Growing up in Leesville we pretty much knew everyone that we went to school with, to include all my brothers friends. Let’s just say us boys all had a wild streak in us. But when we all got out of school, life happened and we all went our separate ways. One of our friends who at the time was  just an acquaintance moved to Houston and went to work in the oil field. Because we were not close friends I didn’t even know when he moved away so we didn’t keep in touch. Some years later after I finished my wild streak I got back into church. 

At the age of 28 I picked up a knew hobby and started riding dirt bikes. After some years I finally felt like I was practiced up good enough to compete. So one weekend I decided to go to a big race at Three Palms Motocross Track in Conroe, Texas. That park is 100 acres or bigger and that day there were thousands of people there to either race or watch the races. 

After my race I was back at my truck trying to cool off and drink some water.  A guy pulls up on a dirt bike and says “excuse me man what race is this?” Since I just came off the track I knew exactly what race it was and I told him it was race twelve. As he was saying thank you he was also trying to crank his motorcycle up to ride away. I stopped him and asked him what his name was because his face looked familiar. When he said Bobby, I questioned if he was Bobby from Leesville, Louisiana. He looked shocked that I knew him. I told him who I was and he still had a blank look on his face. He said “the only Rick Allen I know is from Hawthorne Road.” I quickly replied “that’s me!” He was there with his two boys, Andrew and Evan, who were also racing. Immediately we hit it off and became great friends over the years. His boys to this day even call me Uncle Rick.

He recently told me that every time I came to Conroe he was scared that I was going to bring my best friend with me.  I never introduced them but now Bobby has a relationship of his own with my friend and he will never be the same. He was so excited to call me up and tell me about the good news because he knew I would be proud of him for taking that step in his life. He spent 3 hours telling me about his experience and how he’s been in a complete whirlwind ever since. He has God’s light shining thru him and it’s the most awesome thing. Because of it he walks different, talks different and acts different. He said he appreciates me for just being his friend and for not putting pressure on him but he wishes he would have started this journey a long time ago.

This past weekend he came into town to tell his Aunt Alyene about his new relationship and I bet she is still shouting. I’m going to say that it was no coincidence we met up again at that track 20 years ago. He gives me some of the credit for living right in front of him but I give all the credit to our best friend Jesus.

Love you Aunt Alyene, and I want you to know that all the years you prayed for Bobby have finally paid off.

Thank You Jesus!

Your Mayor,

Rick Allen