April 2006 news articles |
The Leprechan Riders On a cold day, with occasional snow flurries, 12 MMRs turned out for the annual Scituate St. Patty's Day Parade, on Sunday March 19th. Grand Marshall, Sir Eddie Kelley of Scituate, had agreed to let a contingent of MMRs in the parade (in fact he was quite pleased we had thought of it). Originally, we had about 16 to 20 interested parties, but very chilly temps and the threatening snow discouraged several people. Those who decided to go, had a good time as they watched the eager young faces of the throngs of junior laddies and lassies watching the motorcycles rumble by, with horns tooting and engines revving. While the 8 riders, Hawk Hickman & Jane Callahan, Dave Larsen & Pam Ingham, Ric Tomlinson, Jack Daniels, Dennis Hoffer and Terry Quinn, watched their breath emerge from their nostrils, 4 less-hardy souls, Lee & Deb Johansson, Bill Ferguson & V.P. Paula McCallum, viewed the action from the comfort of Lee & Deb's ‘38 Buick. Additional excitement was brought to bear as Lee announced halfway through the parade that he was almost out of gas!!! Fortunately, there was a gas station on the parade route & Bill prevailed upon the owner to pump some gas (the station was basically closed during the parade). Meanwhile Ric Tomlinson was experiencing some low oil pressure or possible overheating & pulled off the route for a while. After the parade, we gathered at a friend's house for food & hot drinks, then wended our weary way home. Another adventure for MMRs. Looking ahead, this would be a good tradition for members who like parades and live in the area. Hopefully, we will get warmer weather in the future. Thanks to all who came! PAULATICS At the time when I bought my own home, I led a quiet life. Working 9 to 5:30, coming home to TV or tapes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If nothing was on the tube, I kept myself busy doing crosswords. I also passed the time away curled up with a good novel, mostly by Anne Rice. For some reason, I have always been intrigued by a good vampire story? A home body by nature, I did expand my horizons by going on vacations, preferring art museums or historic sites to sandy beaches. Motorcycles had always fascinated me. Jealous, as I heard them roar by my house or whiz by me on the highway, wanting desperately to be that chick on the back. My roommate, asked me to take a motorcycle training class with her but I was too chicken, afraid to go any faster than I'd ridden on a scooter in Martha's Vineyard & Block Island. I remember visiting her at her own place, listening to tales of a Cabin Fever party and the fun she was having with her new motorcycle buddies. She was leading a very adventurous life. One, I was not ready for, preferring instead the sanctity of my own living room. I heard about a motorcycle show in Boston so I phoned Justine to go with me. She invited me along with her friends from the Manomet Mystery Riders. I found myself spending the next year riding with Billy Pike and having a blast with Jen & Rob Staines. My life was getting more exciting - attending parties, going on runs, shows, restaurants or just hanging out with them. I finally got up enough confidence to take the motorcycle training class and I told myself that if liked it, I’d get my own bike. If I didn’t, I’d just be getting this desire out of my system once and for all. This one act was a huge leap from my otherwise stable existence. I joined the Manomet Mystery Riders, hooked up with big Bill and got my own little bike just like that. Although I enjoy riding, I also love being the chick on the back of his bike. I can look around at the scenery on long trips and chat with my arms wrapped around my Harley guy. My involvement with the Mystery Riders has grown tremendously in the past two years from writing the newsletter to becoming madam Vice President. And after riding my adorable Rebel for two seasons, I was ready for the next leap. My new Harley had its maiden voyage a few weeks ago and I am now consumed with hog fever. Hopefully, I will now earn some respect when riding with the big boys. I finally made the drastic transition from contented couch potato to biker chick extraordinaire. What more surprising leaps and bounds will be in my future? Maybe it’s time to write my own novel instead of just reading others’. What character will you play? Group Riding Overview Who will be leading the group? Someone with group riding experience. Who will be taking responsibility as a sweep position? Someone with experience no one is left behind or broken down. Sweep should have a cell phone . What if the group is too big to feel comfortable with only one lead and one sweep? Break up into smaller more manageable groups. What is the suggested group riding format? Staggered formation. 2 seconds between you and the person in front of you.1 second on the diagonal. If someone leaves the pack, stay in lane and move up into position, single file in curves or narrow roads. When is the best time to ride side by side? Never. Riding Gear - Protection, to see and be seen. Group Riding - Are you riding within your limits and your bike's limits? if you are nervous pay attention to that "little voice". Is the distance of the ride realistic for you? Ride home can be longer, change in weather, make sure you and bike are up for challenge. Are you clear on the destination route? Where are you going? When are the pit stops. Consider stopping based on group experience - gas tank size. Has there been a review of hand signals you will use to communicate with one another? Never assume riders know the signals, review, pre present and post communication is key - cell numbers given. Has there been a designated plan if the group gets split up? Smaller groups established before ride. Plan made for regrouping before becoming separated. Who is responsible for your safety? You are. Easy Riders The adventure of two old farts refusing to slow down. Jack Cribbs and Mike Lallier are teaming up for a road trip, some will envy while others will think we are crazy for taking it this time of year (like my wife Donna is thinking- she's the rider that wears her thermals in June). There was no way she was going to take part in this adventure. What may be unnerving to some is that we have no set plan? We are winging the hole trip. The only thing we agree on is the departure and return dates. It should be a hell of a trip. One of my goals for the year was to take a road trip from Plymouth to Key West. It started out as an RV trip trailing our bikes south. In my dreams, it was to happen late Spring. Departing New England just as the geese were migrating back to our local golf courses. It doesn't look like that plan is going to happen at least this Spring. Our new RV is being held up and will not arrive until late May. In May, we have great riding in New England. It so happens that Jack and my work are allowing us to take off some free time now. So, instead of talking about what could have been a great trip, we are looking at heading out on March 2 on our bikes with packs strapped down and “Garmin” the GPS pointing us south. Stay tuned for what my be a mystery story in the making.
The only thing we had planned on this trip was to ride the bikes down to Florida. Well with the forecast of snow and the temperature around 20 degrees we threw out that plan and decided to trailer the bikes. The thought we had for leaving after the club meeting was to miss the New York through Washington traffic. We left at 9 p.m., hit New York about midnight then Philly and Baltimore around 4 a.m. and Washington at 6 a.m. where we did hit about 30 minutes of heavy traffic. (Here’s a tip: leave the Plymouth area by 8 p.m. and you will miss all the traffic.) We arrived on the George/Florida line about 8 p.m. That’s 23 hours after we left Plymouth! After finding a room for about $60, we awoke to sunny 75 degrees. It just so happened that there was a HD dealer next door to the hotel. Prior to deciding on who was going to ride the next leg of the trip, and unloading the bike, we headed over to the shop to pick up our first of many pins and t-shirts. It was decided that I would ride and Jack would drive down to Daytona. We arrived at Daytona about noon. The new HD dealer, right off the highway, is the largest in the world. (You cannot miss it!) This was the center of all the action. After finding a spot to park the trailer and unload Jack’s bike, we road a shot distance to our first stop. It wasn’t hard to decide on where to go first. Out front of this saloon they had women, in skimpy shorts and barely any tops, strutting their stuff to the passing traffic. Truckers laid on their air horns as they passed by, at one point causing a traffic back up. We had planned on staying about an hour. Three hours later, we decided we had better head out. We needed to get to my daughter’s home in Arcadia about 4 hours southwest. It was Jack’s turn to ride so I loaded my bike and we headed to route 4, which took us right through Orlando. (The Orlando HD dealer also has a bike week right off the highway.) It was rush hour; the traffic was heavy, stop and go for miles so I decided not to stop this time. It seemed to take an hour to get through Orlando. When we got to Kissimmee we got off the highway on to route 17 south. We were able to take it all the way to Arcadia. (Route 17 is a must! What a great road to ride. Florida does have rolling hills and winding roads.) The next day Jack was off to see family and friends and I spent the day with my daughter and grandchild. The following morning Jack met up with me and we headed back up route 17 to the Orlando HD for their activities. After a few hours, we headed to Daytona to find John Pocatello where I had made arrangements to spend the night. Jack was going to spend the night at his daughter’s house in Jacksonville about two hours north. At one point, we got lost trying to find John’s house so we pulled into a school parking lot to go over the notes I had gotten from John. Jack decided this was a good time to have a butt. Wrong! One of the teachers stopped by us as she was driving out and said that we could be arrested and charged with a felony for smoking on school property. I did not want to start my trip behind bars. So this was a short break as we mounted the bike and headed off. (This is another reason to quit smoking!) We did find John’s new house and Jack headed off with a plan to hook up with John and I the next morning at the Daytona show. That evening John and I decided to head into town for the activities. As we approached Daytona there were bikers and more bikers, it seemed that every parking lot for miles had a dealer or vender camped out selling something. We managed to ride into down town amongst thousand of other bikers. Main Street, which seemed to be a mile long, did not have two feet open on either side to back in another bike. So John and I did another loop around and found a diner that was accepting bikers in their lot. (For dinner only, we found out later). We pulled in, the security guard directed us were to park. So we took our time securing the bikes and the guard had walked off. The lot had way more bikers then what the restaurant had for seating. So we decided not to go into the restaurant and we walk away off the lot. We headed down Main Street and had a few cold ones in a wild place called Froggy’s Saloon. They had women on 5-foot pedestals. The object was to put a bill on your face and they would then sit on your face and grab the bill with their crotch. (For the record, John and I did not try this.) About a block away, John felt uneasy about leaving the bikes and not going in to eat. So we walked back to check on the bikes and spoke to the guard where he did ask for money to park the bikes. After talking with him for a few minutes he let us stay free. So we headed back to the strip on our way to a place called Boot Hill Saloon. We past a picture window where they had women taking it all off to get an upper body tattoo painted on. (We have many pictures!) All of these saloons were standing room only and packed, you couldn’t help not bumping into others. Everybody was very courteous to each other. Everyone was there to party; there were no attitudes and no trouble. About midnight, we headed back to John’s house and the next morning met Jack at the Daytona HD dealer. From there, we headed to Fort Lauderdale where we found a cheap room. We took Rte. 1 South; lot of lights no sights. (Next time, I will just take Rte. 95 South.) The next morning in Fort Lauderdale, John had to head back; his granddaughter had become ill overnight. So it was Jack and I that headed to the Keys. It was a cold riding temperature, around 68º and windy, up until now it was around 80º (Here’s at tip! I had too many t-shirts and trinkets so I found a post office and sent home a box of stuff for short money. It’s a way to stay light. I had also done this on our Nova Scotia trip.) Our first stop was on Islamorada Key just south of Long Key where we had lunch and a few margaritas overlooking the inlet. We sat with a couple that had flown into Miami from California for a vacation. The first question they asked us was “Why are there so many bikers on the road?” They had no clue it was bike week. We then headed further down to Marathon Key where we had a room reserved. We checked in and headed to Key West for sunset on the docks. On our way into town, we met three bikers from Cape Cod. (The next town over from where I live!) They had been there the night before and had been ticketed for parking. They offered to lead us to a safe parking lot in town. (A note: Key West is strict about parking, many bikers had been ticketed and/or towed). After celebrating the sunset, we all headed into town for dinner. We later went our own way, Jack and I headed to the Hog’s Breath Saloon. Not as wild as the places in Daytona but still a great open aired place with a great band, lots of people. Jack had to drag me out; it was 11 p.m., 80º and I wasn’t ready to call it a night. We had a hour ride back to Marathon and we still had to head for the Conch, (that’s the furthest point south on Key West) for a photo shoot, where we met a few people from Canada doing the same thing. (A note: after dark, don’t speed, do the speed limit only. They were pulling over everyone even if you were going 5 mile over the limit.) We had made plans to ride back off the Keys with the three other bikers but they didn’t show the next morning so we left without them. We had a nice relaxed ride off the Keys and stopped at the first gas station we saw. We weren’t there for more then 5 minute when the bikers we met in the Keys pulled in. They were going to ride up the West Coast along Alligator Ally. I’ve done that road in the past, I do not recommend it, it’s boring. We were going to Naples on the West Coast but had decided to take Route 41 the southern most route. (A note: This is a must ride for any biker with a full tank.) It’s long and narrow, only a two-lane road but fast. This takes you right through the southern part of the Everglades National Park. Take Rte. 1 North out off the Keys to Rte. 997 through farm territory up to Rte. 41; go west on 41 from here all the way up the West Coast. On 41, look on both sides of the road, you will not believe your eyes. 10 or 15 feet from you, for miles, you will see large 8 foot or so alligators sun bathing on the side of the road or on the edge of the drainage ditch. (A note: there is no fence between you and them just a little bit of grass. I do not recommend stopping here! I was told that if you piss one off they could out run you at a short distance). About half way on 41, there is an overlook were you can take pictures and about two-thirds of the way, there is a nice little eatery where there may be a few in the back. We did make it to my friend’s condo in Naples for the night in one piece. The next day, we headed to Jack’s friend in Punta Gorda. Jack spent the night and next day in Punta Gorda. I spent it with my daughter and granddaughter in Arcadia. On my second day, I took a ride to the Fort Myers’ HD dealer. The best route for me was again Route 17 from Arcadia to Fort Myers, open rural through farmland. A nice road to set the tunes, set the cruise control and just roll along. Until... you spot a black object in the distance right in the center of the road! No big problem, probably just a blown truck tire. Wrong! As I approached it, it moved. Now it had my attention; I slowed a bit about 100 feet away, it turned and looked at me. As I passed it, just about in the soft shoulder of the road, it was another 6-foot alligator sun bathing in the middle of the road. On every trip you take, there is one moment that will always be etched in your mind. That is my moment! U Safe Riding to all and looking forward to the Sturgis Trip! |