UPDATE: Please note that there has been a change of date to June 9 – 15, 2011.
This year, in addition to the ride to Sturgis, Road Dogs on Hogs is also going to do a ride June 9 – 15 to the Deal’s Gap area. The Tail of the Dragon is a very popular ride in the area. It has 318 curves in 11 miles. Many riders over the years have wrecked or been killed on the road. But that is not the only great ride in the area. There is:
Tail of the Dragon
Six Gap
Moonshiner 28
Devil’s Triangle
and Cherohala Skyway.
All these beautiful rides are where GA, TN, NC, and SC come together. I have looked at many campgrounds in that area and decided on the Punkin Center Motorcycle Resort. I talked to them as well. It is a motorcycle ONLY place. If you are camping, you do not need a reservation. BUT if you want a cabin, you will need a reservation.
Camping is $15 per night, per tent with up to 4 people. We can get a group rate if there are enough people going. It is $80 per night per group for up to 10 tents. They are redesigning their website so if you have problems with it, try again in a couple of days. I plan on being in there on Sunday, June 5th. See ya’ll there!
Punkin Center Motorcycle Resort is close to all of the action and offers camping facilities ranging from roughing it with tent sites to full service cabins with all of the amenities. They are a biker friendly campground.
They are close to the Cherohala Skyway, the Foothills Parkway, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Cades Cove, Chilhowee Lake, and the many lesser known treasures waiting to be discovered. Best of all, Punkin Center Motorcycle Resort is only 400 yards off Highway 129 and 9 miles from the start of the Dragon, one of the most famous motorcycle tours in the Eastern US!
Feel free to invite your friends!
So start making your plans if you would like to do something different this year with the group. It promises to be a great week of riding and camaraderie.
SGT Eric Newman was killed in Afghanistan October 14th of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to 1st Squadron, 38th Cavalry Regiment, 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade, XVIII Airborne Corps, Fort Bragg, N.C.
I have been on more KIA missions with the MS PGR than I care to count. Every time there is an out pouring of love, loss and support for the family and I know that I shouldn’t be surprised by the support a community shows for one of our fallen heros, but this time I was completely amazed. The city of Waynesboro, MS came to honor SGT Newman in a way that I have never seen before. It started at the airport in Meridian, MS on Thursday when Newman’s body arrived, and continued all along the 50 mile route to Waynesboro and the funeral home. There were officers and fire fighters from Wayne County, Waynesboro, and Meridian,as well as 47 PGR and bikers.
I don’t think there was any kind of auto moving in the city other than the procession from the time we entered till we arrived at the funeral home. I have made the comment several times that it is hard to ride my Harley with tears filling my eyes and goggles, but this time was different. There were more tears.
The city of Waynesboro had heard that “uninvited guest” were targeting this service and those same uninvited guest even had it up on their web site. I am not sure if it was one woman or several, but there were flyers being handed out as Newman’s body was being escorted through town. One concerned citizen made it a point to give the flyer to the PGR State Captain, Ed Baker and he went to work to confirm their attendance.
The “uninvited guest” have to obtain a permit to legally protest. After a bit of investigation and some phone calls, Ed sent us all and email telling us that a reporter had a direct quote from the city clerk that they had NOT gotten that permit. That allowed the PGR to focus on what we were there to do, honor a true American Hero.
Visitation was Friday evening and about 20 of us were there to stand the flag line. The city of Waynesboro sent out a message that they wanted to do something for the PGR for being there to honor it’s fallen son and the Honor Guard from Ft Bragg. Many of the churches and community members came together to set up a feast fit for a king. We ate in shifts so as to make sure there were enough PGR members there to stand the flag line and have extras to rotate out with. I was lucky enough and honored to be in the group that arrived at the firehouse while the Honor Guard from Ft Bragg was still there. What a great group of soldiers! It was an honor to meet them.
The city had invited them to attend the football game that night. As they arrived at the ball field, they announced that the soldiers were on their way in. As they entered the field, there was a standing ovation. I was told that it brought them to tear to see such a greeting.
A the end of the evening some rode home and some of us grabbed hotel rooms.
Services were held on Saturday, October 23rd. A Never Forget flag had been embroidered in honor of SGT Newman and was flown for the escort from the funeral home to the cemetery. It was presented to Newman’s mother with the hope that the Waynesboro Police Dept. will fly it in honor of SGT Newman.
There were over 100 bikers on over 90 motorcycles that came to stand the flag line, and to honor and escort SGT Newman to his final resting place.
Once again, the “uninvited guests” made a very small presents. I did not talk to her and the only time I saw her was after she had been asked to leave and had only moved her SUV to the other side of the funeral home. Once we knew she had not left, we alerted the officers there and they took care of it. When it was time for the escort to the cemitary, the officers made sure that she didn’t leave when we did.
We formed a flag line at the cemetery and presented the mother and wife with plaques in honor of SGT Newman.
I want to say thank you to the city of Waynesboro for showing such great support to SGT Newman’s family and friends and to the PGR. When a community comes together such as they did, it restores my faith in humanity.
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!
Since my nephew is going to be attending this prestigiousmilitary college in Vermont, (Norwich University) in the fall, my brother, Bert and John has a deal. They have to do push-ups every time we fuel. John has to do twice what Bert does with a minimum of 30. When they forget to do a set when we fuel, the make-up set will be done where ever they are when they remember it. that includes at the counter at Burger King!
Needless to say, we get some funny looks and some laughs out of it when this happens.
After everything that has gone on, we finally made it to Niagara Falls just as night was falling. We dropped Bert’s new bike off at the HD shop to get the first 1000 mile service, dumped our stuff in a hotel room and headed to the Falls. As you can see from the picture above, the view was breathtaking.
We knew we had to come back in the morning while we were waiting for the HD shop to call us to pick up Bert’s bike. (It was that morning that Bert & John did the push-ups in the BK!)
Of course, since we had problems in getting the folowing picture the night before, John and I just had to get it right that morning.
While walking around we saw the Cave of the Winds. That would take us below the falls….we just had to do it! They give you shoes and what they call a rain suit and say that you will get DAMP! Damp was not the word for it. We got soaked!
Of course, once we got to the hurricane deck, everyone but Dad had to get in the Falls.
Bert and John decided they were going to do a set of push-ups under the falls. As the got down to do them, there were gasps from the people standing around and then some cheers. One young man even jumped in and did push-ups with them.
So much for just getting damp!
All in all it was a great morning and we had a lot of fun! Now we had to ride the bikes back to the hotel room…and we were wet! It was cold, but we did start to dry out some. But the time we got to the hotel and then to the HD shop we were just about dry.
The trip across Canada was uneventful. Getting across the border was not hard to do. Just answer a few questions, show them our pass ports and off we went! When we got across the border, we grabbed the HD map and looked for a Harley shop. We found one in London. We stopped and got t-shirts and a picture. Course, being the jokers that we are, my brother decided to hog the shot.
We decided that we would get him on the next shot! I think we did a good job in blocking him out!
There was a big back-up at the Port Huron bridge to get back into the U.S. Once we got to the top of the bridge, Bert and I shut our bikes off and let them coast down the to booth. When we got to the bottom, we got John to push us almost all the way up to the booth. He was sweating and looked tired, so I told him to back up and pose like we had made him run all the way across the bridge.
All in all, it was another great day! We made it to our cousin Connie’s place, had a great steak dinner and wonderful company.
While I was risking my life riding my Harley into NYC, Dad, Bert & John went to the Statue of Liberty. I wish I could say that everything went well for them, but it didn’t. Before I tell ya about that, here are a few pictures from their trip.
After having left Bert’s old Harley in NC, sending someone to get it and fix it, having it brought to us in NY, it started having the same problems on their ride to see Lady Liberty. They parked it in the North Bergen, NJ area and thought they would pick it up on the way back to the hotel at the end of the day. They had a great day at the Statue and then headed back north. When they got to where they had parked the bike….it was gone. Bert called the police to see if they had towed it in…nope they hadn’t. So he reported it stolen. The police came out and took a report. Told them they had to go down to the station. They were told that they had to talk to a detective. He took them back to the scene of the crime. He told them that the bike was probably already chopped and gone. They didn’t get back to the hotel till very later that night.
OK, call me crazy or as I prefer, adventurous, but I did something that many would probably cringeto do. I rode my Harley INTO New York City! Yes, you read that right. I rode my bike into NYC! Having been a truck driver for 18 years and having gone into the city in a big truck, I really thought that it would be easier for me on a bike then in a big truck. WORNG!!!! My brother and I had talked about me riding into the north side of the city and catching the subway down to the Sirius studios. I plotted sever routes including that one. I wanted to be prepared just in case I did miss something and had to go a different way. Well, I missed them ALL! I missed staying on I287 somehow and ended up on the Palisades Parkway. I was OK with that. It was one of the routes I had looked at. So I figured that I would just ride it down to the GW, cross into the city and catch 9A south. Well, that didn’t happen either. There were signs saying that cash toll had to exit. So I exited the parkway and looked for the signs for the GW Bridge. Some how I also missed that GW and ended up seeing signs for I95 south. I decided that I would grab that, go down to the next exit, do a flip and get back to the GW. Then I saw a sing for the Vince Lombardi service plaza. I pulled in there to take a look at the directions I had written out. A man sitting in a van asked me where I was trying to go. I explained and he said it would be easier for me to go through the Lincoln Tunnel. My dumb-ass decided to take the advice and cross into the city through the tunnel! What a mistake that was!
There was a big traffic jam getting to the toll both for the tunnel. Now I ride a Harley. All Harley’s are air cooled. All the stop and go traffic and sitting and idling for so long made my bike start to over heat! It started running funny. I made my way fro the far left lane to the far right lane in case it shut off on me, or I could find a place to pull off and let it cool! Let me tell ya, there is NO place to safely get out of the way and let a bike cool off. Since I was right at the beginning of the down hill to the toll booth, I shut if off and hope that I hate not over heated it so much that it would not start back up when I needed it to. The guy in the SUV behind me was laughing. He gave me a sympathetic look and laughed when I looked back at him. I just shook my head, shrugged my shoulders and continued to pushed my bike forward as the traffic moved. I pushed it forward and let it coast all the way to the tool booth. Luckily, it started!
I entered the tunnel and hoped that I could make it through without another back up. I knew it would not take much for it to over heat again. Yeah, you guessed it, the traffic slowed and then backed up about half way through. It didn’t take long and the bike was running funny again. I prayed that I could just get through the tunnel and find a place to let it cool off again. I knew I was going to be late getting to the show and I hate being late! I finally made it through the tunnel and started taking right hand exits til I found some place that I could safely park and let it cool off for a bit. I ended up on the corner of Dyer Ave and West 30th St, down by the post office.
I sat there a while, looked at my map and fired up Google Latitude on my phone. I knew where I needed to be, I just had to figure out what was the best way to get there and not over heat again. The Sirius studios are on the Corner of 49th and Avenue of the Americas. I had found a parking garage on 45th that I wanted to park my bike. I plotted the route on my phone and then looked around. I needed to get to 10th St and take a right. Because of where I had stopped, I was going to have to do one of 2 things, go around the block and deal with the traffic lights, or go the wrong way on 30th for half a block. Hummm….can you guess what I did? That’s right, I went the wrong way on 30th, hung a right and headed down 10th St.
As I was slowing at a stop light that had just turned green, a man started yelling, “Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!” I don’t know if he was yelling that becasue I was on a bike, had loud pipes, or becaseu I have my American Flag and PGR flag flying from the saddlebags. I also had on my PGR vest that has “Support the Troops” all over it as well. He could have been yelling at that. I just threw my right arm out and shot him the bird. Yea, it don’t take long to get into the “city” mode and give them their crap back at em!
I continued up 10th St till I got to 46th and found the parking garage that I wanted to park in. I pulled in, got my ticket and walked 2 block to Ave of the Americas, hung a left and walked another 3 blocks to the McGraw Building where the Sirius studio for Freewheelin is. I got through the security, hopped on the elevator to the 36th floor and was finally there!
I was escorted into the Freewheelin studio, got hugs from Chris T and Meredith and settled in for the show. We had lots of old friends from Road Dogs on Hogs call in as well as many other drivers that wanted to say hi or talk about their road trips with their family. (That was the topic of the show today.) It was a great show and I really enjoyed being back in the studio with them. During one break, Chris and I talked about the best way for me to get out of the city without frying my bike. Thanks Chris T, it was great! After the show Meredith walked me down to see Jermey Tepper and I gave all 3 of them Road Dogs on Hogs patches.
I left the Sirius studios and started my walk back to 46th & 8th where I had parked my bike. I made a quck stop in the middle of Time Square to take a look around. There are LOTS of people milling around in a very small area there. I took a couple of pictures and headed on to my bike. When I got to the garage, I went to the cashier to pay for my parking. they charged me $34 for parking there 3 hours. Yes, you read that right. I was told it was $17 for one hour or $34 for all day…there was nothing for the in between length of time. I got on my bike and headed west to 9A, the Hudson PRKWY.
I had a straight shot with NO stop lights all the way to the GW Bridge! As soon as I came off the bridge I hopped on the Palisades PRKWY and headed north to US6 which brought me right back to the hotel. It was a nice ride back up here. I even stopped at one of the overlooks and had a bite of lunch. All in all it was a great day and now I can say that I have not only driven a big truck in NYC, I have now done the CRAZY thing of riding a motorcycle into NYC!
