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[00:00] and Amarie. Look at that. It’s the London Bridge. You know, like a song. Yeah.
[00:08] Linda. Hey. Hey, Linda.
[00:11] London Bridge. London Bridge is falling down.
[00:15] I’ve always heard the song. Always sung the song and I’ve never seen it. This is absolutely amazing.
[00:22] It is. It’s a beautiful bridge and it’s in a very beautiful spot. If you ever get the chance to go to the Lake Havsu
[00:30] Museum, it gives you all the details on how the bridge was moved over here, the dates and what they had to do to get it over here. And it is supposedly haunted.
[00:40] Just thought I’d throw that. Wait, the bridge or the museum? The bridge.
[00:45] Ah, interesting.
[00:47] Apparently, a lot of people have jumped off the bridge. Not here in England. So,
[00:54] choosing this London Bridge Harley-Davidson store as our meetup spot was a good choice. It was pretty easy to find. So, thanks for that.
[01:01] Yeah, it is pretty easy to find. And the mall, I love this mall because, you know, of course, we’ve got some really good food here, but cute little shops and it’s right on the water, so it’s kind of cool.
[01:10] We’re going to have to check that out while we’re here. What’s interesting is my wife and I used to always go to Harley-Davidson stores to collect decals
[01:17] for my father-in-law. Uh, so we always get a smile when we see one now. So, it it it turned out perfectly. Oh, great. I’m glad.
[01:25] Yeah. So, Amry is going to join us for our walk today. I’m just going to let she know this might be a little bit of a challenge. She’s kind of still in that
[01:32] toddling phase, but hopefully that’s okay. That’s okay. Okay. She’ll love looking at the boats. I think so. The water.
[01:39] I think so. I’m excited to show her. All right. Well, if you’re ready, go ahead and lead the way.
[01:46] Let’s do it. Follow me this way. We’re going to head over the bridge.
[01:50] Okay. Once we get over onto the other side, we’re going to walk down a flight of stairs, and I’m sure Amarie will enjoy that as well.
[01:58] Yeah. All right. Going to be fun, kiddo.
[02:01] All right. We got a good little pace here going. But hey, Linda, do you mind if I um kind of ask you a few questions
[02:08] kind of about Harry and kind of his past from more of a personal perspective, if you don’t mind?
[02:14] No, not at all. I’ll answer them as honestly as I can and there may be answers I’m not too sure of but understood. By all means that will work.
[02:23] Awesome. All right. Well, you’re 18 months younger than Harry, right? Yes.
[02:30] And you also have a younger sister. Yes.
[02:35] And she is Oh god, she’s two years younger than I am. Oh, okay. Approximately. Yeah.
[02:42] Okay. And from like a growing up perspective, what is the earliest memory of your brother?
[02:50] The earliest memory I would say we had a beagle dog fell in our pool and I
[02:58] remember Harry pulling the dog out of the pool and walking the dog into the house.
[03:05] So I you know that is probably the first memory. Wow.
[03:08] Approximately four years old. But, you know, looking at pictures of us back in when we were younger, it makes me think that I have earlier memories, but the
[03:18] one that is most vivid is watching Harry bring that dog in through the back door.
[03:23] Wow. Oh, that’s that’s a that’s a vivid younger than four.
[03:28] But as the two of you grew up, how did your relationship develop?
[03:34] Well, we were so close in age and he was my playmate. We were always together, sometimes fighting, most of the time.
[03:42] Not too. Yeah.
[03:44] Yes. But growing up, once my sister came along, she was ill quite a bit. Oh.
[03:52] And so my mother kind of spent a lot of time with her. So Harry and I formed a bond. Yeah.
[04:00] And we were together a lot. And unfortunately my dad was in the picture
[04:07] but he was a very controlling strict man. Sure.
[04:11] But having said that as a family together we did a lot of camping, traveling, boating. We did all of that.
[04:20] So as a young child I do remember those times with Harry as well. So it’s really kind of hard to pinpoint any just any
[04:27] one memory that I remember of my brother.
[04:30] Yeah. You know, I remember him riding motorcycles at a very young age. We used to go motorcycle riding. So, there’s
[04:38] actually a lot. But because of my sister, my mom spent a lot of time with her. And so, Harry and I kind of grew closer and just hung out a lot together.
[04:49] That’s pretty awesome to be honest with you. So, if you could go back and spend a day with Harry as kids before all of
[04:57] this BMX stuff, how would you two have had the perfect day?
[05:03] Probably. There’s one memory that just stands out because we used to joke around together all the time. There is a picture of us.
[05:12] I remember it so vividly. We had a push lawn mower and it was not a motor. It was it was an old
[05:19] push. We had a push. And so we had a pretty good sized front yard. So he was pushing the lawn mower and I was walking
[05:27] behind him with a big stick off of the tree and I kept hitting him in the head with it.
[05:33] And so it took forever to get that lawn mowed. But the whole time we just played around and giggled and laughed. And so
[05:41] yeah, it was a very fond memory because I could still see that vividly in my head. And this was probably way before he started his BMX journey.
[05:52] Yeah.
[05:52] Not to say he wasn’t already riding because he was, you know, I remember him jumping his bike before he even started BMX.
[06:01] How so?
[06:02] You know, and I tried to jump one of his jumps that he was doing. Yeah.
[06:07] And I ended up flying over the handlebars and getting a concussion.
[06:11] So I did not follow in my brother’s footsteps. about my concerns.
[06:16] I was going to ask about your BMX career, but I guess that kind of answers that one now. And I did do one race with Shelly.
[06:24] Oh, a Mother’s Day race. And of course, she beat me, but she should have.
[06:29] She was an avid BMXer, and that’s actually how Harry met Shel. Okay.
[06:33] And as far as his younger BMX days, he used to go out there and have kids laying on the street in front of our
[06:40] house, and he would jump them with his bike. Oh my goodness.
[06:45] And that’s when people started coming around. Wow. That’s cool. Everybody used to meet at our house.
[06:53] Always 10, 11 kids at our house with their bikes riding. Approximate how old? We were in middle school.
[07:01] Okay.
[07:01] Elementary. Elementary school. In middle school, I remember a race they had at the school.
[07:10] Okay. And it was a bunch of kids at the school got together and just did a race around the field in the back of the
[07:17] school. And Harry was so far ahead of the pack, it was ridiculous. And so
[07:23] after that race, his reputation kind of grew.
[07:27] And then all through high school, everybody was in awe of him. And I remember one thing that we had driver’s
[07:35] education and they had this simulation as to when you had to take your foot off of the the gas pedal and slam on the brakes.
[07:43] Oh.
[07:43] And Harry Harry won that particular contest and all these kids were coming out going, “Oh my god, your brother just
[07:50] beat everybody.” And on and on and on and on. So I mean it was he had hero worship even in high school. No,
[07:59] I just darn near the beginning of his life at that point essentially, right? Yeah. You know, he he tried baseball. Okay.
[08:07] But nothing, you know, no sports really took the place of his riding. Interesting.
[08:13] And it was always his bikes. Always his bikes.
[08:17] Huh. So he he didn’t start to ride to escape. He had some aggression.
[08:25] Sure. Even a copy of Harry’s I think it’s his first grade report card.
[08:31] It talks about Harry’s aggression on the playground. Oh my goodness.
[08:35] And that if he would get rid of this aggression, he could do better in school. Sure.
[08:41] I don’t remember him fighting a lot. I do remember he and my father
[08:48] really struggling a lot. I mean, they kind of did not get along. And that might have been the catalyst that threw him into his bike riding.
[08:58] Wait, look at that, kiddo. We’re about to step foot on the bridge. We’re going on the bridge.
[09:04] We’re going on the bridge. I read that they brought this here in 71, I guess. Yeah. It was originally over in England.
[09:12] Yeah.
[09:13] And this whole canal was completely dry. This all just they blocked off all the water. Yeah. And so
[09:20] then once they built it because they’re they made an island which is where you’re parked. You’re actually parked on the island. Okay.
[09:28] Is what they call it. And so the bridge goes over to the island. And honestly, it’s the only way right now at this
[09:35] point in time to get back and forth to the island.
[09:38] If nothing ever happened to the bridge, you would be stuck over there unless you had a boat and then you could take your boat. So
[09:48] Oh man. Well, that’s interesting. But I guess you know what you’re getting yourself into when you kind of move there, right?
[09:55] Oh yeah, definitely.
[09:57] That heat. You get yourself into the heat. Yeah. Oh, yeah. The heat. I can imagine.
[10:02] I actually, to be honest with you, almost didn’t believe this existed, but I’m definitely going to have to check out that museum. Everybody always says that I have a bridge to sell you, right?
[10:11] Well, this one was actually sold and relocated from London. So, I’m kind of ging. Yeah.
[10:17] Oh, hey, something just popped into my head that I think I heard.
[10:21] We were kind of talking about you as kids, but Harry’s first bike was actually a horse. Am I getting that?
[10:27] It was I have a picture of him and he had been not much older than one years old. Okay.
[10:33] And it was a little brown horse with wheels on it. And he used to ride that thing around the house.
[10:42] I love it. Those were his first wheels.
[10:45] And then, you know, he moved up to a tricycle and then a little bike. And then, of course, we had Honda motorcycles. We had an Honda 55 and a
[10:53] Honda 90 that we would take out to the desert and ride a lot. And Harry loved that. That’s one thing he and my father did a lot of was motorcycle riding together.
[11:03] So, that did bring them a little bit closer. That is awesome to to kind of hear that.
[11:08] I mean, at least they had that as a strong bond. It sounds like I didn’t realize your dad rode before. I was That’s new for me.
[11:16] Oh yeah. No, my dad was heavily into motorcycles. He had an Indian.
[11:20] He had a Triumph and so we did some street riding.
[11:25] But yeah, my dad was into a lot of things like that. You know, as a family, we traveled a lot. We did a lot. And so we were very close that way. But because
[11:34] Harry and I were so close in age as even as we grew older, I think that’s why we were always so close growing up was because of the age difference.
[11:44] That makes sense. Yeah.
[11:45] My brother and my younger sister were never really close. My sister and I were. So it just I think the age difference played a big part and tried
[11:53] to keep up with Harry. So that made it so that he and I were closer. Yeah.
[11:59] And I did. I chased Harry a lot. I tried to keep up with him and do everything he did. And I got to where he was irritated
[12:06] with his sister because there and I totally get that. You know, who wants your sister around all the time? Yeah, exactly.
[12:15] Oh, yeah. Is that a paddle boarder?
[12:19] Yeah, there’s a lot of them here. I love There are That’s That’s right.
[12:26] That’s so funny. Did your brother paddle board?
[12:31] He did a few times. I don’t think it was his forte only because it wasn’t dangerous enough and it was not fast enough.
[12:40] Fair enough.
[12:41] So, and it didn’t have wheels. There was a problem. It had didn’t have wheels.
[12:46] Oh, I love it. So, speaking of wheels, um he worked at a Schwin bike store, if I’m not mistaken, called
[12:54] Coats. Do you remember much about that at all or anything about the Schwin days?
[13:00] I do not remember the name of the Schwin shop, but I do remember him working for Schwin. Okay.
[13:06] And that was his first bike shop. And I think that’s honestly where he learned to really work on his bikes. Oh.
[13:13] You know, and then he went from Schwin to JMC.
[13:18] And I remember in relationship to where we work lived, it was kind of far away.
[13:23] And so he had to ride his bike to work every day back and forth and he loved it and that’s just what he did. He loved
[13:31] working for Schwin. Yeah. And then he went to JMC and at that point he raced for JMC but then he went to Diamondback. In between
[13:40] those times honestly I know he raced but again as Harry got older he didn’t really want his sister
[13:48] following him around. So you know I got my own life. He had his, but I’m still really close. Okay.
[13:54] There were some things that I just was not, you know, it’s like, “No, you’re not coming.” I got that a lot.
[14:00] Nah, I get that. I I have a younger sister as well, so I totally understand.
[14:05] Do you mind if we take a quick water break and take a quick view break? No, not at all. Cool. Hey, there you go, K.
[14:13] And you see the flags up here? They have the English flag along.
[14:19] Wow. So they’re all up along the whole bridge here. You can see that is really cool. The Union Jack, right?
[14:26] Yeah. It’s It’s just kind of cool to see both of them. I think it sounds great. Down the bridge.
[14:32] Puts things kind of into perspective with regards to the travels that this bridge took, right? Yeah. You should really look up the research on it. It’s amazing.
[14:41] Yeah, definitely. Interesting.
[14:43] All right. Yeah. So this those flags, you see that? Cuz remember we’re on the London Bridge. Yeah. Like Yeah. Like
[14:52] London Bridge is falling. No. Don’t Don’t Exactly. Falling down.
[14:57] Falling down. No. All right. I tried to get her to go with me, but I swear she normally likes my singing. Um
[15:06] Yeah, she she does. Oh, look at that. A boatload of half naked ladies. That’s
[15:14] Yeah, you’ll see a lot of that. All right.
[15:19] On three-day weekends and loved that part of Lake Havsu, of course.
[15:27] Oh, it’s hilarious. All right, kid. Are you ready? Close the bottle. Okay, great. Well, let’s get going.
[15:36] Here we go.
[15:37] There we go. So, then Harry started to ride for JMC. He turned professional. He
[15:44] went to Diamond Back. Is there anything that kind of stands out to you in that
[15:51] JMC to Diamond Back transition in Harry’s life?
[15:58] Oh gosh. No.
[16:02] You know, I just The only thing that stands out in my mind is he was gone. Yeah.
[16:09] Once he went with Diamond Back, that was it. He was gone. He honestly when he I believe when he was with JMC, he met Jamie.
[16:20] Oh.
[16:21] Which was his very very first love. And because of the animosity between my brother and my father,
[16:29] he ended up moving and living with her parents.
[16:34] And that was about the time I believed between the JMC and the Diamond Back.
[16:39] And then so once he started racing Diamond Back, he traveled and he was gone. And so I very rarely saw him and
[16:47] we kind of lost touch in those years that he was with Diamond Back, but he did eventually return to the family.
[16:57] He did. There was animosity because my mother and my father did not want him
[17:04] moving out. You couldn’t stop him. He was on his own. He was making a living.
[17:10] He was doing what he wanted to do. And as far as the family was concerned, yeah, he would stop by and but he and my
[17:17] father never really got a relationship back after that. It was kind of severed.
[17:24] Yeah. Then my brother and I, we were always close, but that period in his
[17:31] life, he’s got this young person who is gifted and he’s in charge of a team and
[17:39] he’s traveling, he’s making money. And at that age, I mean, they don’t usually look back. Yeah.
[17:47] And I think he did at that point. I think he was gonna do it for himself.
[17:52] And I believe that he felt that my father, not so much my mother, but that my father was holding him back for achieving his dreams.
[18:03] Because they never felt that he was going to go anywhere in bikes. Sure.
[18:07] They wanted him to go to college and Harry did not go to college. Yeah.
[18:11] And if he didn’t do my dad, you know, wanted him to do this that and the other thing and Harry pretty much said screw you and do what I want to do. And at
[18:20] that point, I think a lot of Harry’s drive Mhm.
[18:22] came from the fact that he was going to prove his family wrong. His family meaning his father. And I think that
[18:29] honestly is what kind of sent Harry in his driven direction. Okay.
[18:35] But then I believe once he found out just how good he was and the world found out how good he was, that’s when he took off. Yeah.
[18:43] And I think his drive came from another direction.
[18:47] But he came back and you mentioned Jamie.
[18:52] I have don’t know very much about Jamie or any of the other women in his life, but I believe he was married twice and I
[19:00] thought he was married to Jamie as well, but I guess I could have gotten that wrong. No, actually he did marry Jamie.
[19:09] Oh, he was married to Jamie. Let’s see.
[19:12] He married Denise. That was his first wife. Okay.
[19:17] And they divorced and then he met Alicia, which is Briana’s mother, Harry’s daughter. And then they were
[19:25] married for I’m going to say two to three years. And then they divorced. And Harry was by himself for quite some time. Yeah.
[19:33] And he and Jamie hooked up again and he ended up marrying Jamie. Ah, okay.
[19:40] So he was married three times. After Jamie, he met Shelly, and Shelly was the love of his life.
[19:48] Yeah.
[19:49] Shelley and Harry never did marry because Shelley was married to a military person who died of cancer. So, she had a whole lot of benefits.
[19:57] Sure. That she would lose if she married. Sure.
[20:00] And thank God she didn’t because she became terminally ill. Yeah.
[20:04] And then we lost her to pancreatic cancer. And at that point it was Harry’s
[20:11] spiral I believe started that’s what started his spiral. That makes sense.
[20:17] His anger his anger issues was when he lost Shelly.
[20:21] That makes sense. I can’t imagine having the love of my life ripped away like that.
[20:26] Yeah. No, we were all there. Harry stuck by her side. He was her rock. He took
[20:32] care of her. Um it was a long and painful illness and when she passed something left with Harry as well.
[20:44] Yeah. Shel was around when he had his track.
[20:47] He met Shel through and I wish I could remember his name. The guy was at the celebration of life with Harry and for the life of me I can’t remember his name. Introduced Harry and Shel together.
[20:57] Oh wow. They hit it off and they both raced.
[21:00] Harry trained Shelly and then they had the track and Shelley was there and then she passed and then at that point kind
[21:10] of I don’t want to say went off the deep end but you know we lost touch again.
[21:14] Sure. Okay. I appreciate you sharing about that. I don’t know much about Shelly and as I said I don’t know much
[21:22] about Jamie but there’s a couple of things I have learned and I guess kind of a backstory of how I learned of
[21:29] Shelly was that I actually had a signed number plate to Shelly from Harry and I gave it to our friend Greg Matias. Well,
[21:38] I have to tell you, I am now in possession of that license, that plate.
[21:42] God gave it to me, and it is one of my most treasured possessions at this time because Shelly was like my sister.
[21:49] My goodness.
[21:50] And when I saw that, I believe it said to my girl, Shelly. Yeah.
[21:56] And I just started crying when I saw it because it was very heartfelt. And I did not know that you were originally in possession of that.
[22:03] Oh, yes, ma’am. That was mine to gray.
[22:06] So, well, I hope you don’t mind. It ended up with Harry Sisters.
[22:09] I’m hoping for the right home for the right things. How did you come across it? I bought it on eBay. Oh, you did?
[22:17] Just like everything. I’m buying all my stuff online for the most part. So, I go between BMX Museum and eBay and and that’s how I got that one.
[22:27] Wow. That’s Thank you very much. You’re welcome.
[22:30] So, yeah, Shel was a great person. We did a lot of voting, the all of us together. a lot of camping, motorcycle
[22:37] riding, and I ended up buying Shelley’s bike from Harry after she passed. Oh.
[22:42] She had a Honda 230 CRF. And so I ended up with that bike. Wow.
[22:48] And then I bought a 400 off of Harry for my son. Yeah. So we all rode red bikes. Everybody rode red all the way.
[22:56] Yeah.
[22:58] That is awesome. I’ve seen the ride red stickers on his bikes and it’s pretty fun.
[23:02] Yeah. I was always red bikes for sure. I mean, he grew up with Hondas, so that was all all we rode.
[23:10] That’s awesome. Besides riding, I know he had a hobby that you haven’t mentioned yet to be honest with you, and
[23:16] that’s dancing. And here’s how I know on it. For the same reason I know about Jamie, and it’s because Jamie said that
[23:23] he was a dancer and had very wonderful things to say about him. And the dancing really got my attention.
[23:32] Both Harry and I have a hell of a lot of rhythm. Yeah. Um and he could definitely dance. Yeah.
[23:40] And so as far as a hobby, I’ve seen he would I mean when he lived here, we would have the music going.
[23:49] Yeah. Yeah, we would be dancing through the house and at his wedding he was dancing and my sister and my brother and
[23:57] I, all three of us were out on the dance floor and we provided quite the sight, I’ll tell you. Yeah.
[24:03] So, yeah, he really could. And after talking to Jamie, I didn’t realize that Harry had such a romantic nature.
[24:12] Oh, you didn’t see that his sister though, so I mean that makes sense, right? Yeah. I have found out a lot
[24:19] about my brother since he passed. A lot of things I did not know that made him more more human, I guess you could say.
[24:30] Sure.
[24:30] And just more in depth to his caring nature because he was a very loving
[24:36] person and the women in his life, he’s had some bad ones. Sure.
[24:42] And I know Harry’s not the easiest person to live with. And honestly, as his CTE
[24:49] progressed, his anger, his paranoia, those things started to get worse
[24:57] and it took its toll on our family, of course, on his relationships.
[25:03] Originally, everybody thought, well, he’s using drugs. But at this point, knowing what I know now about CTE, yeah,
[25:10] I don’t believe that was the case any longer. I completely believe that the CTE took control of him. Not saying that
[25:19] he didn’t have his demons, but it was getting worse as he was getting older.
[25:25] That’s kind of the story I’ve heard and understanding that I have to be honest with you. And he has thankfully led me
[25:34] to learn more and educate myself more about CT. And if nothing else, I appreciate that insight.
[25:44] Yeah. And you know, I not to change the subject, I really I and I’m not really sure the avenues to
[25:52] take at this point, but I would like to do something in Harry’s name to help
[25:59] other people with CTE, particularly in the BMX world. Yeah.
[26:05] To open up doors. There might be people out there with the same symptoms Harry had. Yeah.
[26:10] That have no clue as to why they’re feeling the way they’re feeling. Yeah.
[26:14] They may think that they’re crazy, but that’s not the case.
[26:17] It’s a disease. They have a form of brain damage.
[26:20] And I’m not even sure how to go about it. Sure.
[26:23] I just feel that God will open the doors up for me when the time is right. And I just feel that
[26:32] there’s more meaning to Harry’s death than what is happening at this point in time. There’s more.
[26:39] Well, I believe that and I wouldn’t be here having this conversation with you if I didn’t wholeheartedly believe that.
[26:45] So yeah, it would add meaning to his life and
[26:52] make the legend Harry Liry the legend live on in as much as people could think of him more along the lines of well he
[27:01] had CTE but look at what he’s done in awareness of that disease. Yeah.
[27:08] Because of him. And that’s kind of what I want. I want to bring on awareness of this disease
[27:16] and have Harry be the catalyst of it because because of his name, because he was so well known, because of his
[27:23] history and his stories and the haters in the world, it just would be nice to be able to look back on him and say,
[27:31] well, you know, because of him, we were able to find out this and it saved children,
[27:38] saved other writers. They may have gone in and gotten checked, you know, who knows?
[27:43] Yeah, I think it’s the right path. I think that God will show you the way to
[27:49] that. And I think it’s an amazing goal.
[27:55] Yeah. Yeah. I just am not sure how to go about it, but we can put some smart heads together. Yeah, we will.
[28:03] There you go. Love it. Oh, but ah, you love it too, huh?
[28:10] Yeah.
[28:14] Oh, but I kind of get it cuz I was on Harry’s side a little, you know, at the the age of 39, I got diagnosed bipolar
[28:22] one and my world got turned upside down and I’m seven years past that. Barely getting past that. It’s not easy and my
[28:31] heart is out to anybody afflicted like this.
[28:36] Well, the problem with that kind of an affliction is unless you are diagnosed, you don’t know what the problem is. Yeah.
[28:44] You automatically think something is horribly wrong with you. And a lot of people will turn to
[28:53] drug or some outside source. It’s going to make you feel better and make you forget. Yeah.
[28:58] And it’s an illness that brings on addictions. Yeah. that brings on other bad behavior.
[29:06] Yeah.
[29:08] And I don’t think that the general population in the BMX world who knew Harry ever thought past that. I think
[29:16] they looked at Harry as a star, a BMX legend, and he had a certain protocol he
[29:23] was supposed to follow, and whenever he fell off of what people felt that he should be, it didn’t look good. But they never
[29:32] delved into, well, what if he has this problem? Maybe there’s something wrong.
[29:37] Maybe there is more to Harry Liry than what everybody thinks there is. Yeah. And there was.
[29:44] Yeah, there absolutely was. And I believe that. Out of curiosity, if you don’t mind framing this for me, we’ve kind of touched on some things, but in
[29:53] many instances, I see that the vast majority of his supporters are women.
[29:59] and have heard wonderful things about Harry with children as well. Yet I see
[30:06] kind of so many scary weary stories that from people are outsiders in my opinion.
[30:13] How is that true that the it seems like so many of the women on the inside of
[30:19] his circle wholeheartedly support him still? Even Jamie? Yeah, even Jamie. Jamie is a great gal.
[30:28] I consider her my sister as well because she was Yeah, she was my sister-in-law and there’s some women that would probably say otherwise as to Harry, but he was kind.
[30:40] I think his kindness came out in children, dogs, and women. Not so much in the male
[30:47] population because he was so competitive. Exactly. He was the alpha. Right.
[30:52] Exactly. And I think a lot of it was being that competitive and you’re racing other people and
[31:00] you’re constantly winning, you’re going to have haters. And I think that Harry more or less
[31:06] gravitated towards women cuz the men looked at him more like a competitor. Sure.
[31:14] He had some good friends. I’m not going to say that. You know, Eddie King, Clint Miller, Greg at the end was there for the last eight months of Harry’s life.
[31:22] And Harry made a huge impact on Greg. Yeah.
[31:25] And the kindness that Harry showed Greg is something that Greg will always remember. And there was a kindness to Harry that a lot of people never saw.
[31:35] Yeah. I’ve learned that. It’s kind of cool to be honest with you.
[31:40] Far as gravitating towards the women, how women felt about him. Yeah. He was very open.
[31:46] True. and could easily talk to women more so than he could to most men. And so it was easier to open up his feelings
[31:55] to women and talking a certain amount of the women that were in his life that I personally knew. Yeah.
[32:02] He left his mark on all of them.
[32:04] That’s what I’ve seen. It’s amazing to see.
[32:07] It really is. I’ve become very good friends with Die and Doy was a very special friend to Harry’s and so I do
[32:17] too. Harry thought so highly of Doie and she was around for quite a long time and they were very good friends. They tried
[32:26] a relationship, it didn’t work, but they remained best friends and she was always there for him and he was there for her.
[32:34] That’s amazing. She actually sent me some decals. I don’t know about two months ago that she had left over from Dirt Works. It was really cool. Really
[32:43] nice note and it was really sweet of her. She is an absolute sweetheart and I know Mike Miller speaks the world of her.
[32:51] Oh yeah. She and Harry owned that track and Mike Miller was the announcer at Harry’s track. Yep. And I was the snack bar lady.
[33:00] I love it.
[33:02] No, I’m actually reading Mike’s book right now.
[33:04] Are you really? I’m doing a book club event series on his book right now. Yeah, it’s pretty fun. Oh, wow. I would like to read that.
[33:11] Yeah, yeah, I’ll shoot you over some info on it.
[33:14] I even actually thought about writing and getting together with the the people who could fill in the blanks. Yeah.
[33:21] An autobiography of Harry. Yeah. But I am not a writer.
[33:27] But there is now other ways that you could write books.
[33:32] I would be honored to be able to help you as best I can. I don’t know what that means, but I think you’re on the right track with kind of filling those blanks and getting the story out there.
[33:42] I think it could be done.
[33:44] I think so, too, because there’s certain avenues that I am now aware of that I can utilize to fill in the time span.
[33:53] You know, Gork from USAB Next would be a good source of information.
[33:59] Yep. Absolutely. He’s been great. I made a donation to them and the and Gor did the unboxing for it. It was really fun working with him over that.
[34:08] Well, you know, I have to tell you, I just today Eddie King is going to be at the the Hall of Fame in September,
[34:16] and I was going to try to go, but it didn’t work out. However, I did just today mail him an urn with Harry’s ashes
[34:23] on it that he’s going to give to Gork in September. So, which I thought was it needed to be there, you know, needed to come there.
[34:33] He won’t be the first set of ashes there. That’s what Eddie was telling. He will not be the first. And I think he just needs to be there.
[34:41] I absolutely love it. Yeah. And look, there’s hot air balloon.
[34:47] Yeah, we did a lot of those here. They have them in March, more or less. And January, February, there’s a hot air
[34:54] balloon festival out. Oh, and they’re huge out here.
[34:58] Okay. And so I guess this maybe lead to a question I I have about Harry. So if I
[35:06] had a parachute for Harry to jump out of a hot air balloon on his bike, would he have taken me up on the opportunity?
[35:13] Yes. I love it.
[35:16] For sure. And let me tell you, Harry said that if he ever got terminally ill, Yeah.
[35:21] he would never let his family know. What he would do is he would take his bike and ride it off of the Grand Canyon to end his life.
[35:33] Oh.
[35:35] So that was like Harry’s ultimate. And he used to talk about it all the time. I said, “You know, you’re stupid. You’re just stupid. Don’t even talk about it.”
[35:43] But yeah, he would do any crazy stupid thing like that.
[35:48] Yeah. Wow. That that would have been fun to see though. So, it’s been a year since Harry passed.
[35:57] It’s a year today. Oh. Oh, wow. Exactly today. Wow.
[36:03] Is when I need to touch on this a little bit is when the police showed up at my front door.
[36:10] But I believe that he passed on the 5th of September. Yes.
[36:16] And the 7th is what’s on his death certificate. And it’s when they found him. Oh. Oh, okay.
[36:24] 10:30 in the morning on September 7th. A year ago today.
[36:29] Wow. One year ago today. That’s Do you mind if we talk a little bit more
[36:37] about kind of that life since then? How things have been?
[36:42] Yes, we can talk about the morning I was that they showed up. Um, yeah. I know I’m open just to ask me questions. I’ll be as forthcoming as I can be.
[36:52] So, you said you were notified by the police of Harry’s passing.
[36:58] Do you mind kind of walking me through that scene and say perhaps the following 48 hours in your world?
[37:06] It was about noon that they showed up at my door. And when I walked out there, there was a policeman sitting on my
[37:14] front porch. And I’m like, originally I feel, you know, my daughter was up hunting in Colorado in the back
[37:21] mountains and when he showed up on my doorstep, I had this overwhelming fear that it was about her. Oh. And Oh.
[37:29] So when I walked out, they asked me, “Do you know Harry Liry?” And then of course I felt a total sense of relief. I said,
[37:36] “Yeah, he’s my brother.” And so I originally thought, “Okay, they’re here to serve him with papers for something he did.” Yeah, makes sense, right?
[37:46] Exactly. And I said, “Well, yeah, he’s my brother.” And at that point, he said, “Well, I need to tell you he’s deceased.”
[37:53] And I asked the policeman how what happened. And what they did is they gave me the the number of the officer that
[38:01] took the report and that had went out and found him basically. Yeah.
[38:08] And so then at that point I called that officer and spoke to him briefly and I
[38:15] have to tell you he was one of the most rudest people I’d ever spoken to in my life. Oh.
[38:20] And he was not forthcoming. He really said, “Well, that’s all I know.” He said that he was given somebody did a we tip
[38:29] phone call and told them that they found him in his car off of the 10 freeway
[38:38] by courts site in the middle of nowhere off an exit.
[38:43] Exit 69 on the 10 freeway is where they found him. And I’ve been there several times and there’s nothing out there.
[38:50] Honestly, I don’t I think he pulled over to to get some sleep. honestly and just never woke up. Yeah.
[38:58] And that I believe and Greg Matas, Harry’s friend, believes as well cuz he was trying to get in
[39:05] touch with Harry and his communication stopped on that Thursday. It was the 5th that I believe he passed. I am going to
[39:14] get a little graphic here and if that’s not okay, I understand. But you have the Brenda.
[39:20] They did tell me that he was unrecognizable.
[39:25] So, he had been in a hot car for a good 24 plus hours. Wow.
[39:31] Cuz they did not even recognize him. He did not die on the 7th at 10:30 in the morning. That’s when they found him.
[39:38] Yeah. So tried to get the exact time of death, but I’m just going based on the
[39:45] last bit of communication based on the fact that he was in that car for a while. That’s kind of what Greg and I
[39:52] came up with at that point had got that phone call and apparently they had also called his daughter Briana.
[40:02] Okay. And then Briana and I spoke a little bit, but I immediately called my sister
[40:11] because I was petrified that they were going to show up my mother’s door. Oh.
[40:16] And what mother wants a policeman to show up at her door and tell her that her son has passed.
[40:22] So after I got that news, I was on the road within an hour driving to California from Lake Havsu.
[40:32] And I don’t even remember that drive. Yeah. Truth be told. Sure.
[40:37] I talked to my sister. We actually called my mother and both of us told
[40:43] her, but both of us left. She was she’s in Sil Beach. So, she left her home. I
[40:50] left mine and we both went there for her. Okay.
[40:54] And so, we were there for her and we were all in shock. My mother included. Yeah. Yeah.
[40:59] And that whole weekend is just a blur to me. Yeah. Makes sense.
[41:06] So, you mentioned Greg and I I chatted with Greg and he mentioned that you
[41:12] didn’t know who he was at first. I guess you kind of gave him the third degree because you didn’t know who he was.
[41:22] I did, but I a lot of it is really vague to me. But I believe that Suzanne, his ex-girlfriend, messaged me and gave me Greg’s number.
[41:32] She asked if I’d heard from Harry and I didn’t want to tell her what had happened.
[41:38] So, I messaged Greg and I had to find out who he was. Harry never mentioned
[41:46] Greg to me. He just said he had a friend. And I did not know who Greg was. Sure.
[41:52] But I’ll tell you what, that man was a godsend to me. I don’t know what I would have done without him, honestly.
[42:01] Yeah.
[42:02] And we’ve become very good friends. And he is a wonderful person. A wonderful person. I can’t say enough good things about that man.
[42:11] What he did for me was just beyond anything that anyone should have done.
[42:15] and what he did for Harry. It’s just Yes. So, he loved he loved Harry. It comes across when you talk or you interact with Greg.
[42:25] He truly loved Harry.
[42:28] He did. He Harry was like a brother to him. I found out later. And Greg was in Harry’s life the eight months that I was
[42:38] not. And that was the eight months Harry and I kind of lost touch. So, Greg had information about my brother and how he
[42:45] was doing and what he was doing that I didn’t know. And together, we mourned.
[42:52] We helped each other get through moments that we needed to get through. And we’re still doing that. Probably chatted on the phone dozen times a day for quite some time.
[43:04] Um, so yeah. No. And you know, we still talk. He’ll always have a big piece of my heart for the fact that he was there
[43:13] for my brother and always has been and always will be.
[43:18] He’s wonderful. I I was telling him he he told me a line a while back that really stuck with me and it saved me
[43:28] quite a bit to your words. Right.
[43:33] And I think that represents a lot of who Greg is is taking the time to listen and understand before speaking and to be helpful.
[43:44] It’s it’s been tremendous what I’ve seen from from him his side and it’s really cool hear it from you.
[43:52] Oh yeah. No, he’s very softspoken.
[43:55] Funny guy. Very funny guy. I mean, he made a horrible situation
[44:02] honestly kind of funny, you know, because it was crazy. I came back from my mom’s
[44:09] we had my husband and I had to go empty out his car that was in Oh, wow.
[44:14] You know, and of course the bike was gone. And that was my biggest thing. I had contacted Greg. I said, you know, his bike was not in the car. And I was
[44:24] adamant that I could not get out there to check his apartment. And Greg was able through the management and whatnot,
[44:31] he was able to get a key and go into Harry’s apartment for me. And he pulled out. I said, “Just take everything of importance out.” And the bike was not
[44:40] there. And so he did. Harry did have a few things.
[44:43] I want to put this out there because I’ve had several people contact me about wanting to buy some of Harry’s things. Mhm.
[44:50] Harry had virtually nothing left.
[44:54] Harry pretty much sold and he did not care a wit about monetary things. Yes.
[44:59] And he pretty much sold everything. So what was left was a few items of his personal things.
[45:08] And so I just wanted to put that out there. I had one gentleman ask me when I’m going to be selling some of Harry’s bikes. What happened to them?
[45:15] And he literally said it in an angry way. Well, whatever happened to all Harry’s stuff? And I’m like, what?
[45:21] Really? What? What business is it of yours? First of all, honestly, I will never sell anything at
[45:30] Harry’s ever. I will never ever make a penny off of my brother’s fame. I just won’t do it.
[45:37] And so, I have given things to to certain people. Greg was one of them. I let Greg pick what out whatever he
[45:45] wanted. So, I’ve only given things to two different people. And so, yeah. And so, backing up,
[45:53] I had to go to his car and so we had to empty out his car. Of course, the stench in the car was not the best. Some of the items that I had
[46:01] to take out of the car, but his phone was in there. I mean, his whoever took his bike left his watch on his wrist,
[46:09] his wallet in his pocket, and his phone in the front seat. Easy money grab on that bike. They probably knew what it was.
[46:18] I don’t know. The whole bike thing was just weird. Yeah, it is.
[46:23] And then the police wouldn’t take a report. They wouldn’t help me because it was in two jurisdictions. It was a fasco
[46:32] to get that bike back. Thank God for Greg Matus and Rob Porter and his wife.
[46:39] They were able to I’m going to say it set up a sting to get that bike back.
[46:46] So, it was awesome. And Greg really did a lot. There’s a lot he didn’t tell me. I know. Sure. Yeah.
[46:54] He did a lot. And again, when they found the bike, because Harry was Harry never let his bikes out of his sight ever, even growing up.
[47:03] And you just didn’t touch Harry Ly’s bike. That’s one thing nobody ever did. You don’t touch it.
[47:08] you would lose a hand on his I can imagine. Yeah.
[47:13] So, and he never let them out of his sight and he took his bike wherever he went because he was afraid to leave it at home because he was a little paranoid. I think it was the CTE.
[47:23] Sure.
[47:24] And he was afraid that somebody was breaking into his apartment and stealing stuff. So, a lot of paranoia came with
[47:32] that with the CTE, which is a sign of it. Yeah.
[47:38] So, after we got his car back, the next day, we had to drive out to his apartment in Phoenix, and I had to empty
[47:45] it out. And Greg, bless his heart, was there. He showed up there, and he had taken things out of Harry’s apartment
[47:54] that belonged to him and he gave everything back to me. He even helped us go through the apartment together. And
[48:02] just having him there was very um supportive and we laughed, we cried. It was just two days of awful awful things.
[48:15] And then the third day I had to go to the criminatory to pick up his personal effects.
[48:23] Oh, okay. So I did all that. My husband and I did.
[48:27] I didn’t want my mom involved. So then I had Harry transferred from courtsite cuz I’m going to say it’s a [ __ ] hole.
[48:37] I did not want my brother. He was at the creremator in Parker. I did not want him there. Okay.
[48:41] So I had him transferred to Lake Havsu, the crematory in Lake Havsu.
[48:47] Ironically enough, they have cremated several of my dogs, but it’s a wonderful place. They do people and they do dogs. So, you know, I
[48:56] thought what better place to have Harry done than at a place that does both. Yeah.
[49:00] So, well, Harry loved dogs. So, oh my god, he loved his dogs. And dogs loved him. Yeah.
[49:07] And dogs are a very good judge of character. Exactly.
[49:11] All dogs loved Harry. And that says something about his character.
[49:17] If he was as big of a scumbag as people say he is, dogs would know.
[49:22] Yeah. So that’s I’m just going to put throw that out there. Dogs have a better sense of people than people have sense
[49:29] of other people. Anybody that is a dog lover will understand.
[49:34] Absolutely 100% agree with that statement. Yes, Harry loved his dogs.
[49:40] But I digress. I apologize. I I changed the direction of the conversation. That’s okay. I knew this would happen.
[49:48] But no, so Greg was wonderful. It’s amazing that he was able to help you with that and and the cremation services.
[49:56] You were there, right?
[49:59] Yes. I was there just by myself. My daughter was going to come down, Jessica, but she lost her dad two years
[50:08] ago and she was not emotionally ready to deal with that. So, I decided I didn’t want anybody there
[50:16] with me that didn’t want to be there for Harry. Okay.
[50:20] And so I did it by myself. He loved Creed. So I picked out three Creed songs that they played
[50:27] and I pushed the button and watched the box go in. So yeah, it was a beautiful moment.
[50:37] Yeah.
[50:38] But yet it was very hard at the same time. I I can’t imagine. I’ve never done that.
[50:44] I’d always been there for my brother through thick and thin. Whenever he needed anything, I was there always.
[50:50] Always through his whole life. And I was there at the end. Yeah.
[50:57] And it was a beautiful moment. That’s absolutely amazing. Yeah.
[51:04] And you’ve had, I guess, a year now to the day to reflect since he’s passed.
[51:13] and we’ve talked about some things in the past and his dedication to the sport, I should say.
[51:22] Have you? Yes.
[51:23] Have you found closure with his dedication to the sport?
[51:28] I was able to do that through having his celebration of life at Dirty Fest. Okay.
[51:36] And just listening to some of what the people said about my brother. And I learned so much about him. when he was in Diamondback. I didn’t realize he was
[51:45] the manager of the team. I didn’t know the way that these younger kids and even the older people looked up to him and
[51:52] how he ran that team. I didn’t know any of that. Just saw my brother as a figure
[51:58] at that point. I really didn’t know. I knew he was good.
[52:03] I knew he made a living doing it, but I was a teenager and we didn’t want his sister hanging around. So Harry kind of went his own
[52:12] way with the BMX world and I tried to I would go to his races a lot and I didn’t go to watch my brother race. Yeah.
[52:19] I went there to meet his friends.
[52:22] I imagine because he had a lot of cute friends. So but I saw Harry race a lot.
[52:27] Yeah. But I think one of the most memorable races I saw Harry race was it was on a dirt track and honestly I don’t remember where it was
[52:36] but somebody took him out on a turn and he went and he picked his bike up and when that person passed back by him
[52:44] on the next turn Harry chucked his bike at him and knocked his bike and I thought right on that’s my brother
[52:52] that is the coolest thing. So at that point I think was when Harry started getting the name Harry Scary Liry. I
[53:00] don’t know if you knew that they called him that.
[53:02] I did. Yes. Uh not very long because then he was Turbo, right?
[53:06] Yeah. But he was Harry Scary Liry and he was pretty scary when he lost his temper. Yeah.
[53:13] But with his racing, he was so dedicated and just focused and anybody messed with
[53:19] him, they got it in return. That’s what BMX was about back then. Yeah.
[53:26] Now, what happened at the Grands, like future BMXing, we’re talking old school. Yeah.
[53:33] And that’s how they did it back then.
[53:36] None of this, oh well, he hit me on the turn. Now, Harry gave [ __ ] when it was given to him. Yeah. Always. Always. You always got payback, right?
[53:44] Yeah. And there’s sometimes he probably should have kept it. Well, stay true to your words, right?
[53:50] Yeah. No, definitely. And that probably wasn’t the smartest thing he did at the grands, but the uproar over it was, in my opinion, a little much, you know.
[54:02] Yeah.
[54:02] And did he deserve what he got out of it. I think it was more I don’t think it was the BMX sport
[54:11] itself. I think it was the writers and the people involved in the sport that
[54:19] were clamoring for something that needed to be done. They had to do something.
[54:23] They changed. They made changes out of because of it.
[54:27] Yeah. Well, what they really should start making changes on is the CTE that goes on in the sport. And that’s what
[54:34] they should concentrate on, the injuries that that these young kids up and coming are going to be suffering because they’re on hard tracks now. They’re not
[54:41] on dirt tracks. Yeah, it’s changed. I look at these tracks and they terrify me. To be honest, my granddaughter, Harry’s great niece,
[54:49] just started racing. The first thing I did, and I talked to Greg, he pointed me in the right direction. I got her a Troy Lee helmet that is specifically made for CTE.
[54:59] Oh. And that’s what’s on her little head. That was the very first thing I bought. Yeah.
[55:04] I’m an advocate for the CTE and I honestly would love to have something in Harry’s name. I believe that’s what
[55:12] ultimately probably killed him. I mean, what led to his demise?
[55:18] I think that there is enough sound evidence to support that theory. Yes.
[55:26] So, as you look towards the future, what do you hope his legacy is?
[55:32] I hope people view him as the athlete that he was, that kids nowadays can
[55:41] learn from his dedication, the work ethics that it took to be the person that he was. He worked out hard. He
[55:49] trained hard. He was so focused. And he was 60 what? 64 and he was still racing.
[55:59] Kicking ass. Yeah. I look at his pictures and I’m like, are you kidding me? First off, he doesn’t look his age, but second of all, I’m like, my goodness, the guy was a beast.
[56:10] He was a beast. And funny, I’ve been riding a mountain bike that he used to ride this hill on his BMX bike.
[56:17] Oh, I’m sucking wind, right? And because it’s not an ebike, it’s a mountain bike.
[56:24] And I’m thinking, how in the hell did he do this? I’m going through my gears like a crazy person. How did he do this on a BMX bike?
[56:32] And then I could hear him in my ear.
[56:35] Sister, don’t stop. It’s like, okay, okay. Cuz Harry and I worked out quite often together. And it was always a competition. Yeah.
[56:43] Harry and I were always competing. I used to beat him running, by the way. I could kick his ass running. Oh, yeah.
[56:49] Yeah. But as far as a bike, no, never happened.
[56:52] I can imagine. Uh, he was kind of professional and he kind of like I guess he was kind of professional and made a living out of it for a while. So, you might have had a tough chance there.
[57:02] No chance.
[57:03] But you said something that caught my attention. You said that you could hear Harry say, “Sister, don’t stop.” Is that something he he regularly said to you?
[57:14] Is that kind of like one of his phrases?
[57:16] Oh, yeah. You can do it. You can do whatever you set your mind to.
[57:20] Yeah. Just like with the uh bikini competition I did, he told me that if you need to do it, if that’s something you feel like you want to do, because I
[57:27] always wanted to do one. My husband competed natural. All of it was natural and mine is definitely natural. Um and
[57:35] so I trained for it and I after Harry passed, it was something I felt I needed to do for my brother. That’s awesome.
[57:42] And I accomplished it. So yeah, it was something. Harry was always there pushing me on my dirt bikes, pushing my
[57:49] kids on their dirt bikes and their BMX bikes. He never asked anybody to do anything that he wasn’t willing to do
[57:57] himself and that is always something that stood out in my mind. It’s a sign of a good leaner.
[58:05] Exactly. I was always always trying to keep up with him all through growing up.
[58:10] And like I said, I used to be able to beat him in a running race. Yeah.
[58:14] For a quite a long time, but then you know, boys will be boys, girls will be girls. And he was able to beat me eventually. So,
[58:22] yeah. But I could say that. Yeah. I kicked your ass, dude. So, I love it. I love it. Talk to me about it.
[58:29] So, I like to play a game called one word. Are you down? I’m totally down.
[58:36] All right. So, we’re going to do it twice. I guess you get two words. Nobody else has ever had two words that have asked on this. So,
[58:44] one word to describe Harry Liry as a brother. Dumbass.
[58:51] I think that’s either one word or two. I spell it as one word. So, that’s what I called him. That’s who and what he was to me.
[59:01] I love it. That’s awesome. You have your before knowledge. You have the knowledge you’ve gained since Harry’s past.
[59:10] One word for whatever you believe your brother was able to achieve as a BMX legend.
[59:18] Driven. Love it.
[59:21] He was driven, focused. He was just It was like he there was something driving that man. Yeah.
[59:28] It was hard to figure out his dedication. It was hard to figure out how come he beat the [ __ ] out of himself so much. Yeah.
[59:35] And I mean, he did. He really, really did. Yeah.
[59:38] He raced when he shouldn’t have even been racing.
[59:42] Yeah. I’ve heard he’s had some some pretty severe injuries and he got right on a bike right after that.
[59:48] He did. And I can tell you about one of them. Yeah. What’s that?
[59:52] He was in his storage unit putting things away and he was climbing on a ladder. The ladder slipped. He grabbed
[59:59] the bean overhead and it was razor sharp and he ripped the tendons in his hand. Oh my gosh.
[01:00:07] 1 hour, 7 secondsHe called me. He was screaming cuz he just knew his BMX career was over.
[01:00:11] 1 hour, 11 secondsAnd I can send you pictures of it. And he ended up having to have surgery to reattach his tendons. Oh wow.
[01:00:18] 1 hour, 18 secondsIn his hand. You know what? I don’t remember his right hand or his left hand, but I do know that he changed his brake lever to the opposite hand so that
[01:00:26] 1 hour, 26 secondshe could still race. And he raced with a damn bandage on his hand.
[01:00:30] 1 hour, 30 secondsHuh. Well, he had to have been used to that because for the early part of his career, he ran front and rear brakes.
[01:00:39] 1 hour, 39 secondsSo, he wasn’t a stranger to his left hand or to the alternate hand. He just might have been a little out of commission on that bad one.
[01:00:46] 1 hour, 46 secondsYeah, I think he only took a month off.
[01:00:48] 1 hour, 48 secondsAnd the doctor, he was moving that hand and exercising it when the doctor had told him not to.
[01:00:55] 1 hour, 55 secondsAnd he basically told the doctor to go [ __ ] himself and Harry recouped at my house and he was he was back on the road after a month.
[01:01:06] Wow. Wow.
[01:01:08] And he Yeah, it was a bad injury. It really was. It sounds I mean it sounds terrible.
[01:01:15] And that actually I think was his last really bad injury that he took that I am aware of was the severing of his tendons
[01:01:24] in his hand. When was that? What was that? Uh in the 20 early 2020s or Yeah, I’m thinking that’s about when it
[01:01:32] was now. I’m not real sure. We moved permanently out there in 2021. So, it may have been 2021.
[01:01:40] Oh, wow. Okay.
[01:01:41] Or 2022. But, um yeah, I’m thinking 2022, honestly. Okay. And I But I could be wrong all the time.
[01:01:49] I mean, it’s okay.
[01:01:50] You know, I’m getting old, so I’m terrible with dates. Trust. I’m with you on that. I I am too. I I mean I can remember what I did yesterday. So I gotcha.
[01:02:00] 1 hour, 2 minutesOh, hey Ann, look at that. We’re getting close to the end of the bridge.
[01:02:06] Yeah, look at that. Look at the water down below.
[01:02:09] Wow, it’s beautiful. And is that a is that a stage? I see. Yes, there is a stage there.
[01:02:16] That looks like a nice spot to catch a concert. It it is actually do different announcements and different stage shows and especially at Christmas it’s all
[01:02:24] decorated. So we have to go down this flight of stairs to get down to that.
[01:02:29] Once we get down to the bottom of the stairs we’re going to hang a right and that’s where we put Harry’s paver.
[01:02:36] Oh, okay. Awesome. So that’s that’s where the walkway is in. Right there. Right there.
[01:02:41] Yeah. You can see the walkway. It runs right along the canal. And the canal is about maybe two miles long and we paddle
[01:02:49] board that all the time and Harry did try a little bit of paddle boarding but I don’t think it was his forte. Now put him in a boat that was Harry’s world. He was very good boater.
[01:03:00] 1 hour, 3 minutesHe grew up on boats. We all did. So we at a very young age took a 19 foot boat up the Colorado River through the Grand
[01:03:08] Canyon and camped along the way. And I think I was like five or six maybe. Oh wow.
[01:03:15] So yeah. And um Harry piloted the boats.
[01:03:18] He drove the boats. And he was no more than a very young teenager at the time. Oh that’s that’s exciting. So anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself.
[01:03:26] So yes, we go down this pathway. But you can see the how the the path walkers, runners, bikers. That
[01:03:34] stage right over there is where Harry was doing some stunts and and you’re not supposed to be on that stage. Right. He was doing stunts on the stage or off the
[01:03:43] stage on his bike. With his bike. Yeah. He was jumping off and jumping on and some guys came up on policemen, you know. Well,
[01:03:50] security guards on their bikes. They weren’t real policemen. They told him he needed to get off the stage. Well, Harry’s answer to that was, “Fuck you.” Yeah. Jesus.
[01:03:58] And so he took off on his bike. Yeah.
[01:04:01] And there was no way those two guys were going to catch him. There’s no way in hell. And that’s what Harry thought.
[01:04:06] Yeah, but they radioed ahead and they had another guy coming down and it’s only three foot wide. So the one guy got him
[01:04:15] and made him fall off his bike. Took the three guys to get him arrested. But yeah, goodness.
[01:04:19] He was arrested that day for jumping on that stage. He was just putting on a show. Oh yeah, he was just putting on a show.
[01:04:25] He was not hurting anybody. He was just doing tricks, jumping off. But they frown on that and Harry pretty much said, “Well, I’m going to do whatever I
[01:04:33] want to do.” And well, they took offense to it and decided that they weren’t going to allow him to do that. So, wow, what a fun story.
[01:04:45] Yeah, just a side note on the little stage there. But yeah, and I turn around. I see a fairy. Is that Is that a ferry? Where does that go?
[01:04:55] That is the casino boat that you can take. It takes you I think it’s like six bucks and it takes you across to the
[01:05:03] casino on the California side and it’s about a 105 minute drive and it drops you off. You can gamble, do whatever and
[01:05:11] it goes every 20 minutes and you can catch that ferry going back and it runs throughout the day.
[01:05:18] Okay, that’s kind of cool. Little fun something to do there. Especially during the winter when there’s no boating or paddle boarding or any of the summer
[01:05:25] event. We’ll take that little boat over and have dinner and then come back. I love it. Yeah, I love it.
[01:05:31] You love it too, Ann? Yeah. All right, we’ll get you on a boat someday. Ah, this walkway.
[01:05:38] What a cool concept. I guess how long’s this been here?
[01:05:42] It’s been there years. What’s really cool is you don’t a person doesn’t have to have passed. You can get a brick is if you look at these bricks down here,
[01:05:50] you can see where it’s just somebody’s name or business name. And and this section here is for veterans. Oh.
[01:05:58] So they actually have um and that the ones with the little medallions in the middle. Yeah.
[01:06:03] Those are the ones that are for veterans and people in in the service. And so you could get them with their names on it or the memorial if somebody passes.
[01:06:13] Yeah.
[01:06:13] And so that’s what I decided to do for Harry.
[01:06:17] And we did what I tried to do and you’ll see is Harry’s signature move on that brick and it just says Harry Larry Turbo
[01:06:27] on there and it shows him on the bike trying to do his signature move but unfortunately they couldn’t do it so it
[01:06:34] looks more like you’ll see it’s it’s a bike with somebody riding doing like a a you know a side thing. It wasn’t here.
[01:06:42] It wasn’t the turbo. But the only one that really notices it is Eddie. Eddie noticed it right away.
[01:06:49] And he’s like, “Are you going to change that?” Are you serious right now?
[01:06:54] Cuz with these pavers, you have to have your order in by October 16th. Oh. And annually.
[01:07:02] And yes. And then they do it one time a year in March. They do a ceremony right
[01:07:08] at the stage. They set up chairs there and they do a ceremony there and they’ve all been laid and then they take everybody down to see your spot where
[01:07:17] your paver is. So they only do it once a year. So I had to get it in in October so that they could do it this last
[01:07:24] March. And so that’s when we did Harry’s funeral.
[01:07:30] Greg and Eddie came out and Harry’s daughter. And so they did the PA and we all walked down and saw the PA and then
[01:07:38] we took a pontoon boat that was captained by a very close friend of mine, Pete, which was a godsend. And he took my family and friends out down to a cove called Steamboat Cove.
[01:07:49] Okay.
[01:07:50] And we had a little ceremony. My granddaughter was there and threw rose petals into the water. Nice.
[01:07:56] And we played a couple of songs. Harry’s urn was water soluble and Oh, it dropped like a rock.
[01:08:05] I mean, it’s like, geez, dude, you were in a hurry.
[01:08:09] So, so we did that. And um yeah, but the paper coming up, I’ll show you how they
[01:08:16] placed it. They decided this year to spell the word freedom. And all they got done was the f re e.
[01:08:26] And so Harry is actually in the letter E. So his paper was set and I thought it was apppropo in the word free because I I feel like my brother’s free now.
[01:08:37] Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s absolutely perfect.
[01:08:42] I belong to a walking group and we walk every Tuesday, Thursday. Okay.
[01:08:47] And we walk this path and so every time I walk by coming and going, I make sure I stomp his brick. Yeah.
[01:08:56] And it’s actually getting kind of funny because now all my friends stomp him as well.
[01:09:01] So, and he knows why because he’s a dumbass and that’s why I’m stomping him.
[01:09:06] So, I stomp him every time I see it. I love it.
[01:09:10] So, I would hope that you and Anarie would stomp away.
[01:09:13] Yeah. Is Yeah. Let’s do it. Hold on. You ready? All right. Hey, Kale. You ready? Ready? I’m ready to stomp.
[01:09:22] Is that funny? Yeah. I love it. I absolutely love it, kiddo.
[01:09:29] Oh man. Never in my life would I have ever guessed that I’d be crossing the London Bridge to stomp on Harry Larry’s memory. Never. It’s, you know.
[01:09:38] Yeah. I’ve had people look at me, too. They look at me, why are you doing that?
[01:09:43] It’s like I look at them and say, it’s my brother. I have the right. Yeah.
[01:09:46] It’s like, don’t question me. And I do it every time I pass. And if I pass without seeing it, I run back and do it.
[01:09:54] Oh, that’s awesome. And is there a specific way that you reflect or is it kind of all over the board when you see that pair?
[01:10:03] The one that I really reflect on is the I did another memorial for him at a tree
[01:10:10] on the disc golf course that is over in the island across the canal and it’s in a beautiful field under a big olive tree
[01:10:19] and I reflect there because we did place some of Harry’s ashes there as well.
[01:10:25] Okay. And so I go there a lot and talk to Harry. And so the PA I wonder
[01:10:33] sometimes if I put that there for me instead of in memory of Harry because I really enjoy stomping him and my friends
[01:10:41] now it’s become a big joke that oh you forgot to stomp your brother and now my friends are stomping him. So it’s like
[01:10:49] anybody that wants to go down there feel free to go stomp him. I mean he would love it and I know he’s looking down
[01:10:56] just laughing going sister you know he always used to say that sister so yeah that’s but I do but I’m with
[01:11:05] people usually when I walk by and so I try not to get melancholy and I focus on the beauty around me and and the fact
[01:11:13] that Harry is right along the canal that he used to go down or the channel um
[01:11:19] on his boat. So, it’s a good spot. It really is.
[01:11:24] That was absolutely awesome. I think I apologize. I think we might need to get Amarie back for a nap soon.
[01:11:34] Not a problem.
[01:11:34] It’s been amazing learning everything from you. And I’m hoping we can do this again someday soon, perhaps at the tree if you don’t mind.
[01:11:46] I would love to do that. I mean, there’s so much more that we can talk about. So many things we haven’t touched on.
[01:11:53] So, I’m open to that. I really would like to put it out there. A lot of the things that people didn’t know about Harry, the person, not Harry the BMXer.
[01:12:03] Yeah.
[01:12:03] To them, he’s a legend. To me, he’s my brother. I love deeply. Yeah. That comes through. Yeah. And I miss him. It’s a huge hole.
[01:12:12] I miss him. Yeah.
[01:12:14] And today has been been a hard day. It’s with with my daughter, but she’s a big support. So,
[01:12:21] and the two of you are helping each other kind of navigate the emotions of the day.
[01:12:27] Yeah, for sure. Got in touch with my mom today and I know she’s she’s kind of struggling as well.
[01:12:36] I I can’t I can’t imagine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[01:12:41] So, I really can’t.
[01:12:45] My Yes. I know. I know. I’m sorry, Linda. She’s gotten gotten a little gotten a little loud,
[01:12:52] but I appreciate that. I appreciate the additional insight and the followup, and I look forward to talking with you soon.
[01:13:02] Okay. Yeah, definitely. Say byebye. Say byebye. Bye, Annie. Thank you for coming.
[01:13:10] Say thank you.
[01:13:13] Yeah. And you just head right back up those stairs and cross the bridge and you’re right back at that that little shop that you parked at these stairs here. All right. Perfect.
[01:13:22] Perfect. I like Thanks. Thanks, Linda. We’ll talk soon. Okay. Thank you, Kyle. Thank you. Bye. Bye.
[01:13:28] Bye.