Raffle tickets for Citizen Soldier IV are 1 for $10 or 6 for $50. For more details or to get your tickets, go to the Dixie Thunder Run website, www.dixiethunderrun.org. Drawing will be held November 19, 2011 at the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, MS at the 3 Doors Down concert.
ABATE of Georgia is organizing a protest of the motorcycle only checkpoints. I urge everyone that is in the area or can ride to Atlanta, to join this protest. The checkpoints are profiling and discriminatory. Some people may think that the check points are no big deal, but what if they were just doing checkpoints for SUV’s? Would you think that it was ok then? Either do checkpoints for ALL autos on the road or not at all.
The money being spent for these checkpoints that they say will help motorcycle crashes could be better spent on educating the non-ridinf public on how to watch for bikers and sharing the road with us. Most motorcycle crashes are not caused by the rides, they are cause by the cars, pick-ups, suvs, and campers that do not pay enough attention to the fact that there is something smaller than they are on the road. Truckers have to watch this every day. And every day there are cars, pick-ups, suvs and campers that cause a driver to swerve to miss their dumb-asses.
So join this protest if at all possible. We have to stick together. If we allow this to continue what comes next?
The following is form the ABATE of Georgia’s event that they created on Facebook.
*********************To all Motorcycle Riders!!!!!!!***************
A.B.A.T.E. of Georgia will ride to the Capital to protest the Motorcycle Safety Stops on March 23rd with arrival scheduled for 11:30 AM and Departure at 1:30 PM.
We welcome all riders in the State of Georgia to join us in this Protest ride. We will provide information on gathering points around the City of Atlanta, as soon as plans are firm, so we may arrive in force and shake the wall and rattle the windows as our anger flows through our pipes.
We are in the process of obtaining a permit that will allow us to assemble and park in the streets around the Capital Building and we are asking Government Officials to join us in denouncing these Discriminatory “Safety” stops.
We as Motorcyclist should not be singled out and harassed by law enforcement just because of what we ride. Our 4th amendment rights are being violated. The ABUSE OF POWER by the State of Georgia in these actions MUST STOP. It is time for our collective voices to rise up in protest and to request the Governor of Georgia to stop any further infringements on our rights.
The safety stops are being presented as a way to help save lives on our highways yet no data exists to show that this is in any effective. This time and money should be spent on educating the motoring public to be alert and aware of motorcycle traffic. The vast majority of all motorcycle accidents are cause by automobiles and not due to safety issues with our bikes.
Please forward this information on to your local media and to any interested parties. Call your representatives in Atlanta and ask them to support us in putting an end to Discrimination toward those of us who ride Motorcycles.
More information will follow as we get closer to the event. If you wish to speak on the 23rd contact Linda Allen at
Legislative.director@abatega.org
It is nice to know that Georgia in trying to do something about this issue, but I am not sure that this is the way to go. States like North Carolina, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Idaho, Oklahoma, Arkansas , Tennessee, Minnesota and others have enacted these laws.
I too, have sat at traffic signals and waited…and waited…and waited…and waited…and waited…. Then either ran the light or a car would pull up behind me and trip the light. (The light when you exit I10E to HWY57N is one that has caught me numerous times. As well as several others) I think a better way to deal with this is to adjust the censors or get better once. I have seen all the ads for magnets that you can put on your bike that “will make the censor think it is a car” but I wonder if they really work like they say they do. Course, the bigger question is this, Why should I have to buy something to put on my motorcycle to make a state, county, or city funded traffic lights see me? Now I don’t agree with California very often because of how they treat truck drivers, but on this one, I think they have it right.
California has chosen a technological solution. A law adopted last year requires that when new traffic-activated signals are installed, they be capable of detecting motorcycles and bicycles.
So what do you think? Should motorcyclist have to buy these magnets to put on their bikes so they might be “seen” by the traffic censors? Or is it the responsibility of the city, county or state to do what ever it take to correct this flaw in their traffic light censors?
As some of you know there has been a great debate of the motorcycle ONLY checkpoints. As truck drivers we are use to being singled out because we drive something more than 4-wheels. Now they are going after the motorcycles! I was contacted today by Rogue, a great friend to the Road Dogs on Hogs, asked if we could help. Before I get into that, here is what I pulled from BIG BEND BIKERS FOR FREEDOM
ABATE of Georgia has put out a strategic plan that they plan to implement during bike week in regards to the, in our minds illegal, motorcycle checkpoints that riders through Georgia may run into. It reads as follows:
Background:
The NHTSA recently announced a grant program to supposedly address Motorcycle Safety issues. The recipient of the money for the demo project was the Georgia h of Public Safety. The Georgia State Patrol is conducting a series of roadside motorcycle safety checks in accordance with what was outlined in the Request for Applications. The amount of NHTSA funding is $70,000.00. The motorcycle check points do not address nor decrease motorcycle accidents and instead “profile” motorcyclists and discriminates against citizens based on their mode on transportation and clothing.
Action:
Letter Campaign
Letters have been drafted to Governor Perdue asking him to discontinue the program and to concentrate on a research based motorcycle safety campaign.
Letters have been drafted by the MRF to Transportation Secretary LaHood asking him to suspend the program.
Letters to the Editor have been drafted
Letters should be downloaded a, printed and passed out to membership and motorcycle community for signatures. The letters will be delivered to the State Capitol; and forwarded to Washington.
Action:
Phone bank campaign
Each district will hold a one night phone banking campaign where members will call and/or email there US Representative and Georgia Rep asking for support in discontinuing the motorcycle stops
Each district will encourage members and non-members to call officials
Districts will contact the Legislative Director with an accounting of the actions and tally of call and emails.
Action:
Tracking the Stops
An accounting form sheet will be made available on line for victims of the motorcycle stops to relate their story
A Whistle Blower form will be posted to post any notifications of stops
Action:
Civil Disobedience
A group email will be sent out to inform districts of motorcycle stops in their area. A team of members who volunteer to participate in blocking the stops will be sent in motion.
A press conference will be called to give information to the press and to present our case.
We also hope to have riders cruising the southern areas of Ga. and are formulating plans that we hope to have ready by Thursday. Should you identify or be stopped in Georgia you e-mail us at rgnostic@gmail.com. We will gladly get the word to ABATE of Georgia and to other contacts.
When Rogue asks me if I can help or if RDOH or the truck drivers can help, I try to get the information out to you. Here is an excerpt from his email to me this morning.
What I would like you to do is let big rig drivers running those routes know what is going on and ask them to help if they can.
At this time we are not sure exactly where these checkpoints are going to be. If someone was to see one and call it in we can the dispatch people to the site. Most of us believe they will be trying this at rest areas as it is even more impractical to force them off the interstate But any thing is possible.
I sent out a few emails to ABATE of Georgia asking what the truck drivers could do to help and how they should do that. Ned Williams, Secretary of State, A.B.A.T.E. of Georgia sent me the following information. Please look it over and save the contact information some place that you can find it if you see one of these motorcycle only checkpoints.
As we get ready for Bike week and the impending check points A.B.A.T.E. wants to provide every resource to riders who live in or cross our great state. So here they are!
TEXT us at (404) 981-5612 with the letters “CP” at the beginning of your text message followed by your location and name(so we can match it to your phone number to verify who you are). We will in turn log your message then post TO OUR FACEBOOK the location of your check point.
CAMERA PHONE and CAMERA users:
Capture any footage you can and (PICTURES AND VIDEO!) email us, we will provide you an upload location if your file is too large to email otherwise please send it to secretary@abatega.org
As we enable additional resources everyone we will post them to our facebook page.
If you are in Georgia, PLEASE help these guys out. I know many truck drivers also ride. We are singled out enough as it is. We should help ouot our fellow brothers and sisters that love the feeling of the road beneath them.
Please feel free to pass this information along to anyone that you think can help. Lets get the word out that we are not going to stand for this!
The state has recommended that the Eagle Point School District prohibit employees from using motorcycles as transportation to work-related activities after Principal Tiffany O’Donnell was seriously injured Sept. 13 in a motorcycle accident en route between the two rural schools.
Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division officials said the school district has not violated any regulations, and no citations have been issued to the district. But OSHA cautioned that allowing employees to drive motorcycles for work activities presents a hazard to employees, as well as a liability to the school district.
The agency also recommended that administrators be added to the district’s DMV automatic reporting system where the district can check on employees’ driving records and licenses to operate a motor vehicle. Neither recommendation is mandatory, according to OSHA.
Administrators are the only district employees excluded from the automatic reporting system, but Eagle Point schools Superintendent Cynda Rickert said the district’s human resources department already has taken steps to change that.
“We don’t know if the Board will move forward on a policy not allowing you to drive a motorcycle if you are doing school business,” she said.
O’Donnell, principal of both Elk Trail Elementary School and Shady Cove School, was driving her Suzuki motorcycle from the Trail campus to the Shady Cove campus when she was struck by a Nissan pickup truck. The driver was making an illegal U-turn on Highway 62, police said. O’Donnell’s right leg and pelvis were broken in the crash, and she underwent multiple surgeries at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland to reconstruct her leg. She is now at home in Medford recovering from her injuries.
Tiffanie Lambert, a White Mountain Middle School teacher, is substituting for O’Donnell during her absence.
Eagle Point school administrators are expected to drive their personal vehicle for work purposes, but it hadn’t occurred to district officials to dictate what kind of vehicle they drive, Rickert said.
She said the School Board would like to consult with the Oregon School Boards Association, which guides districts in crafting or amending policies, before making a decision on whether to ban motorcycles for school business.
“We can surely see some merit in the recommendation,” she said. “There is always another side to this. Would that then mean we would have to purchase more vehicles for our employees to use? We’re hoping OSBA can tell us that.”
Reach reporter Paris Achen at 541-776-4459 or e-mail pachen@mailtribune.com.
After a relaxing night in Mammoth Lakes where Bert could sit in a jacuzzi for a while, we started north again. We decided that we were going to skip going to Lake Tahoe and ride through Yosemite. On the way up we stopped for gas and Bert sat down on this wooden wall. As soon as his tail end hit the wood, dirt started falling out. I busted out laughing! It looked like Bert was shitting dirt. I grabbed the camera and took several shots and kidded him about still shitting dirt from the bike wreck the day before.
There are parts of this country that I have had to drive by because big trucks are not allowed on the road. I have seen some very beautiful sites in 18 years of driving, but I have also missed a lot of them.
Yosemite is a very beautiful place and was a great ride. Even with snow still on the ground, it was not to cold. If you ever have the chance to ride thought this national park, DO IT! You will not regret it. For the most part the roads were good, but it is summer time so there is construction going on which can cause gravel to be in the road. But as much as you might like to shoot all thee tight curves, this is a place that you will want to just sit back and cruise through. As much as I could describe it in words, pictures are much better. So I will shut up for a few and let you just look at the Gods woderful creation. (Thanks to Bert & Jon for the pictures. The road is to dangerous to be snapping pictures while riding and I was to busy trying to see it all as I rode.)
Oh, please forgive Dad on the face he is making. As you have seen, if you have been folowing the blog, we will take a serious picture and a funny one. Dad thought this was the funny one. Well, I guess it really is the funny one and the joke is on him! LOL!
Once we were through Yosemite, we headed to Frisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. (Above picture is NOT of GGB) The marine layer was settling back in and it was beginning to get a bit foggy as we crossed the bridge into San Francisco. Following the GPS, argh, we got off the main road and wound our way over to the Golden Gate.
By the time we reach this parking area where we could see the bridge, my wrists were hurting like hell and I needed a short break. We stopped, put on some more clothes, (we were getting wet from the marine layer), took a couple of pictures and then headed for the bridge. By the time we got on it and across it, it was dark.
If you look real hard, you can see the bridge in the dark. Once across the Golden Gate we found a hotel, got a room and some dinner. The next day were planned to ride the Pacific Coast Highway, (PCH).
Once again, this is a rode that you fight with yourself about how to ride it…do ya want to shot the curves, or sit back, cruise along and enjoy the view. My brother, Bert, and I have different riding styles. I like to cruise along and enjoy the view, and he likes to shot the curves. Course, when pulling a trailer, you don’t really need to be shooting the curves to hard anyway, so I cruised along and enjoied the ride. Besides, I was still getting over my bike wreck from May and the cruves made me a bit nervous with the trailer jerking me around. Here are a couple of pictures of how the road is.
Now, here are a few pictures of the view! It was a georgous place to ride. One day, I would like to start at one end and ride it all the way to the other end, from Canada to Mexico.
Since I was a kid I, like many of you have seen many pictures of people driving through a giant redwood tree. We all knew that this was something we were going to have to find and do…no matter what! Bert had several of them plotted in his GPS, but on one of our stops a lady told us about one that was not to far away. So off we went!
Not only did was all ride through the tree, but we looked around and talked with several other riders that were there. We helped them get pictures of themselves going through the tree and talked about where we were all riding. It was a cool experience…fulfilling one of those small childhood dreams!
After getting my bike fixed at the Kingman, AZ Harley shop we rode up to Hoover Dam. We stopped at the gift shop to grab a couple of post cards for Bert and Jon to mail to Taylor and Josh and for me to mail to Danny. The lady in the shop remarked about how hot it was and that we were lucky we had not been there earlier. She said is was 5 degrees hotter just a couple of hours before we got there. It was 120 while we were there.
I have been across Hover Dam twice in a big truck before 9/11 happened. After that, commercial vehicles were not allowed to cross it. They have been working on building a bridge so that big trucks don’t have to go into California and then up to Los Vegas. I can’t wait for them to complete the bridge, it is going to have a great view on the dam when it is done.
There is something about having an A & W Rootbeer Float when the temperatures are soaring above 100 degrees. Bert was in the lead and just had to stop when he saw the place. Of course, brothers and sisters, no matter how old they are will torment each other when given the chance.
As we rode into Los Vegas the traffic started getting heavy. We jumped off the interstate and hit the surface streets. It wasn’t much better there. At a stop light, with my left wrist hurting bad enough I was almost in tears, Bert and I did a switch-a roo again. He took over my bike, Jon took his and I climbed on the back of Dad’s. Hot, hungry and me hurting, we made our way to the Harley Cafe down on the strip!
After grabbing dinner, we asked the parking guy where was a good place to stay. He pointed us to the Gold Strike in North Vegas (Old Vegas) and to the biker bar “Hogs & Heifers.” Jon having turned 18 just a couple of weeks earlier ment that he could not enter the bar. So he and Bert struck out on their own.
Of course I had to check out the biker bar. The guy that told us about it said it was this bar, well the one in NYC, that Coyote Ugly got the idea of dancing on the bar from. Being the great Aunt that I am, I could not let Jon miss out on the experience, so I took pictures of the girls dancing on the bar. Not wanting the girls to think I was some kind of weirdo, I told my waitress about my brother and nephew wandering around Vegas. When I did, she just had to send Jon a message.
(I HAVE A PICTURE OF THE MESSAGE, BUT WILL HAVE TO ADD IT LATER)
We got up the next morning and headed up US95. Then grabbed hwy 266 to hwy 168.
I let Bert take over my bike for a while and the ride was going well and we were all enjoying it, despite the heat. We saw some gravel in several of the curves and Dad and I commented that we hoped Jon and Bert were taking it easy up in front of us. They had been hitting the curves pretty hard even though I didn’t like it with the trailer hooked to the back on my bike.
Then as I watched Bert go around a curve, he disappeared and dust flew! I have to say my heart skipped beat or just stopped for a few seconds as I started yelling to Dad, “Bert is down! Bert is down!” I think I was off the back of Dad’s bike before he got it stopped when we reached him. The fact that Bert was already standing up did not make me feel better. Many times I have seen people seriously injured and not know it. Bert said he was alright and it took a few minuets for that to sink in. An off-duty NV Highway Patrol officer was headed the other way and saw Bert go down and stopped. He helped us pick my bike up.
Not only can you see that the crash bar bent the floorboard straight up as it was bent back, there is a hole in the lid of my saddle bag.
As you can see the rock was not a small one. I had to open the saddle bag to get it out. Yes, I still have it. I think I am going to mount it some way and give it to Bert for Christmas. LOL!
I do have to give Bert credit. After we sat the bike up, bent the crash bar back out and adjusted what we needed to for it to be ridden, he rode it the 6 miles off the mountain to the nearest town, Big Tree, before letting me take it back over. At the time, he looked like he only had a little road rash on his side and right wrist. But a few days later he had this BIG bruise.
We did what we could to make the bike as comfortable as we could for riding. I called my insurance company, told them we were going on with the trip and they could have someone look at the bike when I got to Arkansas to my boyfriends house.
We rode over to US395 and headed north. The Sierra Nevada Mountains are really pretty. The plan for the day had been to reach Lake Tahoe. With Bert’s wreck and being a bit sore, we decided to stop in Mammoth Lakes for the night.
I know that over the last couple of weeks I have not kept ya’ll up to date on our bike travels around the country. There was a lot happen and I was left without a laptop for several days. Even though the trip is basically over; Dad, Bert and Jon are home in MS and I am at Danny’s place till some time next week; I am going to continue to put up post about the trip in segments. There is just to much to do it all in one post. Then, once I get home, I will write an over view of the whole trip with some of my favorite pictures and places that we rode.
WOW, I am really behind on blogging about our trip. I have been really tired when we stopped for the night. Things have happened on this trip that would make a person pull their hair out. Because of this big lapse of time since I have posted anything, I am going to give ya an all in one post with pictures from Lexington to Los Vegas. I will do Los Vegas in a different post and you will see why when you read it.
We stopped just out side of Helena to see my boys for a few minuets and then went on to DeWitt, where we spent the night. We then rode across the skinny roads down into Louisiana, then into Texas.
As you can see from the picture above, even thought Hurricane Alex was coming in, we had things under control…or so we thought. We were there for almost a week and it rained EVERY day. I changed my oil and rebuilt the starter solenoid between rain storms.
The wind was so bad at time that the bungees we had holding the tarp over the tent would break and we would have to wrestle it back into place. All in all, despite all the rain and wind, it was a good stay in Del Rio. Course, it is always good to see my niece, Taylor.
We even rode out to the US/Mexico border. We couldn’t really cross over and do any riding because Taylor doesn’t have a pass-post. But as you can see, we had fun any way!
While we were packing up, Bert was trying to cut some fishing line out of a reel and got his finger instead. Dad put him on the back of his bike and took him to the hospital. He got 4 stitches on the inside of the cut and nine of the outside.
On our way out of Del Rio we passed the little town where Judge Roy Bean made his name. We stopped to take pictures and write out post cards and then rode on to El Paso where we spent the night.
The next day we rode into New Mexico. The first part was boring; I have been across I10 many times in this part of the world. Then we grabbed NM hwy152. It was an exciting ride with switch back curves and beautiful scenery.
We stopped in the little town of San Larenzo for lunch. The people there were really nice. when we told them what we were doing, they had us sign a ceiling tile.
We rode out and caught US180 then grabbed NM hwy 260, rode to Show Low and spent the night. The next day we rode on to Sedona. We had a great time with Dad’s friend Annie and her grand-daughters. During that day and the day before, my bike had started to run funny.
I called around to several Harley shops in our path and got set up to get it worked on in Kingman, AZ the next day. They said to be there early! So we were up at 0400 and riding by 0500. I have to tell ya…it is COLD in the Sedona area at that time of the morning. But…the ride out to I17 was really beautiful and fun.
Sorry that there are no pictures of the ride out hwy89A from Sedona to I17. The road was so curvy and it was so cold, we just rode! Once we got to Kingman, I put my bike in the shop. There was a broken injector wire and that was what was making my bike sputter. We got it fixed and headed to Hover Dam.
At any time, if you want to see the pictures from this trip, you can go to my Flickr page and see more than what goes in a blog post. For now, here are the pictures that should have gone into the last post.
Bert "Hogging" the shot at Canada HD
Humm....John trying to make it look like we made him run across the bridge...maybe we did!
