PROVO — Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, was a bit disappointed during the last legislative session over the proposed mandatory seat belt law. Not because the bill was defeated — he voted against it — but because he didn't get the chance to support, in his own unique way, a suggested mandatory helmet clause for motorcyclists.

"I was all prepared to jump on my Harley, ride it up to the Capitol, come into the Senate chambers during session in full leathers, you know, the complete get-up," Bramble said.

Bramble, a CPA and Republican up for re-election this year in State Senate District 16, has owned motorcycles since age 12. He and his wife hop on their hogs each year and head to different North American sites, usually with an LDS motorcycling group called the Temple Riders.

Apart from his annual motorcycle trips, Bramble is a commercial pilot and flight instructor, owns a hot air balloon ride business and enjoys scuba diving, backpacking and skydiving.

"You'll find that I'm anything but a stereotypical CPA," Bramble said.

The senator is also anything but a stereotypical Brigham Young University graduate. Born in a Chicago suburb, Bramble grew up in a Methodist family, and after high school, headed off to college at Notre Dame.

"Midway through my sophomore year at Notre Dame, I'd taken the (missionary) discussions and decided to be baptized (into the LDS Church) in November," he said. Bramble had been introduced to the church by his long-time girlfriend and her family and was baptized by his girlfriend's father. When he broke the news to his family in December, they were anything but pleased.

"My family didn't accept that at all, and they disinherited me, said I could go to hell or Utah, but no son of theirs was going to be a d--- Mormon," Bramble said.

Bramble jumped in his old beater van and spent three days driving out to Utah, with plans to attend BYU, where his girlfriend was enrolled.

"When I got there, I went straight to her apartment, and she introduced me to her fianc�e, saying they'd been engaged for the last six months and were getting married in a couple of months, have a good life," he said. "She was the only person I knew in Utah."

Bramble didn't know much about the lay of the land either, the valley having been filled by a fog of inversion when he arrived.

"I thought it was desert," he said. "I woke up the next day, and a storm had come in in the middle of the night, blown out the inversion, and I looked out, and I thought it was the most incredibly beautiful sight I'd ever seen."

Bramble was so awed by the sight of the valley and surrounding mountains from his Deseret Towers dorm room he made a life-changing decision.