Don’t try to intimidate Andrea. You can’t. Hear how she turned a pack of rough bikers into buddies, despite the fears and concerns of her husband.
Also, Callie recounts how she almost killed a guy who was running across the freeway while riding her Harley Davidson motorcycle late one night.
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Learn more about horses and riding at HorseClass.com
Read about Andrea’s incredible Costa Rica trek in her book, Crossing Bridges
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Transcript
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Andrea Wady 00:00
We pull into this petrol station, just as these two patched up motorcycle club stroke gang, come to the same petrol pump at the same time as us. And Chris was like, oh boy. And they just glare at Chris. And I'm like, Don't worry, love. I've got this. So I'm like, Oh my gosh, you boys, those bikes are so beautiful. Oh my gosh, in my best British accent well, they're just looking at me and I can feel Chris behind me in the car, just dying 1000 deaths. And he's like, that's it. We're all gonna get shot. I'm like, No, I love a Harley. Can I get photographed with you boys? And then I'm going Come on Chris, get in the picture. And Chris is like, Oh my gosh. So they put they stand there next to him. And Chris is like, is this way you like, bash me over the head and bury me in a hole in the in the in the desert. Jump in with both feet. -
Callie King 01:09
Go Big. Follow your dreams grab life by the reins. -
Andrea Wady 01:13
This is how we live. We're Callie King and Andrea Wady. Two horse trainers always looking for adventure and finding -
Callie King 01:21
it. Join us for stories of dangerous travels wild animals, new challenges, and in the end, always learning alongside our magnificent horses. So saddle up and follow along. You're listening to grab life by the reins. In the last episode, we talked about crisis in life. We talked about Harley Davidson motorcycles. And we talked about road trips. Have you had any road trip moments that stand out? Yes. You know what I'm leading to I -
Andrea Wady 02:02
love a road trip. I absolutely love a road trip, especially in America. And I did an incredible and I'm so excited that we're going to talk about this, which is 6000 miles around America from New Jersey all the way down to Texas and then up to Seattle. But yeah, Texas was funny places. Pretty special, actually. But talking about motorbikes have this sort of thing about guys on bikes, as everyone does. Yeah, all women. And Chris and I were pulling in our rental sedan into the petrol station. And all day we've been passing a few motorbikes. Now don't get me wrong, the whole motorbike gang thing. It's not really my tribe. But there's something kind of fascinating about it to me, because you see it in all the movies and we there was obviously a lot of the motorbike gangs were moving around the motorcycle clubs. Sorry. Yeah, it's -
Callie King 03:10
an iconic American thing to the road trip the big motorcycles. -
Andrea Wady 03:16
Exactly. We're going through the big open desert near the Mexican border. It was super iconic for us. We were like, wow, this is amazing. So we pull into this petrol station, just as these two patched up motorcycle club stroke gang, come to the same petrol pump at the same time as us. And Chris was like, oh boy, and they just glare at Chris. And I'm like, Don't worry, love. I've got this. So I jump out of the car. And I noticed everyone on the forecourt, averting their eyes. They're all looking down. No one wants to make contact with the guys on the motorbikes. I'm like, whatevs. So I'm not. Oh my gosh, you boys. Those bikes are so beautiful. Oh my gosh, in my best British accent. Well, they're just looking at me and I can feel Chris behind me in the car, just dying 1000 deaths. And he's like, that's it. We're all gonna get shot. I'm like, No, oh my gosh, your bikes. I love a Harley. Can I get photograph with you boys? Well, the one guy didn't want to come anywhere near me on the camera. The other guy who I see he's got like El Presidente a written on his car or vest or whatever they call it. He's like, sure little lady, not a problem puts his arm around when he goes, come on. You can get in the picture to his mate. And he's like, no, no, not the finger. He's probably got a warrant out for his arrest or something. doesn't want to be all over Instagram. But anyway, he comes in and Chris is coming out to take a picture and I can just see Chris looking at me like seriously I like it's fine. These are my friends. I'm just like, Oh, I love your bikes. Oh my god, they're amazing. And why have you got chains on your belts and all of this stuff anyway taking pictures. And then I'm going, come on Chris, get in the picture. Chris is like, oh my gosh, so they put they stand there next to him and Chris is like, is this way you like, bash me over the head and bury me in a hole in the in the in the desert? And they looked at Chris and went, nah, we don't do that man. Chris is like, yeah, right. Anyway, they take a picture. And it's not until they've driven off and they were super friendly. They were fine. There's -
Callie King 05:37
nothing an English accent can't do you know it no door. They can't be -
Andrea Wady 05:41
out of a pickle at that point. Anyway, they drive off and I look back and they were the Cossacks Who were some of the guys that were in the big shootout at Waco not saying those two were but that that motorbike club and it's outlawed, but they were all patched up. But I do remember Chris saying to them? I've seen a lot of you on the road today. What's going on? He said, Oh, we're on our way back from a big party. We had a big club party and Chris went, I can only imagine what those policies are like. And they were like, yeah, they get pretty wild. And then that was it. We went in and bought our coffee and our crisps and carried on with our road trip. It was quite exciting. -
Callie King 06:25
I think you told me to that as you carry it on. And they drove by and gave you a nice wave. -
Andrea Wady 06:31
Yes. Yeah, they were they were great actually, because we noticed they none of them went over the speed limit. We followed them out. And they sat right on the speed limit. So we had to overtake them. And no one else wanted to overtake them and Crisco saw weekend. Their offerings now just waved as we went by. Yeah, it was yeah, it was crazy. But it was one of those ones where you could either act scared and be like a rabbit in headlights or just brazen it out. So we went with the second and you had an English accent. Yeah, that got us out of trouble. So in the last episode, you were talking about doing a big road trip. You'd been to Sturgis. Where did you go from Sturgis? -
Callie King 07:16
Well, I did I left my home in Santa Barbara. I rode to Sturgis and then I took a few days coming back and did kind of a long tour through Nebraska through different parts of Colorado and just made my way back mesa. But it was when I was leaving Santa Barbara that I decided I wanted to do my iron but which is this thing with riding road bikes. You're what? Iron but -
Andrea Wady 07:45
I like an Iron Bottom. It's -
Callie King 07:51
okay, iron, but sounds cooler. -
Andrea Wady 07:52
What does that mean? -
Callie King 07:53
It's where you ride 1000 miles in one day. And I wanted to do this. Of course you did on a motorcycle obviously. -
Andrea Wady 08:02
It'd be a quick one. If it was on a horse with the -
Callie King 08:06
fact that my Sportster left Santa Barbara road all day. It was about 11 o'clock at night, I was still riding, feeling good. I was like, I've got this I'm nailing the iron. But I was south of Salt Lake City. And I'm on on the freeway was doing about 7075 There was almost no one else on the road. And I you know, two lane to lane freeway. And then I saw up ahead that there was a car off on the shoulder. So as I was getting closer, I looked back, you know, just to have it you know, scan the lane behind me was just starting to come over looked forward again. And there was someone directly in front of me on the freeway on the freeway. And when well, you know when you're going that fast on a motorcycle, your headlights only reach so far. Yeah. stopping distance. There was no stopping. I remember that. That feeling of oh, my god terrifying of seeing this human being in front of me. It was absolute shock. I swerve to the left. He jumped right. I mean, this happened in a split second. And I felt the impact. -
Andrea Wady 09:25
Oh my god, Carly. My -
Callie King 09:29
bike went into a wobble which is when you know at high speed when a bike gets knocked like that. Yeah, you're you're almost losing control. So my bike went into a wobble. In my mind. I'm thinking this this guy's dead. I just hit him on. I mean, my bike is a heavy bike. Yeah, I just hit him. So got the bike back out of the wobble, thankfully, got to the side of the road. leapt off of it. I'm stripping off my helmet running back and all of a sudden, it goes through my head. I'm like, wait a minute, these things aren't adding up. First of all, why is this guy running in the middle of the road -
Andrea Wady 10:07
on a freeway on a freeway legal for a start? I'm sure he will, -
Callie King 10:12
he would have it's not like I came around a bend and surprised him. He would have seen my headlights coming from you think he -
Andrea Wady 10:17
ran out in on purpose. I my mind wasn't -
Callie King 10:21
going into all of those scenarios. It was just wait a minute, this isn't adding up. I also saw that he was on his feet in front of his car. So I was like, well, he's not dead. He's not laying in the middle of the road. Yeah. And I thought, You know what, this is not adding up. He's obviously okay. He's off the road. I'm getting out here and I'm gonna call for help. Yeah, when I'm at a distance, -
Andrea Wady 10:43
you don't know who this guy is. And he might be cross. Well, exactly. -
Callie King 10:47
I just slammed into him. Like, yeah, so I jumped back on the bike, rode down to the next exit, got off at the exit at a gas station and phoned the police. You know, right away, called 911. The Trooper that it connected me with said, just stay right where you are. We're sending an officer out to talk to you and to you know, get your story. So I waited there probably within 10 minutes, police officer pulled in, and he he gets out. And he said, alright, you know, tell me what happened, ma'am. And I said, Well, I was I was coming along. I looked back to change lanes look forward. He was right in front of me. This man was running across the highway. And you know what he said? No. said well, ma'am. He's not running anymore. -
Andrea Wady 11:37
Oh, no. So you had killed him. -
Callie King 11:41
I had it. He was up. He was up. I hadn't killed him. But he wasn't running. They had received other calls of him that he had been running back and forth across the road. And apparently he was in quite a state. He was, you know, drunk or drugged or he was not in a very in a fully conscious state. -
Andrea Wady 12:01
So you tell the policeman, he's running across the road. Yeah. -
Callie King 12:05
But he's not running anymore. So what what had happened is, thankfully, since I swerved, and he jumped his arm hit my handlebar and my tire hit his leg. So it broke his ankle real bad. And I think it might have broke his wrist too. But he was, you know, he wasn't mortally injured. No, thank -
Andrea Wady 12:28
God. -
Callie King 12:29
I stayed up on the bike. I mean, that could have been this only happened. Two months after my accident. -
Andrea Wady 12:35
Yeah, so that's worrying. Yeah. Where I smashed my head. Okay, but the golden question is how far off the end of your I Am. But were you before that happened? -
Callie King 12:44
So I was only 100 miles off. -
Andrea Wady 12:47
Oh, no. Did you finish it? -
Callie King 12:50
I saw it. You know, I think I need to call it a night. Yeah. So I drove off from that gas station. I just drove off down the road down a little dirt road. And I pulled my bike into the weeds threw my sleeping bag down, because that's how I did it. I didn't stay in a hotel rooms or anything for sure. -
Andrea Wady 13:06
I mean, why would you just lie in the grass on the side of the road? What could possibly go wrong there? wrong there? -
Callie King 13:12
It was cold. And I was a little shaken up. I'm not gonna lie. I slept. I got up really early. And I rode the rest of it. So if you count the iron, but on the same date, I didn't make it. If you count it in 24 hours. I made it. -
Andrea Wady 13:29
Then you did it. Yeah, of course it did. Yeah, yeah, you're a winner. Well, I'm glad you didn't kill him. But it wouldn't have been your fault anyway, because he was drugged and running around in the middle of the road. So actually, let's, you know, we like to flip a story. You might have saved his life. Because if it hadn't been you that hit him, it would have been somebody else. And they might have actually taken him out. So it's a happy ending. Really? Yeah. Well, I hope you've sold the bloody bike now. Well, I've -
Callie King 13:59
sold that one. I have another one, of course, but not a Harley. Harley's aren't very practical for dirt roads in Mexico. -
Andrea Wady 14:06
No. No. Dirt bike is more suitable. -
Callie King 14:10
So you know what does crack me up? That you say a motorbike? Yeah, I've never heard of them. That's definitely another England American thing. Because we say motorcycle. Or we say bikes. I always just say bike. And then some people think I mean a bicycle. Yeah. Now we call them motorbikes. Yeah, motorcycle bike. -
Andrea Wady 14:33
We do say motorcycles. I don't know the American English thing is just it's just hilarious. There's so many different Well, classic case in point today. You're right. I'm fine. Why? You know, I'm saying hello. And I do it to everyone I see over here. People walk past you and you go, alright, and they go. Yeah, why? Oh, You know, in England when you walk down the street and you go, you're right you're just saying, hello. I suppose like you guys have a version of it yourself. How you doing? Yeah, how you doing? How you doing? So all right, are you all right? It's like that but I said it on your farm like two or three times today and everyone just looks at me like yeah, why wouldn't I be? Oh the differences in language I love it well, great stories. Can't wait to see you next time guys -
Callie King 15:29
Yep, good times and fast bikes. -
Andrea Wady 15:31
Oh yeah -
Callie King 15:36
Thank you for listening to grab life by the reins. If you want to see ridiculous photos from our adventures be the first to know when we release new episodes and be a part of war shenanigans. Join our email family at grab life by the reins.com. -
Andrea Wady 15:52
We'll see you in the next program.