August 2004 Newsletter GWRRA Chapter AL-N Gadsden, Alabama Coosa Valley Wings

Safety Educators, Chapter N & Alabama District 2003-2004 Couple of the Year Rick & Laura Brothers 256-442-6351 mailto:tworiverrats@excite.com RICKLAURABROTHERS.JPG (94994 bytes)

Chapter Historian: John & Shelly Smith 205-467-2673 mailto:jstrav@aol.com (photo not available - requested)

Asst. District Directors & District Trainers: Bill & Dian Gulley 256-229-8833 mailto:bamawing@dav.net

8/7 – Chapter N monthly gathering at Western Sizzlin in Rainbow City. Eat at 5 & meet at 6.

8/13 – Birthday/Anniversary ride to Sonic on Meghan Blvd. W. of Cycle World.

8/14 N Mall Show at the Gadsden Mall. This is one of the fund raising events for our charity. Those who are displaying bikes, meet at the main entrance to the Mall no later than 8:30 AM. We must have the bikes in place prior to the 9 AM store openings & go in as a group. It’s also a good recruiting day for new GWRRA members. (Honorable mention: That’s how we got Sammy and DONNA.

8/15 – Pool party at Dewey/Alice. Bring drinks & a covered dish(s) to eat at 1 PM.

8/21 – Overnight Ride to Foley, AL and eat at Lambert’s. Depart Cowboys at 7 AM; meet others at the Chevron in Springville at 7:30 AM. The route & information on Motel reservations to be discussed at the August gathering.

8/28 – Overnight ride to Chapter L (Thomasville) Fun Day at Claiburne Lock & Dam. Breakfast on your own and depart Cowboys 6 AM. Meet others at the Chevron in Springville and depart there at 6:30. Ride Interstate and State/County highways to Thomasville & spend the night.

9/4 – Chapter N monthly gathering at Western Sizzlin Rainbow City. Eat at 5 & meet at 6 PM.

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.

9/18 – 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 can join in the fun on Saturday afternoon/evening. More details later.

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. More details next month.

9/26 – Chapt. N Staff Mtg. Western Sizzlin. Eat at 2, meet at 3. (Nov/Dec 04 & Jan 05 Act.).

Chapter "N Director's News:

The month of July finally saw an end to baseball season, with our team finishing 3rd in the state tournament. Hopefully we will have a little more time for riding and enjoying spending time with our Gold Wing friends. Sounds like Chapter N was well represented at Wing Ding this year. Congratulations to Kerry & Joyce Wilson, Josh Dodd for being recognized as outstanding recruiters and inducted into the Hall of Fame. All three of them have recruited 100 or more recruits. Congratulations to Wayne & Liz Gargus for their award of being 2004's Trike Sig Representive of the year. Way to go guys!

Chapter "N" Assistant Director's News

On Friday, the 23rd, we enjoyed the Birthday Dinner with several Chapter N members. The 22nd was my Birthday, so you know we had to participate! The meal at Pasghetti's was, as usual, very good. On the 24th, we joined the group for the Blount County tour. We started with breakfast at the Red Barn followed by a tour of north central Blount county. We had lunch in Oneonta at Miller's Drug Store and Soda Fountain. The sandwiches were excellent. Our day continued with a tour of the western section of the county, including a stop at Rickwood Caverns. Donna, Wayne and I toured the cave while Butch and Diane, Jimmy and Joanne and George and Dorothy enjoyed the shade of the park and the 'cave-powered' air conditioning. We arrived at Al and Mick's Restaurant in Snead just in time to join other Chapter N friends for supper.

Friday, July 2, 4 bikes, 7 people - Sammy, Donna, Rick, Laura, Kerry W., John Smith, Stephen Smith left Springville Alabama at 6:00 am headed to Grapevine, Texas and WING DING! In Trussville, we were joined by another bike, belonging to a friend of John Smiths. His daughter was riding with him to Houston, Texas. Just south of Tuscaloosa, we stopped for our first break and an unusual thing happened. Kerry's Gold Wing would not start - his alternator was dead. We waited and fiddled with the battery and finally jumped him off to get him going. We got back on the road but just a few miles away, in Eutaw, the bike quit again. This time, we decided to swap batteries. Rick and Kerry quickly made the switch and we hit the road, with Kerry in the lead. Our destination was Meridian - where we hoped the Honda shop might be able to help us out. We arrived about 10:00 am. After several calls to the Honda shop in Meridian and Laurel, it was clear that they wanted no part of a Gold Wing needing an alternator on the Friday before July 4th. After reviewing our trusty Gold Book, we located a local GWRRA member, Henry Skinner who thought he could help. A fellow member of his chapter had recently bought a Compufire for his bike and had the old, working alternator on hand. Henry offered to locate the alternator and bring it to us - which he did. We were quite lucky to have chosen a service station with a deli inside. While we were waiting on our rescuer, some ate lunch, some continued to tinker with the bike and Kerry - recruited a member.

Once the alternator arrived, Mr. Skinner graciously invited all of us to follow him to his home where we could rest while he installed the new alternator. When it was clear we were going to get on the road again, John's friend and his daughter left for their final destination - Houston. All of us followed Mr. Skinner on his red Gold Wing to his home. While the men worked diligently on the bike, Laura and Donna enjoyed sitting in the swing overlooking a small pond and garden - for FIVE HOURS. Anyway, we headed out about 3:00 in the afternoon. While we were working on the bike, it became clear that we would not be able to fulfill our original travel plan of riding to Shreveport before spending the night. Laura called from Henry's and changed our reservation to Ruston, Louisiana. John Smith spoke with Shelley to give her the plan since she was going to catch up to us in Shreveport. Just as we were putting on our riding gear it happened - thunder. We decided we had lost enough time, so we put on our rain gear and hit the road. At first, we thought perhaps the rain gear was a mistake. The sun was shining and it was HOT. But a few miles down the road, nature fulfilled our expectation and sent rain - lots of rain. After riding for several miles, we decided to stop at a convenience store for a little relief from the rain and big trucks. John checked in with Shelley and learned that she was only a few miles from us. We decided to wait on her to catch up before we got back on the road. Upon Shelley's arrival, we once again mounted our bikes. In Pearl, Mississippi we stopped for supper, choosing Shoneys - since the buffet would be a quick nutritional meal. As we ate, it rained - we mean RAINED. The folks in the restaurant said it had rained like this everyday for two weeks and that many times it rained all night. When the rain slacked a little, we decided to continue our trip. With thunder booming and lightning flashing, we did our best to out-run the rain and storm. After about an hour of riding - just as we finally crossed the Louisiana state line, the rain stopped. The ride in Louisiana drastically improved and we made it to our hotel in Ruston about 9:00 pm. The next morning, after breakfast at the Huddle House, we headed to Grapevine. As we crossed the Texas state line, we stopped at the welcome center - and had the honor of welcoming the Georgia delegation to Texas! We arrived in Grapevine about 1:30 pm. Bikes everywhere! The hotel was ready for us though, asking one member of each party to check in while another person stayed with the bike, unloaded the luggage (with the assistance of those great bell boys) and parked the bike. They had ice cold lemon aide waiting in the lobby. Much to our surprise, the entire process took only about 30 minutes. And Kerry Wilson recruited a member!

July 4th - Kerry and Joyce and Josh were recognized at the opening ceremonies for their "Hall of Fame" status. Most of the Chapter N bikes participated in the Grapevine Fourth of July parade. 1076 bikes participated. Before we left for Grapevine, Wayne and Liz Gargus helped to choose a restaurant for a Chapter N Dinner Ride in Texas. Due to all the other activities, this was the only day we could all get together. We went to Pappasitas - a great Mexican restaurant. There were 15 Chapter N members in attendance. The Wilson crew was unable to meet with us but we understand they had a great shopping trip to the Grapevine Mills Mall. Dinner was followed with a tour of downtown Dallas. We saw both sides of the Texas stadium and the "Grassy Knoll" where President Kennedy was shot. They night ended with fire works - which some of us missed due to thinking we could see them from our rooms.

July 7th - Tarantula Train! The Smiths, Blansits, Brothers and Conns road the train to the Fort Worth Stockyards. We had lunch and shopped. Just after lunch, we found Danny and Debra who had ridden their bike to Forth Worth for more site seeing. We returned to Grapevine about 4:00. There's a funny story about some free loaders - ask us for details. The Blansits and the Smiths attended the barbecue at the Circle R Ranch. Horseback riding and other activities were included in the visit to the ranch. Wayne and Liz partied with some of their old Texas buddies. The rest of us went to Traildust Steak house for a wonderful meal. This time Kerry Wilson and Harry Dennis were able to join us.

The trips back home were uneventful. John, Shelley and the boys headed home on Thursday evening. Kerry and Harry rode together to visit a friend of Kerry's, then started home on Friday. Danny and Debra left on Thursday evening after some of the traffic cleared. The rest of us went back to the Traildust for supper, then headed to the mall for a little exercise and last minute shopping. The Blansits went to New Orleans before heading home. Rick and Laura went to Tyler to visit her son, Jonathan, then started home on Saturday. Wayne and Liz, Sammy and Donna started out separately on Friday morning. The week was truly unforgettable!

Safety

WORST CASE SCENARIOS

The following information is taken from the April 2004 issue of “American Motorcyclist” magazine.

Part Two of Three

BRAKE FAILURE: What’s the scariest thing that can happen to you while riding? Certainly, a sudden, catastrophic brake failure is near the top of the list. You squeeze the front brake lever heading into a curve and…….nothing.

What to do? First, try pumping the brake lever to see if you can build up hydraulic pressure. If the problem is a warped brake disc or a leaky brake cylinder, this may do the trick. But don’t leave it at that. Immediately start using the rear brake and the gearshift to slow the motorcycle. This is yet another reason why it’s an excellent idea to keep yourself in the habit of using both brakes every time you stop.

TIRE BLOWOUT: Almost as bad as discovering you’ve got no brakes is hearing a pop and feeling the sudden shuddering of a tire blowout.

What to do? First, don’t panic. Keep a firm grip on the bars. Slowly ease off the throttle. If you must brake, do so gently, braking with the wheel with the good tire. Aim straight ahead until you get slowed down, then gently steer to the side of the road. The final few revolutions are likely to be the worst as the whole bike squirms, so just let it coast slowly to a stop.

CRASHING 101: Let’s say you can’t save it. You and your bike are sliding down the highway. How do you minimize the damage to your body?

What to do? Get to the ground as soon as you can and let go of the bike. Flatten your body out, and put down your arms to scrub off speed. You can often use your arms, legs and body position to steer away from cars, guardrails or other objects. Just like when you’re riding, look where you want to go. When you finally come to a stop, take a moment to consider your situation. Ideally, you’d like to check out all of your extremities before getting to your feet. But, if you come to rest in a traffic lane, it may be safer to get moving as quickly as possible, if you’re able. (CRE Note: Before you have ever gotten to this point, hopefully you have on all of your safety gear: riding boots, long sleeves and/or riding jacket, full fingered leather palm gloves and of course your helmet. This would be the day that you were glad that you always rode prepared. Road rash can delay the body’s healing process)

LIGHTS OUT: Here’s another scary scenario. You’re riding alone on a curvy, unlit road at night, and suddenly your headlights blink out. Of course, you immediately flip the high/low switch, but that doesn’t work either.

What to do? First, turn on your right turn signal or 4-way flashers. That will give you some light and help you locate the side of the road, so you can stop. Then, check to see if you’ve blown a fuse. If you have, try using a spare or take one from a less critical system, like the horn circuit. No good? Then try this old trick; remove the bulb from the right rear turn signal. Now remove the amber lens from the right front turn signal and flip the signal on. You should now have a feeble, but constant, white light you can use to limp to the nearest safe location.

SURVIVING ROAD RAGE: You have no idea what you’ve done, but a driver is trying to run you off the road.

What to do? Experts agree that the worse thing that you can do is to stop. Instead, keep moving with traffic, stay cool and don’t respond to the provocation. Accelerating may just lead to a high-speed chase. Instead, take the next exit ramp, or turn onto a cross street. If the driver follows, go someplace where there are people, like a restaurant or gas station. If you know the area, ride directly to a police station.

AL DISTRICT COY

This past month has been a month of firsts for us. We were able to go to the Georgia District Rally for the first time. Every year in the past, it has fallen on Rick’s weekend to work and he was unable to get the needed dates off. The rally site, Hiawassee Inn, is situated in the beautiful mountains of North Georgia and had scenic views of the Hiawassee Lake all around it. The Georgia District staff did a wonderful time of keeping everyone entertained, if anyone got bored it was their own fault! We were honored to help judge their scrapbook competition and spent time catching up with all of the wonderful new friends that we have been making since April.

The first of July, we loaded up the bike and trailer for the trip to Grapevine, Texas and our first Wing Ding. This rally has a similar story as the Georgia rally; Rick was never able to secure enough vacation days around the 4^th of July for us to be able to travel to the “Granddaddy of all motorcycle rallies”. The Gaylord Texan resort was absolutely breath-taking and everyone seemed to be thrilled to be there. Our host hotel had evidently done their homework; they had even extended the ice cream shop hours just for the Wingers.

We were traveling to the rally with a group from our home chapter, AL-N, taking I-20 to save on time. About 60 miles outside of Meridian, MS, one of our friends, Kerry Wilson, developed alternator problems on his GL1500. We swapped batteries with him and proceeded on to Meridian and the first gas station that we could make it to. It was still early in the day so we were hopeful that the local Honda shop could solve the problem. They did not have an alternator in stock and were unwilling to put one in that could have been brought from Gadsden. So we did what we should have done in the first place, we brought out the Gold Book. The very first contact made told us that he knew of someone that had just replaced his alternator with a Compu-fire and that he felt sure that he still had it. In a short time Henry Skinner showed up at the Shell Station with the alternator and an offer to take us home with him to work on the bike. We spent the next five hours enjoying his hospitality, the babbling creek and lakes beside his home, and his ice cream!! (A true Winger!) After working through several problems, making some phone calls to alter our reservations along the route and thanking Henry profusely from the bottom of our hearts; we were back on the road again without any further delays.

In the past few months, I had told several people that I intended to meet the editor of Wing World magazine while in Texas and I certainly did not have to wait long after our arrival at the Gaylord. As soon as we arrived at the resort, checked in and deposited our luggage in the room; Rick and I headed off to find the International COY Selection that was already in progress. After we had been in there a short while, they took a brief intermission to give the judges a break. Looking around the room, I spotted a man smiling and waving at me and he looked just like the picture in the magazine of Nick Hopner, the editor of Wing World. He had recognized me from the “N Crowd” picture that was published under the “Acts of Kindness” section of Wing World’s July edition; imagine that! He walked around to us, introduced himself and thanked me for sending in the picture and article. I was giddy the rest of the afternoon and could have left happy at that point. I am very glad that we didn’t leave however, the rest of Wing Ding just kept getting better and better. The only consolation to my still having to wear this eye patch has been that it has made me VERY recognizable. I cannot count the number of people who had seen the article and came up to speak. Dian Gulley told me that she knew the ongoing problems I was having with my eye were not any fun, but that the patch had certainly made me famous! I believe her now. I was also very proud of my rider; Rick took 1^st place in the Top Gun–Novice Division. This was his first time to enter Top Gun competition and if I had known that he was going to, I would have been there to watch him. You can be sure that I won’t miss it next time.

We are planning to go to the Kentucky Rally in August; it will be another first for us. If we have not made it to your chapter meeting or funday, keep looking for us. We plan to try and make it to at least one event for each chapter in the state this year. Hope to see you soon,

Let’s start this month’s newsletter with a moment of silence and remember our SC District Rep., Guy Blankenship’s family. Guy passed away in July from complications following surgery on May 10^th. Remember his wife Sue and the remainder of their family as they now have the difficult task of adjusting to life without Guy. He will certainly be missed by all who knew him. In addition to his SC District Trike SIG Rep. duties, he was also CD for his home Chapter, and very involved in Rider Education. MAY HE REST IN PEACE.

If you missed this year’s Wing Ding, you certainly missed a good time. This was Wing Ding # 18 for Liz and I, and without a doubt the best and most enjoyable one yet. The best way to describe the facility in one word, WOW !! Three huge air conditioned atriums, beautifully landscaped with trees, (one artificial TX oak tree that cost $250,000) flowers, water falls, rivers, and shrubs, mixed in with various restaurants, and sidewalk type food/drink locations. All of this situated around and between excellent sleeping accommodations, made the entire week very special. Everything except the Honda demo rides/display, and the Dunlop tire checks was inside, and completely air conditioned. There were no hot hallways to walk down. Speaking of walking, it was not necessary to go outside for a daily walk. By the time you walked from your room to the restaurants, vendor area, seminar rooms, etc., you didn’t need any additional walking. The rumor is that Wing Ding 2006 will be at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, TN which is even larger than the Gaylord Texan.

This year’s Wing Ding Trike Hike was a dinner ride to Joe T. Garcia’s famous Mexican Restaurant in the Stockyards District in Ft. Worth. The 57 mile ride took us across the Lake Grapevine dam and over country roads past the TX Motor Speedway on Dale Earnhart Drive and into Ft. Worth. Ninety nine of us enjoyed a good Mexican dinner in an old restored Church connected to the main restaurant.

Liz and I were surprised at the dinner when Hank/Cheryl Herrera, our National Trike SIG Coordinators, presented us with a plaque inscribed: “Trike SIG Reps of the Year 2004. Thank you for your hard work and dedication. RIDE WITH THE EYE OF AN EAGLE.” The plaque is beautiful with a large Eagle at the top, and is now proudly displayed in our home in Alabama. We are honored to have received this award and appreciative of the confidence shown by everyone involved in the GWRRA Trike SIG.

We also had a hot but fun time with trike games, both 1 up and 2-up. A course similar to some of the Trike Course field exercises was set up and was a timed event. It provided a chance for skill enhancements and a spirit of competition. The last part of the course was to make a quick stop before hitting an imaginary wall. Picture this: In the 2-up competition, the co-rider was holding a plastic plate filled with water. It had to be held between the rider and co-rider and within the boundary of the sides of the rider. Many had water remaining in the plate as they approached the quick stop, but few had any remaining after the stop. Someone (I won’t name him), dumped any remaining water onto one of them to empty the plate. As hot as it was, no one seemed to mind any bit of cooling they could get.

Our next Region A Rally is in Helen, GA Sept. 9-11. We hope to see all of you there.

Two bikes and one 4-wheeler departed Cowboys on time this Saturday morning for the short ride to the Red Barn West of Snead. There they were greeted by 3 more bikes and one 4-wheeler. Shari had to work and Harold had business to take care of, so after breakfast we departed with 5 bikes and one 4-wheeler with 10 people on board. Following the original plan, we were on our way to the ride across Pine Mountain when Jimmy/Joann’s trike developed a flat rear tire. Luckily we were only about 3 miles from a tire store, so we aired it up and they were able to get it repaired with only about a 45 minute delay. We visited with Liz at home for a short time then went back to Oneonta for lunch at Miller Drug Store Soda Fountain.

Their sandwiches are huge and very good. Some had ice cream with their sandwich too so we all departed with full tummies. From there we went to Rickwood Caverns State Park and went through the cave as planned. It was a mile walk with 86 steep steps at the end, but we huffed and puffed our way back topside. It was an interesting cave and cool inside. Not as massive with rooms as large as some, but it was different and worth the walk.

We then made our way back to Snead to Al & Mick’s BBQ for dinner, arriving right on time at 5 pm. There we were met by 10 other Chapter N members for another good dinner. This place just seems to get better each time we go there. The ride was hot, but it was planned so that we never rode for more than an hour, and that was on the last leg to the restaurant. Numerous pauses kept us fresh and happy and overall it was a very enjoyable day.

Five new Hall of Fame members were recently introduced at the Opening Ceremonies of Wing Ding on July 4^th 2004, and three of them were members of one family. To be recognized as a Hall of Fame member, you must recruit 101 members into GWRRA. Kerry Wilson, his wife Joyce Wilson, and their Son-in-Law Josh Dodd have been GWRRA members less than 2 years, and have each sponsored over 101 members into GWRRA. They were presented personalized Hall of Fame Jackets at Opening Ceremonies. The Wilson’s are one of only 7 couples in GWRRA history that are both Hall of Fame members, and along with Josh, they are the first family in GWRRA history to have 3 Hall of Fame members. Their Daughter – Josh’s wife Kacey has over 25 members, and will soon join those ranks.

Gadsden Alabama is the home of the Wilson and Dodd family, and is also home of Kerry Wilson Insurance, a family business the Wilson’s have owned and operated since 1991. Josh joined the family and the business in 2003. The insurance agency specializes mostly in Automobile and Motorcycle Insurance. Kerry and Josh are in charge of quoting Motorcycle Insurance, and always offer GWRRA membership along with the insurance policy. The premium savings with the Association Discount is usually enough to pay the GWRRA membership dues, and thus a member is recruited! Wilson believes that GWRRA members everywhere could introduce this idea to their local insurance agent along with a stack of GWRRA Membership Applications, and allow agents to offer GWRRA benefits and premium savings to their clients. The member could simply drop by once a week and pick up the applications, and send them to GWRRA. The Wilson’s already practice this idea. If a Chapter member sends a customer to Kerry Wilson Insurance for motorcycle insurance, the referring member receives the recruiting credit. Thirty nine members have been recruited this way, so far this year. One member, Don Ray, has over 20 recruits so far this year!

Using this idea, the Wilson’s have helped Chapter N in Gadsden to grow to the largest chapter in the State of Alabama. In addition, recruiting percentages are in the positive column in Alabama and Region A, according to Alabama District Director Ray Erickson, Region A Recruiting & Retention Coordinator Jim Jackson, Alabama District Recruiting & Retention Director Danny Daniel, and Chapter N Recruiting & Retention Coordinator Dewey Cole. “Insurance is our business, we are just recruiting for fun”, Wilson says. “We like the pin’s patches, jackets, and recognition”, he adds. In addition, the Wilson’s have earned 12 years of Membership Renewal Reward Certificates.

Josh Dodd has brought a whole new level of excitement and youth to the Hall of Fame, at the age of 22, he is the youngest Hall of Fame member. Josh would like to keep it that way, but Kacey will probably become a Hall of Fame member in a couple of months. She is 19. GWRRA President Mike Wright told Josh, “Some of these [Hall of Fame] members have been working on this for 25 years. You are only 22 years old. That’s quite an honor”. Josh and Kacey will focus their attention on the C.O.Y. program next. The Wilson’s and Dodd’s are active in Chapter Meetings, Fun Days, District Rally’s, Wing Ding, Rider Education, and are also the Chapter Web Masters. Visit the Chapter Web Site at: http://www.kerrywilson.com/coosavalleywings.htm . Go sign up your local insurance agent as an Associate GWRRA Member, and see how many members you can sponsor!

Pictured above left to right: Josh Dodd, Kacey Wilson Dodd, Joyce Wilson, and Kerry Wilson.

Award Winners

Hello everyone, Just wanted to let everyone know that Thomas Henderson -- our ACD -- has had a brain aneurosym. He is in the Medical Center in Columbus, GA and has been pronounced legally, but not clinically dead. Peggy is holding up as well as can be expected. Tomorrow morning the hospital will run one more test and decisions will be made from there. Please keep Thomas and Peggy and the rest of the family in your prayers. We'll let you know about any more information as soon as we can.
Carol & Craig Harrison