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Family takes to the track By Emily Grobe Many families spend their quality time together having a picnic, watching a movie or doing some other leisure activity. The Cox family of Taylor spends theirs in the mud, dirt and dust on motorcycles in the wilderness. “It's pretty fun. It's really something that I enjoy because the whole family can do it and they all enjoy it,” Blaine Cox said. “It's not something I go off and do by myself and come home and, you know, leave the family at home. It's something everybody can have a great time doing.” The Cox family got started dirt bike riding after Cox's cousin got his daughter a bike. “I rode as a kid, but it started off with my cousin. His daughter decided she wanted a dirt bike, so he decided if she had to have one, he had to have one. We thought, ‘Well, if y'all are going to do that, we ought to do that.'” Cox said. It has grown from there. Ryland Cox, 10, joins his dad and mother, Roxanne, on their weekend camping and riding expeditions. “[Ryland] loves it and I live for it,” Cox said. “[Roxanne] enjoys it. She goes out and rides and she has her own bike and she has a great time riding, too.” The family has a membership at an off-road adventure ranch, Cherokee Cycle Park, which allows the entire family to camp and ride on a 1,100-acre facility south of Milano. ”I have been to a few other places, but that's probably my favorite place to go,” Cox said. “I haven't been anywhere else in a while. We have a membership out there - you can buy a family membership - and you can go out there and ride unlimited, camp unlimited and it's just hard to beat. And it's close to home.” The working ranch has a trail system - rated for beginners to experts - that crisscrosses more than 26 miles of terrain and open camp grounds, though visitors can opt to rough it away from facilities and grounds. The Cox family frequents the adventure ranch a couple of times a month, usually with family - Cox's cousin and his family - and friends on the weekends. “The membership, I've used it enough to pay for itself 10 times over,” Cox said. After arriving, setting up camp and visiting, the Cox trio will gear up for a late night ride. “At midnight we'll get on the four-wheelers and take midnight rides through the trails and stuff like that. We'll get back, hang out the rest of the night Š roast some marshmallows, things like that,” Cox said. The rest of the weekend is much the same with the family and friends trekking the trails and enjoying each other's company. Cox and his cousin - who both prefer fast and hard trails - will go off and tackle more difficult trails before returning to camp, grabbing the kids and hitting the trails again. “We just ride all day on different trails with different people. Then all night we'll all pitch in and cook dinner, sit around the fire again,” Cox said. On their most recent trip, two other Taylor families joined the expedition - John and Deborah Parker and Bob and Patti Martinez. “I think more and more of our friends are starting to get interested and wanting to go out and do it. We all enjoy camping and hanging out,” Cox said. And don't think the family goes out and roughs it; they make sure to bring some comforts of home along on their trips. “We've got a satellite we take out there with us and watch football. One night we watched the ultimate fighting championship on pay per view,” Cox said. But all the comforts of home don't make up for the open range and the ride that goes along with it. Not to mention the risk that goes along with the ride - including broken bones. “I broke both of my hands a few months ago - in fact, this month is the first time I've been riding in several months,” Cox said. And Cox isn't the only family member who has been injured. Cox's wife broke her little finger while riding someone else's bike. She tended to it at camp, but took the day off from riding. “She didn't ride the rest of the day. But she had a good time the rest of the day. She took some ibuprofen and then went to the doctor the next day,” Cox said with a laugh. Ryland Cox has had his share of close calls, too. “He's had a couple of wrecks. Nothing major, but he's had a couple of good scares that made him realize that you can get hurt doing it and to just be careful,” Cox said of his son. Since their accidents, dad, mom and son have all gotten back on their bikes and continued to ride - just a little more cautiously now. “I would say I worry about my son the most,” Cox said of who worries about whom. “I won't let him ride by himself somewhere, you know, I want somebody with him, another friend or something. I just tell him ‘be careful.' And when I see him doing something wrong, I tell him, ‘Hey, you're doing this wrong, it's going to cause you to wreck.'” Cox - the self-proclaimed best rider in the family - is a bit of an adrenaline junkie, as is his son, and said he likes to take a few more risks and get “a little bit crazy.” “I've always been kind of an adrenaline junkie kind of guy and my son has, too. My wife has become that way somewhat,” Cox said. Aside from injuring themselves, accidents can cause damage to bikes - which require upkeep as it is. Rather than send their bikes off, Cox has a shop behind his house where he performs the majority of the maintenance required to keep his family on the trails. The cost of camping can be costly, too, but the families have found ways to make the weekend more enjoyable while keeping expenses down. “We'll cook dinner. If it's not too many people, we'll get together and say, ‘Hey, I'll bring dinner for this evening, you bring dinner for Saturday night.' That way you don't have to go out and buy all the groceries and you don't have to do all the cooking and cleaning,” Cox said. It doesn't look as if anything - age or injury included - is going to keep the Cox family from continuing to ride. Cox said Roxanne is considering switching over to a four-wheeler at some point, but he and his son have elected to stay on two wheels. “To me it's just easier to maneuver a motorcycle versus a four-wheeler through trails and stuff like that. Š I enjoy both but I prefer riding motorcycles over ATV,” Cox said. “My whole goal in riding motorcycles is go out and take a little bit of risk, but I want to go out and have a good time, not get hurt and be able to ride next weekend if I want to. And be able to get up on Monday and go to work.”
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