When Leslie Porterfield was 16, a slip of a girl at that, she bought an old Yamaha cruiser from a Lewisville neighbor for $200.
No one called it a steal.
"Everybody thought I was crazy," she said.
They told her she was too little to ride a motorcycle that big, but, really, that was beside the point.
Ride it? First she had to fix it.
"I asked every friend I had to help me," she said.
Bought a service manual, too, and not Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, either.
As it turned out, Porterfield had a knack for mechanics. To the surprise of friends and family, soon she was up and riding.
But that wasn't the least of it. Three years later, after watching friends compete, she entered her first road race. If nothing else, she figured it'd make her a better rider on the dangerous streets around Dallas.
When she finished in the middle of the pack, she stumped her friends again.
"I was hooked," she said.
Ever since, Porterfield hasn't looked back, which is probably a good thing when you're sitting on a motorcycle at more than 200 mph.
Besides setting a women's world land speed record last year, Porterfield, 33, owns a motorcycle dealership, High Five Cycles, in Dallas, has smiled from the covers of several racing magazines and has taken up automobile racing, skiing and scuba diving.
And then there's this: A couple of years ago, she lost it on Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats at 110 mph.
Got a little loose, did you?
"Got very loose," she said. "The bike came around on me."
She broke seven ribs, punctured a lung and suffered a concussion. Fortunately, she's not as fragile as she looks. Before week's end, she was out of the hospital. By Tuesday, she was back at the shop.
"The bike," she said, "took a little longer to recover."
In fact, she just got back from the Flats, where she earned the BUB Speed Trials Top Time Award for a 240-mph one-way streak.
If you've ever wondered what it's like out on the famed 30,000-acre Flats, Porterfield reports that they're indeed vast, flat and occasionally "slushy" after rains.
Slushy?
"It's a little bit amazing," she said, "how much the motorcycle moves around at full speed."
"Amazing," is not how I'd put it.
Even still, Porterfield loves it. Loves the Flats, the camaraderie, the pursuit of top speeds. She plans to keep at it as long as possible.
And exactly what do her friends and family think of her venture now?
Her mom owns a motorcycle. Here's guessing someone else makes the repairs.
■ Whether Roy Williams proves to be a true No. 1 receiver is beside the point, unless you're talking about what the Cowboys gave up to get him. Despite his 38 touchdowns, T.O.'s presence limited the Cowboys' offense, which had to run through him. The Cowboys have enough options, e.g, Felix Jones, tight ends, depth at running back, to make up for the loss of T.O. The question is, can Tony Romo sustain drives by protecting the ball?
■ If I'm Tampa Bay's new coach, Raheem Morris, and I have Byron Leftwich as a sitting duck for the Cowboys' pass rush, I'm getting Josh Freeman up in the bullpen. Now.
■ He may have the best story of any pitcher in baseball this season, but Scott Feldman's Cy Young chances are slim. His ERA (11th in the league) and walk-to-strikeout ratio (54-95) are the worst of the contenders, and those are the stats voters consider.
■ Pudge Rodriguez has been, at 37, the Rangers' best catcher this year, which is not a recommendation for Jarrod Saltalamacchia or Taylor Teagarden.
■ When Ron Washington says Elvis Andrus isn't consistent enough to win a Gold Glove at shortstop, he's right. Elvis' range has had a tremendous impact on the Rangers' success. But a Gold Glover doesn't make careless errors.
■ Coming out of Lufkin and the University of Houston before leading the Dolphins in sacks in the late '80s, T.J. Turner was the most naturally talented defensive lineman I ever covered. He died last month at 46 in a Bryan hospital after complications from a stroke.
■ Former Bulls GM Jerry Krause says he skipped Michael Jordan's HOF induction in protest of longtime assistant Tex Winter's exclusion from the Hall. Couldn't have been Krause's old feud with MJ, could it?
■ Emmitt Smith's comments on Romo, Williams, Wade Phillips and the Cowboys' prospects were in no way out of line, but they were certainly loud. Is he auditioning for something?
■ Last question: In labor negotiations between the NBA and refs, who can you pull for?
[an error occurred while processing this directive]