Gold Wing Road Riders Association, GWRRA, SOUTHEAST REGION "A" ALABAMA
CHAPTER "N", GADSDEN, AL. "FRIENDS
FOR FUN, SAFETY AND KNOWLEDGE" MONTHLY
MEETINGS: FIRST SATURDAY OF EACH MONTH. EAT AT 5:00 PM. MEET AT 6:00 PM AT WESTERN
SIZZLIN . Breakfast Meeting 8:30 AM every Wednesday Poor
House Restaurant, 12th & Meighan.Chapter Directors: Tery & Barbie Cleveland 256-538-1443 mailto:tcleveland@microxl.com
Asst. Chapter Directors: Sammy & Donna Conn 205-274-8345 mail
to:swconn@otelco.net 
Safety Educators, Chapter N & Alabama District 2003-2004
Couple of the Year Rick & Laura Brothers 256-442-6351 mailto:tworiverrats@excite.com
Newsletter Editors: Jim & Virgie Banks 205-681-0297 mailto:jbanks5509@aol.com
Chapter Historian: John & Shelly Smith 205-467-2673 mailto:jstrav@aol.com (photo not available - requested)
Membership Coordinator R&R: Dewey & Alice Cole
256-442-2458 mailto:travelordcac@netscape.net
Ride Coordinator: Wayne & Liz Gargus 205-274-8670 mailto:wayneg@otelco.net
Webmasters: Kerry & Joyce Wilson 256-546-2811 mailto:kwilson@kerrywilson.com
Secretary & Treasurer: John & Sandra Irwin 256-543-8509 mailto:jeirwin1@bellsouth.net
Technical Coordinators: Butch & Diane 256-593-7053 
Ways & Means Coordinator: Bob & Pam Ray 256-442-4383 
District Officers
District Directors: Ray & Cindy Erickson 334-298-8485 mailto:racyguns@att.net
Asst. District Directors & District Trainers: Bill &
Dian Gulley 256-229-8833 mailto:bamawing@dav.net
District Educators: Paul & Paula Howes 205-938-3961 mailto:phowes1@cs.com
Region "A" Director: Larry & Patty Lingo RegionDirector@gwrra-regiona.org
GWRRA Chapter AL-N
September & October Ride Guide
SEPTEMBER, 2004
9/1 – Breakfast at the Poor House 8:30 AM & ride.
9/3 – 9/5 – International Drill Team Championship in Nashville, TN.
9/4 – Chapter N monthly gathering at Western Sizzlin Rainbow City. Eat at 5 & meet at 6 PM.
9/8 – Breakfast at the Poor House 8:30 AM & ride.
9/9 – 9/12 – Region A Rally in Helen, GA. Those leaving on Thursday 9/9, breakfast on your own and depart Cowboys at 7 AM. We’ll pick a scenic route through the North GA Mountains into Helen for another great rally. Others can pair up on later departure times.
9/15 – Breakfast at the Poor House 8:30 AM & ride.
9/18 – CAMPING WEEKEND AT GUNTERSVILLE. Tent’s, RV’s, Cabins, and a lodge with bunk beds are available. Dianne Harris is planning this as a “laid back, card playing, cook out, relaxing weekend. Camp Fri. & Sat. nights or Sat. night only. Our dinner ride this month will be a “pot luck” supper at the private campsite, so those not camping join in the fun on Saturday afternoon/evening. More details from Dianne at this month’s gathering.
9/22 – Breakfast at the Poor House 8:30 AM & ride.
9/23 – 9/26 – Wings Over The Smokey’s in Fletcher, NC
9/24 – (FRIDAY) Birthday and Anniversary Dinner Ride to Cici’s Pizza in Rainbow City at 7 P.
9/25 – “N”
Annual Progressive Dinner ride. This
is an all day “Ride and Eat”
event starting at the home of Dewey/Alice Cole with appetizer’s at 11 AM,
Rick/Laura Brother’s at 12:15 PM for soup, Sammy/Donna Conn at 2 PM for Salad,
then dinner at El Tapito Mexican Rest. at Hwy 77 & 411 in Rainbow City,
followed by dessert at Kerry/Joyce Wilson’s.
Scenic rides are planned between each course of the meal.
This is truly a ride and eat all day event. DON’T MISS IT.
GWRRA AL CHAPTER N 2004 PROGRESSIVE
DINNER RIDE
GWRRA
AL CHAPTER N 2004 PROGRESSIVE DINNER RIDE
SATURDAY 9/25/04 starting in Southside at the home of Dewey & Alice Cole, 3181 Jenkins Circle North, Southside, AL. From there, we will have guided scenic tours to the homes of Rick/Laura Brothers, Sammy/Donna Conn, the main course dinner at the El Tapito Mexican Restaurant in Rainbow City, then to Kerry/Joyce Wilson’s for dessert. ALL PARTICIPANTS ARE REQUESTED TO HELP THE HOST/HOSTESS AS LISTED BELOW WITH FOOD PREPARATIONS AND SERVING. (Additions and changes will be made at the Sept. 4 gathering)
APPETIZER’S 11 AM
SOUP 12:15 PM
SALAD 2 PM
DESSERT 7:30 PM
Alice Cole Laura Brothers Donna Conn Joyce Wilson
256-442-2458 256-492-6351 205-274-8345 256-492-4882
Jim/Virgie Billy Billingsley Lon/Liz Roy/Shirley
David/Lisa Terry/Barbie Harold/Shari Josh/Kacey
Wayne/Liz John/Sandra Jim/Terri George/Dorothy
Danny/Deborah Bob/Pam John/Shelly Cliff/Faye
Butch/Dianne Larry/Gloria Kerry?Diane Harry/Lesya
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PLANNED
ROUTES
Starting at 11 AM
at Dewey/Alice’s home with appetizer’s.
To get there from Rainbow City, take 77 So. about 3 miles to Jenkins
Circle in Southside. Turn left, go
about 1 block, it’s on the right at the curve.
At 11:45 AM, Rick will lead us
on a 30 minute scenic river route to his and Laura’s home for soup.
At 1 PM, Wayne will lead us
back through Rainbow City following Hwy. 411 South to Ashville, where we take
Hwy. 231 North toward Oneonta. After
about 13 miles from Ashville, we turn left onto County Hwy 29 toward Highland
Lake. After another 5 miles we
cross a bridge & go to the 2nd road to the right, Lakeshore
Drive, and turn right. We go around part of the lake & up a hill to
Sammy/Donna’s for salad. NOTE the Anchor on your right as we get to the lake.
That’s where our Halloween party will be this year.
Depart Sammy/Donna’s at 3 PM, and go out the back way to Hwy 27 and turn left. We have 3 hours from now to dinner, so Wayne has picked a very scenic ride beginning by going off the mountain into Springville. Here we take Co. Hwy 174 to Odenville, and pick up Hwy 411 South once again. We follow it through Moody and into Leeds where we take Hwy 25 South. You will think you are riding Deal’s Gap again. Along this popular motorcycle road we will stop at 29 Dreams Motorcycle Resort for a break and to check it out. Restrooms and refreshments are available as well as a motorcycle barn with accessories, t-shirts, etc. From there, we continue Hwy 25 South until it intersects with Hwy 231 and we turn (Left) North toward Pell City. Beyond Pell City, we take Hwy 144 E (right) through Ragland and across Neely Henry Dam to Hwy 77. Turn left (North) and go through Southside and back to the El Tapito Mexican Restaurant in Rainbow City at the intersection of 77 & 411, arriving at 6 PM. Anyone not going on the ride can meet us there for dinner. Following dinner, Kerry Wilson will lead us to their home in Hokes Bluff for desserts arriving approximately 7:30 PM. By then we’ll all probably be saying:
“I CAN’T BELIEVE I ATE THE WHOLE THANG:”
9/26 – Chapt. N Staff Mtg. Western Sizzlin. Eat at 2, meet at 3. (Nov/Dec 04 & Jan 05 Act.).
9/29 – Breakfast at the Poor House 8:30 AM & ride.
OCTOBER, 2004
10/1 – 10/2 – Florida Panhandle Bandit’s 2ND Annual “Bandit Getaway.” Last year, they had almost 400 attendee’s at their 1st annual event where all 6 Chapters in the FL Panhandle come together for a fun weekend. Wayne will have full details at the September Gathering.
10/2 – Chapter N monthly gathering at Western Sizzlin Rainbow City. Eat at 5 meet at 6 PM.
10/6 – Breakfast at the Poor House 8:30 AM & ride.
10/8 – (FRIDAY)
Birthday and Anniversary Dinner ride to Station House Grill in Boaz.
Depart Cowboys 6:30 PM. Others
meet at the restaurant at 7 PM. (NOTE:
This is the last of the Friday evening dinner rides until March 2005).
10/9 – Early Fall Colors ride. Breakfast at Poor House 8 AM. Ride Lookout Mountain area and check out the early colors of fall. Just a lazy cool fall ride with no particular destination planned.
10/13 – Breakfast at the Poor House 8:30 Am & ride.
10/14 – 10/17 – Mississippi District Rally in Biloxi. Those leaving on Thursday, breakfast on your own and depart Cowboys 6:30 AM. Meet others at the Chevron in Springville and depart
there at 7 AM. Routes will be discussed at the Oct. gathering.
10/20 – Breakfast at the Poor House 8:30 AM & ride.
10/22-23-24 - Chapter N Fall Colors Overnight Ride to the Smoky Mountains. Two departure times planned: Depart Cowboys 7:00 AM Friday and 7:00 AM Sat. A meeting time and place will be arranged to meet those departing on Saturday for 1 night. Our goal is to pick routes away from the Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge crowds. Final details at the October Gathering.
10/27 – Breakfast at the Poor House 8:30 AM & ride.
10/30 – Chapter N Halloween Party at the Anchor on Highland Lake near Oneonta. Take 231 North 10 mi. toward Oneonta, and turn onto County Hwy 29. After about 4 miles, you will cross a bridge over part of the lake. DO NOT TURN AT THE SIGN IMMEDIATELY ACROSS THE BRIDGE. Continue another ¼ mile and turn right at the 2nd entrance to Highland Lake. Go about 1 mile and the Anchor is beside the lake on the right. A great place and a fun time is planned.
Articles
Twenty one people attended the pool party at Dewey and Alice's house on Sunday August 15th. The grilled hotdogs and hamburgers were tasty, considering the fact that this was Alice's and Barbie's first experience at operating a gas grill.
-Terry & Barbie 
. Sammy and Donna Conn
WORST CASE SCENARIOS
(What to do
when it all goes wrong)
The
following information is taken from the April 2004 issue of “American
Motorcyclist” magazine.
FOG: This
is another killer on the road. Indeed, two fog-related crashes in 1990 and 2002
on one stretch of Interstate 75 in Tennessee each involved about 100 vehicles.
Although the death toll in each case amounted to a dozen or less, you can
imagine the consequences for a motorcyclist in the middle of such a massive
pileup. The danger when you enter
fog is that you never know when visibility can suddenly drop to near zero,
leaving you barely able to see the road, much less keep track of other traffic
around you. You don’t want to go
too fast, in case someone has stopped up ahead.
But you also don’t want to go too slow, since someone behind could pile
into you.
What to do? When
fog gets so dense that visibility drops below a quarter-mile (about six
telephone poles), experts agree that the only safe course of action is to stop
– but not on or near the road. If
there’s an interstate exit or parking lot, pull in there.
Otherwise, ride your bike as far off the pavement as you can.
Then leave it and walk even further from the road.
In a chain-reaction accident, cars and trucks can end up scattered all
over the road and the surrounding countryside.
So get far enough away that even an out-of-control vehicle can’t reach
you. Your life may depend on it.
BITTER COLD: Taking
a long ride on a cold day can be no fun. Worse,
it can be extremely dangerous, because of the insidious effects of something
called hypothermia. In extreme
cases, you can literally freeze to death. But
long before that happens, your reaction times increase and your muscle control
gets clumsy – two things that can be equally deadly when you’re riding a
motorcycle. So the first thing you
need to do is watch for shivering, numbing of fingers and toes, and general
clumsiness. These indicate mild
hypothermia, which means it’s time to do something about it before you move
into moderate consciousness, loss of fine motor coordination, slurred speech,
violent shivering and irrational behavior.
What to do? On
a bike, your best bet is to stop someplace warm before it gets to this stage.
Wind and wetness both rob the body of heat, increasing the danger of
hypothermia. Your best bet is to
look for any protection from the wind; an abandoned building, a line of trees or
even a slope with a leeward side. If
necessary change into dry clothes, then if you’ve prepared yourself for cold
weather riding (and you should have), you can pull out your nylon-reinforced
space blanket and chemical heat packs. But
even if you don’t have that equipment, you can take advantage of heat from
your bike’s engine. Of course,
use common sense; don’t pull into an enclosed space and leave the engine
running and don’t burn your hands on the hot exhaust.
But you can usually place your gloved hands against the engine to drive
some warmth back into your body. Just
remember to check your gloves regularly to make sure they’re not being
damaged. Once your core temperature
is back up, you can begin riding again. Just
take it easy and stop for a more thorough warm-up as soon as possible.
ANIMAL ENCOUNTER:
You come around a curve to discover an animal in the road.
It could be anything from a squirrel to a deer; and you need to decide on
the right course of action in a split-second.
What to do? Assuming
that you can’t stop in time or steer around it, then your reactions are
dictated by the animal’s size. The
general rule of thumb is that if you could eat the entire animal in one sitting
– in other words, no bigger than a small cat or dog – your safest course of
action would be to hit it. If your
hypothetical meal would have leftovers, take evasive action.
This can be tricky since it’s usually very difficult to tell which
direction an animal will dart when it sees you. But in general, aim for the animal’s tail, rather than its
head. Whatever you do, don’t
target fixate on the animal. Focus
on the clear path around it, and chances are your bike will go there.
We hope that you have enjoyed this series and been able to take some useful information from it. Safety is for Life!
Can you believe that summer is almost over? It used to be a depressing proposal until we started riding a Goldwing, but now that fall riding season is upon us, we have all of that wonderful touring time ahead of us. August has seemed to slow down somewhat after a hectic July and I think that we needed a breather.
We were able to visit with Chapter D at their dinner meeting the first Thursday of August. We enjoyed visiting with old friends and making some new ones. August is also when AL-N conducts their annual mall show. We had 21 motorcycles participating and collected money for the Odgen House, a home for youth. Rick and I were able to hand out information and speak with many different people about our main focus, motorcycle awareness and safety. We feel that the more people are exposed to motorcycles and riders, the more likely they are to notice cyclists on the road and the safer we all are. The time was well spent that Saturday.
These past few months have been by far the best time that we have spent since becoming “Wingers” and we have each and every one of you to thank for this. We hope to do our best in the Region A selection, but if it all ends at the District level, we could not find anything to complain about. Thank you again for all of your courtesies that have been extended to us, you have made us feel very special.
Our best news by far however, is that I am FINALLY out of my eye patch. It has been 7 months since this saga began and I am very proud to say that we have crossed the finish line. I want to thank everyone personally that has lifted up a prayer for my recovery, God has answered our petitions and I have 20/20 vision again in both eyes. I have since found out that the doctors never expected me to fully recover sight in my right eye, much less have 20/20 again; and that even though they were also secretly concerned that my left eye would suffer from the strain, it has not developed any problems. The only thing is that not everyone recognizes me any more!! I will be the brunette standing with Rick in Helen, Georgia later this month.
Rick and Laura Brothers, AL-N Rider Educators
Rick & Laura Brothers Chapter Educators
Editors Corner
Jim & Virgie Banks
Tom
Wilson (Kerry’s Dad)
Bob
Brooks (AL-D)
Sammy
Conn (Surgery)
Janet Miller (AL-T) Surgery
50/50
WINNERS
FOR
THE JULY GATHERING
MARLENE
SHILAND
CALVIN BLANSIT
All of the men and women who are fighting for our freedom
Our country's leaders 
Bob Brooks, (Chapter D)
Kerry Stephenson, Back trouble
Laura Brothers, Eye Surgery
Motorcycle and Automobile InsuranceMotorcycle Liability Only Rates, as low as $115 for the 1st year and $45 for the 2nd year for non-GWRRA members.
Motorcycle Liability Only Rates as low as $70 for the 1st year, and $45 for the 2nd year for GWRRA members.
Full Coverage rates (Example) for a 2003 Honda Gold Wing GL1800 as low as $292 per year for GWRRA members.
Auto Insurance Mandatory Liability Only Rates as low as: $100 Down, and $30 per month.
Call Kerry Wilson or Josh Dodd at 1-800-575-3779 (1-800-57-KERRY) or 256-546-2811.
David Santos, Santos Printing 256-54-PRINT
Jim Rogers TriKing Trikes of Northern Alabama1127 Tom L. Smith Dr. Odenville, AL 35120 205-629-6009 www.trikingtrikes.com