Life is an adventure, so live it to the fullest.
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.
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!
I do believe that Murphy is on his last leg now. After we left Bert’s bike in NC, we made it to Roanoke, VA. A friend of Dad’s owns a bike shop there. We got him to fix Dad’s bike and go pick up Bert’s. Then we made our way to CT. My nephew, John was to graduate high school on Saturday and it looked like we WERE going to make it in the night before. YEAH!! When we got there Bert bought a new Harley! The old one was to be part of John’s graduation present, along with this trip.
Saturday I rode down to the Groton Harley shop to get a t-shirt and a cover for Bert’s new bike. I was a great ride! I made it back just in time to grab a show at camp and get ready for John’s graduation. Yea, we all went on the bikes. As you can see from the picture below, he is as big a cut-up as his dad and aunt!
John had told us about a pig roast that was being done by one of his friend’s parents. He told us that they were “rednecks.” Of course, we all laughed. I told him that I didn’t know that there were rednecks this far north, but I guess they could be redneck for CT! We all teased him about it. (Yes, I know there are rednecks all over!) Sunday we went to the “CT redneck’s” house for the pig roast. It was good food and good people! But most of the day was spent repacking the bikes and trailers. Since it rained on us several times during the day we got as much packed as we could that was not wet.
Bert also had John take his new bike out for a ride…by himself! John has been riding dirt bikes for a while, but they are a lot smaller and lighter than this big Ultra Classic that Bert had just bought. He gave him the keys and told him to be back in an hour. As he rode off, Bert turned to me and said, “There goes my baby boy!”
Monday morning, Bert and I wrote out the route for the roads that we would be taking that day. Some how Bert had formatted the GPS and it wasn’t working. Dad was totally lost without it! We finished packing the tents and chairs, loaded up and headed north.
The ride across MA was beautiful. We hit a couple of roads that were back to back curves and then hit a hair-pin curve. I watched John as he maneuvered this on that big bike. He went a little wide, but stayed between the lines. I think he did a great job! We rode on up to VT.
We weren’t in VY for very long but it was a very pretty ride. As we crossed back in to NY near Troy, Dad and Bert thought they could find a Best Buy and get a new GPS. There was a Harley shop on our way in and we stopped to take a look around. The people there were very nice and helpful. They gave Bert directions to the Best Buy and we were off. Some how either the directions we got were wrong, or Bert did follow them right, but we didn’t find the Best Buy. We pulled into the parking lot of a mall and he called them. They did not have the motorcycle model he wanted so we rode on. We got close to Cooperstown and stopped for the night.
Tuesday we spent half the day at the Baseball Hall of Fame and looking around Cooperstown. Wouldn’t ya know it, Murphy had to give us a dieing kick! It started raining as we were getting ready to leave. We put on our rain gear and headed south. It rained on us the rest of the day. By the time we got to where we were going to stop, my wrists were killing me. The cold from the night before, but rain and being tense just took it’s toll on me. I was very happy when Dad and Bert said we were going to get a room rather than try to set up a camp in the rain. A hot bath to soak my wrists was just what I needed.
Today should, but may not be better. Today I am going to ride down to NYC, to where the Sirius studios are, to be on “Freewheelin’.” Driving a big truck in the city is enough to turn your hair grey and I am ahve mixed emotions about it. Bert doesn’t think my wrists will hold up and I am not sure. they are still a little sore from yesterday. I have planed a couple of route down with one of them involving me parking my bike and catching the subway. I will see how my wrists are doing and how the traffic is when I get down there and decide on what I am going to do then. It could be a very adventurous ride
It’s 0445 in the morning and I am excited about this trip. I can’t tell you how many time I hear people that ride motorcycles talk about how they would love to take off for a month or two, live off their bike and ride all over the country. Well, I am going to do just that…starting today. A few months ago my brother, Bert, said he was going to be coming home from Israel and wanted to criss-cross the country on his bike. One of his sons, Johnny, is graduating from high school in Connecticut and this would be his graduation present. Bert planned giving the Ultra Classic that he has now to Johnny and buying another bike. With him going to be in Israel for a few more years, I thought that was crazy. The bike would only be ridden once a year when he came home on vacation. My Dad, Albert, said he was going to go with them and how great it would be if I could go as well. OH I agreed, but both of us were worried about whether my wrists could hold up to a 10,000 to 12,000 mile, 45 day trip.
For those that don’t know, November 19, 2008 I fell off the top of my loaded flatbed and shattered both of my wrists. That fall ended a 20 year truck driving career. I had pins and external fixators in both arms for 10 weeks. It took me 6 1/2 months to be able to get back on my bike and that was after I added a clutch assist. For months I would walk out to my bike and see if I could pull the clutch lever. I figured when I could pull it back and hold it a few seconds, then I could try to get back to riding it. Five months after the fall I was beginning to wonder if I would ever be ab;e to ride my bike again, did some research and found the clutch assist. By Memorial Day weekend of 2009, I had it on the bike and rode to Gulfport for the All Harley Gulfport Blowout Rally. It was painful but I was happy to be back on my bike. (The old saying where there’s a will, there’s way is one of my favorites.)
In August 2009, I rode to Sturgis, SD for the big bike rally there with my trucker/biker group that I co-founded, Road Dogs on Hogs. By the time I made it to Nebraska and met the main part of the group, I was popping pain pills like they we candy an in tears by nightfall from the pain in my wrists. I put my bike on one of the guys trailer for part of the last day into Sturgis and rode behind other people almost all week there. When the rally ended I only made it about 300 miles out of Sturgis when I decided that I was in to much pain and taking to many pain pills to be safe. I called my Dad and he hooked to a trailer and came to get me. It broke my heart to put my bike on a trailer and realize that I could not do what I had done just a year before.
When Dad talked about Bert’s plans for this trip and everything that he was doing, I really wanted to go. He asked me if I really thought I could do those kind to miles in that many days. I told him I could. “My wrist have healed a lot since last year. I will be fine,” I said. In the back of my mind I really wasn’t sure. Then I got to thinking. Johnny would be getting his motorcycle endorsement in May, and this would be his first big trip. I wonder if Bert would be open to the idea of him, Johnny and me teaming up to keep the two Harley’s going. It would save him from having to buy another bike, give my wrists a break and not put so much pressure on Johnny who is a new rider. Dad talked to him about it and he liked the idea.
So here we are, a couple of months later and will be leaving out on this once in a life time motorcycle trip in a couple hours. It has not been easy getting here. I am going to college at the University on Southern Mississippi and my boyfriend lives 500 miles away in Dover, AR. I had to finish the semester, get to Arkansas to see Danny, the boyfriend, get the bike looked over, got a cat sitter, help Dad get Bert’s bike and all the trailers ready for the long trip and be ready to roll by today. This has not been an easy task. Bert’s bike would not stay running and we took it to the shop. After finals, I rode mine to Dover, AR and put it in the shop there to have a 50, 000 mile service done. One thing after another happened and things were found on my bike that needed to be fixed before this kind of a trip was made on the bike. I got it out of the shop and in less than 24 hours later, laid it down. Luckily, the shop I had it in are great people and they had me back on the rode with a new custom paint job and a bunch of bling in a week and a half.
Dad had picked up Bert’s bike while I was gone. We decided to take it fro a ride and it had problems, the idle was to high. I called the shop it had been in and he told me some thing to look for. I could not find anything wrong with just a look over, but we decided that we would take it back to him on Thursday. I washed and polished my bike and thought I would do the same on Bert’s bike. It has been sitting for a year and really looked like crap. When I went to pull it out of the garage, it wouldn’t stay running. Dad and I loaded in on the trailer and took it to the shop. That was this last Tuesday, we got it back on Thursday and it seems to be running great now.
Bert flew in from Israel yesterday and the 3 of us got the new trailer he bought to pull behind his bike re-wired. We did the last minuet checks and started packing. I think, after we get the last minuet packing and arranging done, we will be ready to roll. I will be blogging as much as I can from the road and taking pictures. We will have cameras and a cam-corder with us. So check back often to see how the trip is going and to share in the ride!
I am an editor and have been writing over on “The People’s Journal” about the PGR, “Road Dogs on Hogs” and workman’s comp. Yesterday the site published a story from a good friend of mine, Walter Twohorses, about his dealings with Trimac‘s workman’s comp insurer, AIG. I have to say that being friends with Walter over the last two years I have seen and heard of the difficulties he has gone through in trying to get non-invasive medical treatment and other benefits due him.
In July 2007 I started training where I learned how to run the pumps, measure the oil and several other required duties. After two weeks I was turned loose with my own truck. It was a ‘96 Freightliner FLD that was originally an OTR truck and had been converted to run the oil fields. It was probably the biggest piece of crap I have ever driven and should have been “retired” a long time ago. I suspect that instead of buying new equipment, they would purchase older, worn out trucks from other branches of the Trimac company to show a profit and saved the company some money.
I drove this worn out Freightliner for a year with the air-ride seat bottoming out an average of 3 to 4 times a day. The impact to my spine took it’s toll over that amount of time.
One day I got out of the truck to hook up my hose. When I stepped down it felt like someone had stuck a very sharp knife in my back and I went down. I could not move. Other drivers at the pumping station helped me get up because I could not do it on my own. I have never experienced pain like that before and it scared the hell out of me. It was about half an hour before I could move. The other drivers helped me get back into my truck and I drove myself the 35 miles back to the yard. Good thing I know how to float the gears because I could not push in the clutch due to the pain and weakness.
Sadly this is a common problem with some trucking companies. Trucks that are deemed “safe” by DOT standards are not always in the best shape when it comes to the drivers body. Truck drivers spend hours upon hours sitting behind the wheel bouncing down the roads of this great Country. These are not always the best roads and can give a very rough ride. These roads take a toll on the trucks. the suspension gets weak and any air-ride equipment no longer works as it should. I don’t know what regulations are for running in the oil fields as Walter did, but I know that any road truck, even if it is new, is NOT set up to be running off-road. They need a much heavier suspension as well as many other beefed up parts to keep the truck from falling apart.
Whereas I have had a rather easy time in dealing with AIG, my injury was a very obvious one, Walter’s is not. The damage to his spine was incurred over the course of a year. I realize that can make a case harder to settle, but if he has the documents to prove that this damage was done while driving for Trimac, why are they not taking care of him? Is AIG to fault for this or Trimac? I know that any time I had a problem with AIG I could call my company and they would get in touch with my adjuster and get things straight. Trimac has not done this for Walter. They have left him swinging in the wind, fending for himself.
You can read Walter’s full story, “Difficulties with Trimac’s Workman’s Comp insurer, AIG” on “The People’s Journal”.
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Howard McGhee
Transportation Technologist Sr.
Alabama Department of Transportation
Third Division Pre-Construction
1020 Bankhead Highway West
Birmingham, Alabama 35202-2745
Phone: (205)581-5641 Fax: (205)581-5624
Email: mcgheeh@dot.state.al.us |
IF YOU ARE DRIVING AT NIGHT AND EGGS ARE THROWN AT YOUR WINDSHIELD.
DO NOT OPERATE THE WIPER AND SPRAY ANY WATER BECAUSE EGGS MIXED WITHWATER BECOME MILKY AND BLOCK YOUR VISION UP TO 92.5% SO YOU ARE FORCED TO STOP AT THE ROADSIDE AND BECOME A VICTIM OF ROBBERS. THIS IS A NEW TECHNIQUE USED BY ROBBERS.
PLEASE INFORM YOUR FRIENDS AND
RELATIVES.
The February issue of Easy Rider’s “BIKER” magazine is out now. If you do not have a regular subscription to the magazine, you can order a copy of this issue only, at this link: “BIKER“. I am ordering mine today! We have had one person make a comment about the article and he says it is great. You can read his comment here. I can’t wait to read it myself! Please come back here and post your comments after taking a look at it!
