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.
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!
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.
