Local hardware store owners love to ride

OSKALOOSA December 20, 2007 01:21 pm

— They’re Harley riders hitting the open road with the wind whipping past them — when they’re not helping their customers at True Value.
Mark and Joyce Pearson, owners of True Value at 202 1st Ave East, love riding the open road.
“It’s sort of like the old story that after you ride a bike you begin
to realize why the dog wants to hang his out the window so he can smell the fresh air. You see a lot more sites on a bike,” Mark Pearson said.
Mark, 56, moved to Oskaloosa in 1963 with his dad who was taking over the Coast-to-Coast hardware store in Oskaloosa. His dad used to sell Bridgestone bikes in the store, and the first motorcycle Mark learned to ride was a Bridgestone 90cc.
“That was my only transportation.” Mark said. “If I was going to go to school, it was going to be on a motorcycle.”
Mark graduated from Oskaloosa High School in 1970 and went to University of Iowa until 1972. In 1972 he left the U of I to take over the Coast-to-Coast store from his dad, who had decided to retire.
He met his wife Joyce, in 1969 while in high school, started going out soon after they had met. They married on Aug. 4, 1973.
Ever since high school, Mark said he enjoyed traveling.
“The first trip, even before I met Joyce, I’d take that little 90cc and go all the way across the state of Iowa to go visit my grandparents. A little bike like that you could just open up just about as fast as it would go, which is like 60 miles per hour, and it would run all the way across the state, about 200 miles.” Mark said.
Now they’re into traveling farther, he said.
Mark and Joyce took a 20-year hiatus from riding after their two kids were born. It is difficult to travel with kids on a motorcycle, they said.
Even though he was no longer riding motorcycles, bikes continued to be a part of Mark’s life thanks to his brother Marvin, who talked him into doing R
“My brother was up here one summer and went out there and watched all the bikers go by,” Mark said. “He rounded me up that night and we went down to the local pub and he says, ‘you know we ought to do that next year.’ Then he called me up in November and said, ‘Are you ready?’”
Mark then rode in Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa from 1985 until 2003.
Joyce usually stayed home with the kids and ran the store while Mark completed the race. She said she had tried RAGBRAI once but did not like the drinking, cold showers and bad food.
Although he was never the best at getting in shape for RAGBRAI, he still had fun, Mark said.
“I was in it more for the entertainment purposes,” Mark said, but after almost twenty years, he’d seen about all it had to offer.
“It’s time to go see some fresh ground,” Mark said.
The decision to get back into motorcycling came after Joyce and Mark’s 30th Anniversary in 2003, when the couple took a trip to the East Coast.
Joyce said seeing the riders out East riding through the rain caused Mark to want to go riding again.
“We were home less than a week and we bought a new bike, and we’ve been riding ever since,” Joyce said.
Both Mark and Joyce said the transition back to riding was smooth.
“It’s sort of like riding a bicycle -- once you do it, you never forget,” Mark said. “Sometimes you missed it, but you had to get through the kids first. Then after kids then you can get back and do what you wanted to do. It’s your chance to have a second childhood.”
Although he had rode imports in his younger days, Mark decided to shift gears in later life and switch to Harleys. He reasoned that other bikes may be comparable, but since there are more Harley dealers — he figured one for every 50 miles — it made sense to choose a Harley.
“So if you’ve got a problem you can always limp in somewhere and get service.”
Needless to say, the road got a bit easier when he didn’t have to peddle.
“I found that the hills are a lot more enjoyable on something with a motor,” Mark said.
Since 2003, Mark and Joyce have owned three different Harleys, upgrading every few years and covering tens of thousands of miles.
“We’ve gone, basically up through Michigan, through Ontario, down through New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky — so we’ve covered a lot of territory out in the eastern part of the States. We’ve never gone west and we haven’t gone south yet, but then there’s always something to do next year,” Mark said.
He said he is not planning to ride to all the continental states.
“It might happen, but its not really a goal,” Mark said. “I’m not exactly sure I want to ride a bike clear out to Maine.”
While out riding, Mark and Joyce look a bit different than when they’re managing the store. Mark said they always wear helmets and boots.
“Just the minute you don’t, that’s when you get caught. When you get caught, then that hurts,” Mark said.
“They don’t recognize us when we’re dressed in our Harley garb,” Joyce said. “Very few people know us that way.”
Mark said he took a spill in 1983. He said he was speeding when he went off the road after not making a corner. Mark said he was fine.
Bikes have gotten heavier and can handle turns better, Mark said, and the same turn hasn’t given him problems on his Harley.
Joyce and Mark said headphones and microphones in their helmets are essential for the road. Mark said that with headphones it is possible to hear someone as clear as if he or she was in the same room.
“You can’t travel long distance without headphones,” Joyce said.
They also tow a trailer with extra clothes and souvenirs. Besides
touring wineries, they’ve also hit a couple of organized HOG, Harley Owners Group, events. Some events have more than a thousand riders, Mark said.
“You get a bunch of bikers together, the John Q. Public will kind of shy away from them,” Mark said.
Still, once you separate a biker from the herd, people line up with questions.
“You put one biker on the road and you stop somewhere, heck, everyone wants to stop and talk to you then.”
For eight to nine months of the year Mark and Joyce ride for eight to nine months of the year. The rest of the time, they put the bike in storage.
Mark and Joyce don’t plan to put their Harley in permanent storage anytime soon.
“We’re not looking forward to stopping right now,” Mark said.
The oldest biker Joyce and Mark remember seeing was in his 80s.
“He had his old Harley and he did good,” Joyce said.
Herald staff writer Wes Kappelman can be reached by e-mail at news2@oskyherald.com

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