fingers and his collar bone is hurting, and he is in lots of pain and heavily sedated.
As to how the wreck happened...
Might was headed West on 64 out of Nash back to Jet and home. He was following a truck, and it was 7ish... with sun in his eyes.... at the intersection of 132 North, the trucked passed and a young lady from Jet was sitting getting ready to turn west into sun on 64. She waited on the truck and then pulled out in front of Mike, not seeing him, thinking the truck went now my turn... and Mike hit her as she pulled out. We heard he was 60 feet from point of impact and 20 feet off the road. The lady in the van, who's air bag went off, was taken to Bass Hosp in Enid, and she kept wondering who the cyclist was. When they later told her, she passed out. She knew Mike!
The lady who was following stopped to render first aid (a nurse I believe) was later joined by another lady who stopped to help her...

And if you were listening to the news this past week, the fire in Jet OK that killed two... was fought by Shane, Amber's husband... and it was the former home of Edith Shaklee, Fred's wife, Harold's Mom. Amber and family live just to the east and saw the flames, from their home. Shane is on the fire dept and turned out to help.
Edith lived there when Ann and I were first married, and we visited her only a couple of times before she moved.

This is for Butch and Rose Young... our world famous hog auctioneer ... and neighbor... and the story goes...

Isabella Ann Moffat  26 Months

Butch has auctioneered hog sales forever... and almost all the great show pig auctions in the USA. Many years ago when Jake was this size, he would accompany Butch...  on some of his shorter trips... to bordering states, and Jake loved fries and nuggets, but especially fries.

Butch and Rose drifted over the other evening and if you know Butch he loves a great story and even more he loves telling them, and he is very good at it. He starts telling about how he remembers all the trips with Jake and how he loved his fries and how you could not even when he was asleep get the bag from him or the fry from his hand... haha.. and I thought he was going to hit the floor he was laughing so hard... as we all were...

So, this photo and it's story.  On Memorial Day, Ann with Jake and Trish and Isabella went up home to the cemetery to put out flowers, and hit McDonald's on the way out of town, and here is the result...

So this is for you Butch, Jake lives on... through his daughter, haha...     Isabella Ann and her French fries.