Gold Wing Road Riders Association

Transcription

1 Gold Wing Road Riders Association Chapter AB-A A (Calgary) Newsletter October, 2007 Wing Wag BLUE ROCK Text and Photos by Lisa Miller W e started our journey to Billings, Montana and the GWRRA Wing Ding on June 26 th. With an oil change, a new set of tires (scrubbed in over the weekend) and the odometer reading 12,515 kms we headed out under clear skies and 15 degrees Celsius. The flat and boring terrain of the ride down highway 2 and Interstate 15 to Great Falls, Montana is an inevitable but dreaded start to most of our road trip holidays. After a stop in Shelby for fuel and food we were back on the road destined for Great Falls and beyond. Heading east out of Great Falls the ride through the Little Belt Mountains and Kings Hill Pass with the Big Belt Mountains in the distance provided a welcome change of scenery. Driving through White Sulphur Springs we spotted a café with a sign EAT which looked like it might be an interesting meal stop on a future trip. We arrived in Livingston, Montana our destination for the night and found an interesting place for supper called the Slack Knuckle Patio and Pub. The food was fabulous we enjoyed the sliders which are mini hamburgers. The great local beer was the cheapest we have seen at $1.50 a pint during happy hour, too bad we were on the motorcycle. At the end of the day, which had toped out at 25 degrees Celsius, we had been on the road eight and a half hours and had covered kms. Our second day took us from Livingston, Montana to Spearfish, South Dakota with a stop at Little Big Horn Battlefield. With a high temperature of 29 degrees Celsius we were longing for a milkshake and found (Continued on page 2) Coming Events What s Inside Oct 9 Nov 12 Nov 24 Jan 4, 5, 6 Monthly Meeting Nov Monthly Meeting Christmas Party Motorcycle Show Billings Bound...1 Garage Sale...6 Motorcycle Show Christmas Party...8 Safety First...9 News & Notices...9 Classifieds...10 Calgary Area Staff Listing...10

2 Wing Wag October, 2007 Page 2 (Continued from page 1) some great ones at the Copper Moon restaurant in Broadus, Montana. The Ranger talk at the Little Big Horn National Battlefield was very informative and well worth the time. When we arrived in Spearfish we opted to have supper at the Applebee s across the parking lot from our hotel. On the walk over we spotted a 1500 Gold Wing trike conversion in the parking lot. We stopped by to check out the license plate and found to our great surprise it was from Great Britain. While in the restaurant I decided to see if I could spot the travelers and I eventually located them. Turned out they had flown their trike and trailer in to Vancouver, Canada on Air Transat and would be attending Wing Ding as part of their nine week holiday in Canada and the US. It made me dream about how great it would be to travel around Great Britain on our Gold Wing. Our traveling day had lasted nine and a half hours and we covered kms. The drive between Spearfish, South Dakota and Deadwood, South Dakota provided the opportunity to view a couple of waterfalls. We got into Deadwood at 1:30 but couldn t check into our hotel so we rode up to Mt. Moriah cemetery (Boothill) to see the graves of Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane. After checking into our hotel we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Deadwood s historic main street and sampling the cold beer in a number of bars and casinos. After a short rest we walked the historic main street again this time throwing coins into several machines along the way. We had an excellent supper at Social Club #10 in the upper floor of one of the historic buildings. We only rode 74.2 kms today but added several more kms by foot. It was already 29 degrees Celsius when we left Deadwood at 10:15 a.m. and it never cooled the rest of the day. Most of the day was spent driving the Needles Highway and through Custer State Park. We had lunch in the Elkwood Grill where we talked with two other Gold Winger couples, one couple was headed home to Chicago and the other couple were headed to Wing Ding. After lunch we drove to Jewel Cave National Monument for a 1:20 minute tour of the cave. We finally got to cool down in the cave which has an average temperature of 49 degrees Fahrenheit. I wasn t sure I wanted to leave. The Jewel Cave system is the second longest cave system in the US, the longest is the Mammoth Cave system in Tennessee. Our route to Keystone, South Dakota from Jewel Cave National Monument took us on the Iron Mountain Road which had been recently resurfaced. We traveled from east to west but the sun was very low on the horizon and the glare obscured our views of Mt. Rushmore. Shortly after starting along the road we got caught in a mass migration of Buffalo crossing the road by the hundreds. We got into Keystone about 6:30 p.m. and had supper at the Ruby House which was rather odd as the bar orders and the restaurant orders are all handled separately from waiters to bills. We only logged kms during the eight and a quarter hours of our touring day. Another hot day was in the offing as at 10:00 a.m. it had already reached a temperature of 28 degrees Celsius. We (Continued on page 3)

3 Wing Wag October, 2007 Page 3 (Continued from page 2) before but the promise of a cooling milkshake was too much to pass up, and what a milkshake it was, so thick you needed a spoon. Rapid City is home to a couple of truly unique tourist sites. Thunderhead Underground Falls is a water fall into what was supposed to be a gold mine but during blasting of the tunnel the river floor above was breached. The tunnel is short but amazingly cool and the waterfall at the end is very dramatic not because of height but because of the incredible volume. Our next stop destination for the day and we waited to have breakfast from the on-site cafeteria before walking around the grounds. The temperature that had started the day at 28 degrees Celsius continued to climb steadily and it was very hot. We got on the bike and drove the stopped at a gold shop in Rapid City before continuing on to Wall Drug. The wind was horrible and kept blowing our visors and microphones around. Wall Drug has been a source of curiosity since Colin and I kept seeing bumper stickers reading, I ve been to Wall Drug on almost every car during our honeymoon in Yellowstone Park 24 years ago. We had lunch at the town of Wall where Wall Drug is located. This is basically a giant shopping opportunity in the middle of nowhere enroute to the Badlands National Park. By the time we got to Badlands National Park it was 38 degrees Celsius and continued to be horrifically windy. A drive through the park drops you down into a valley which helped with the wind for a while. The park seems to go on forever and is like Drumheller on steroids and just as hot and dry. Back in Rapid City after a few wrong turns due to construction and road closures we spotted a Cold Stone Creamery. This is not a place we had ever been to was Chapel in the Hills which is an exact replica of an eleventh century Norwegian chapel made entirely of wood. One of the best things about Rapid City was TGI Friday s one of our favorite restaurants in the US Jack Daniels Flat Iron Steaks just can t be beat. After supper we headed back to our hotel to do our nightly load of laundry. Our long awaited low was 22 degrees Celsius and we logged kms for the day. Mt. Rushmore was our primary Iron Mountain Road again this time going from west to east. Then we drove to Wind Cave National Park but didn t do the cave tour and decided to just return to our hotel as three days of such heat was just too much for both of us. We stopped at the Mt. Rushmore Tramway where we took a chairlift to the top where we found a shaded and relatively cool place to enjoy the view and delight in ice cream treats and cold drinks. To get back to the bottom we opted to ride the President s Slide which is a toboggan ride on a track with a wheeled and controllable sled what fun! We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the town of Keystone and indulged in a couple beers along the way and a (Continued on page 4)

4 Wing Wag October, 2007 Page 4 (Continued from page 3) slab each of very good fudge. A couple hours later we rode up to the Powder House restaurant for supper then stopped to fill the tank in preparation for a driving day the next morning. On the road again at 10:45 with the heat already starting to build and we are driving to a place called Thermopolis, Wyoming. We hit a low for the day of 22 degrees Celsius while in the Bighorn Mountains after an ice cream stop in Gillet, Wyoming. We encountered several other Gold Wingers enjoying the same cooling rest stop. We hit our high for the day of 38 degrees Celsius just as we were arriving in Thermopolis. After getting our room air conditioner pumping we went across the street to the Safari Club Restaurant and Lounge located in the Holiday Inn hotel. This is a disturbing yet morbidly intriguing place as all the walls are covered with animal and fish trophies of all species from all around the world. The owner and his daughter have spent 50 years or more collecting all of the trophies including elephant tusks, hippos, rhinos and much more. An after supper walk around the thermal pools lead us back to our hotel where we enjoyed a dip in the hotel s thermal pool before back to our room to do laundry and go to bed. Our travels for the day had added kms to our odometer. We went back to the Safari Club restaurant for breakfast before getting on the road for another day. This time I took my camera and was able to take several pictures that cannot begin to do justice to the number of trophies hanging off the walls. While the trophies are compelling the photos that line the corridors of the hotel are completely overwhelming and worth spending some time to peruse. On the bike at 10:30 it was already 30 degrees Celsius. We headed north and began gaining altitude and thankfully started to drop temperature to a more comfortable level. As we continued to drive the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway to the summit of Dead Indian Pass we became entangled in a cattle drive; and where cattle are, cow pies become a problem especially when stop and go riding is necessary to avoid the cows producing them. This scenic highway leads directly into the Beartooth Pass. This is another and more impressive drive which straddles the border between Wyoming and Montana. At the summit which is some 10,000 feet the temperature was a delightful 14 degrees Celsius and it was hard to believe we would be dropped back into 30 plus degrees in just a short time. The views were dramatic and more than a slightly impressive. As we headed for the town of Red Lodge our home for the coming night we spotted a sign that is more than a slight understatement, it said, Hill Next 16 Miles. In Red Lodge we were thrust back into the unrelenting heat of the previous days. After checking into our hotel we rode to the Hungry Bear restaurant in Bear Creek to try the World Famous banana cream pie I had read about in an edition of Wing World. The banana cream pie was good enough to ask for a second piece and Colin really enjoyed his piece of sour cream apple pie. Supper was eaten at the Carbon Country Steak House where we both had excellent fillets. Back at our hotel we enjoyed an extended conversation with Pat (a firefighter) and his wife Cathy who were on their way home to Michigan and were also proud owners of a white Gold Wing like ours but with much more chrome. With the sky darkening it was time to get our laundry done and get to bed. (Continued on page 5)

5 Wing Wag October, 2007 Page 5 (Continued from page 4) Our next three days were to be spent in Billings, Montana attending Wing Ding. We left Red Lodge without breakfast deciding instead to eat at the IHOP an hour down the road in Billings. After breakfast we proceeded to Metra Park, the venue for Wing Ding. There were so many Gold Wings and trike conversions it was hard to believe, and not in just one parking lot but in three. The temperatures continued to be extremely hot, but thankfully the pavilions were well air conditioned although very crowded. These conditions continued throughout the three days we were in at Wing Ding with overall high of 44 degrees Celsius. We learned that if we ever attend another Wing Ding we will reduce the number of days we will attend, one or two days would have been more than enough. Our first day we made a couple of purchases including a set of transformer floorboards for me and a side stand platform for when the pavement is too hot or soft to support the weight of a Gold Wing. We also attended the Dunlop tire check where we learned that our loaded bike was about 100 lbs over weight for the bike and tires, and we pack extremely light, it makes me wonder about some of the other bikes and riders we see. Over all we enjoyed Wing Ding and were happy to meet other Calgary Chapter members during our wanderings. The chapter dinner at the Golden Corral was a highlight for both of us and we particularly enjoyed indulging in a beer with Alex and Shaun Middleton at the top floor lounge at the Crown Plaza. Our experience of the pavilions and the courses available were very favorable with the facilities and activities appearing to be well organized. The community parade could not have been better managed. However, there were a few things that Colin and I found surprising and disappointing during our first Wing Ding experience. For an event that has been held for nearly 30 years the lack for organization for outside events was surprising. Those of us who wanted to observe some of the competitive or show events in the parking lots had no facilities for seating and there was little or no narration to inform viewers what was happening or the goals of each exercise. The single shuttle bus provided to transport people between the parking lots and venues was sadly inadequate to the task when some 10,000 people were expected to attend, especially considering the ages of many Gold Wing owners. I don t know if this is an anomaly but it has adversely affected my view of the event organization. During our three days at Wing Ding we only added kms to our odometer. We were very thankful for the hotel swimming pool during our stay and we enjoyed a cooling dip at least once each day to recover from the excessive heat. We left Billings heading for the historic Izzak Walton Inn in Essex, Montana which I had read about in another edition of Wing World. This is a great location for rail fans and the building is very nice although not air conditioned. With temperatures still hovering in the mid-thirties this proved to be an issue. We had a wonderful supper but I have to say the service left a lot to be desired. And while the room had a lot of antique charm the bed was like a board and the cast iron bed frame squeaked every time one of us moved. I could not recommend it for an overnight stay. The morning dawned blue and bright and a little cooler than previous days. We headed for Glacier National Park riding from west to east to be on the edge of the road and optimize the views. The ride was breath taking and it was interesting to see the damage spring run-off had done to the roadway. We crossed back into Canada at the Chief Mountain border crossing and had only one car ahead of us which was leaving as we pulled up. We stopped for fuel and food in Pincher Creek then home via highway 22 and the Trans-Canada highway. Our

6 Wing Wag October, 2007 Page 6 Thanks to all that participated in the GWRRA garage sale both as shoppers and vendors. I don t know how we managed it, but thanks to the generous donations from the various vendors, we have accumulated a total of $ that will be donated to the Rider Education program. A special thanks to Pete Crawley for donating the food and the entire proceeds from the BBQ smokies to the Stollery Children s Hospital in Edmonton. Do you think this is a worthwhile event, and maybe we should do it every year? Ride Like Your Life Depends on it! Milt WW

7 Wing Wag October, 2007 Page 7 Just a reminder to all about the upcoming Motorcycle Show at the Roundup Center, Stampede Grounds. The show dates are as follows : January 4 January 5 January 6 If you are unable to volunteer for a full shift at the booth but are planning to attend the show please feel free to stop by and offer a relief period for those that are working. Let them go for a coffee etc. Thanks to all who volunteered; without you this show would not be a success. Alex Middleton WW

8 Wing Wag October, 2007 Page 8 Mark your calendars for our annual Christmas Party on Saturday, November 24, 2007 to be held at the Austrian Canadian Club. Dine and dance to the music of Jana and Danny. Doors open at 6:00pm, Dinner at 7:00pm Dance starts at 8:30pm Tickets will be $32.00 Again this year we have round tables reserved. Watch for details closer to this event. Early bird Draw for a prize is November 5, 2007 Name to be drawn at the November 2007 monthly meeting Social Co-ordinators Writers Wanted 1020 Meridian Rd. N.E. Calgary, AB T2A 2N8 If you have a story about your recent motorcycle adventures we would love to share it with the other GWRRA members by publishing your story in the Wing Wag. Please your stories to Lisa Miller at goldwing calgary.com

9 Wing Wag October, 2007 Page 9 SAFETY FIRST UPCOMING COURSES 1. No Courses Scheduled. WW 1. Members of our group have been involved in mail ordering Gold Wing parts from the US to Canada. Carol Myers has been organizing some of the groups "bulk buying", and they've been saving significant money doing this versus buying from dealers in Canada. More about this can be discussed at upcoming meetings. To contact Carol Myers send an to her at cmyers@primus.ca WW

10 Wing Wag October, 2007 Page 10 Classified Ads The Classified ads are free to all members and associates of the GWRRA. While advertised items do not have to be Gold Wing related, we do insist that all ads pertain to motorcycling. Ads will appear on a space available basis for one month. Should you wish to continue to run your ad for a second or succeeding month, you must resubmit or renew your ad. Deadline for submission is the 25th of the month preceding publication. To post an ad or if the item is sold or the offer withdrawn, please contact Lisa Miller at: goldwing Calgary.com CLASSIFIED ADS September 50/50 Winner CALGARY AREA STAFF Chapter Directors Jim & Dorothy Baker chapter goldwing calgary.com Quartermaster Brian Perrin goldwing calgary.com Newsletter Editor Lisa Miller goldwing calgary.com Treasurer Joy Somers goldwing calgary.com Ride Coordinator Rod Banman ride goldwing calgary.com Rider Training Don Martin rider goldwing calgary.com Rider Education Wes Braden rider goldwing calgary.com Rider Course Terry Burrill Instructor goldwing calgary.com Social Coordinators Rose Perrin social goldwing calgary.com & Sharon Sanders social goldwing calgary.com & Joanne Quinlan social goldwing calgary.com Social Coordinator & Vi Banman Membership social goldwing calgary.com Enhancement Assistant Membership Darryl Minsky Enhancement goldwing calgary.com Coordinator & Webmaster GWRRA TOLL FREE NUMBER (CANADA & US) NATIONAL LEADERS Executive Director Melissa Nordeoff (623) Natl Dirs for Cdn Ops Ron & Carol Hodgson (403) Natl Rider Ed Director Gordon Murphy (709) Region J Directors Phil & Margaret Craven (250) District Directors Ross & Audrey Woolsey (780) Daniel Pilon NOTE: addresses in this publication are displayed in a manner that will deter automatic address harvesting programs. This step is taken to reduce unsolicited to any addresses we post. We regret any inconvenience caused for our legitimate visitors. Remove all the spaces in the address to make it work.

11 Wing Wag October, 2007 Page 11 EVENT SCHEDULE DAY/DATE EVENT AB-A SPONSOR Oct 9 Monthly Meeting Nov 12 Nov Monthly Meeting Nov 24 Christmas Party Jan 4, 5, 6 Calgary Motorcycle Show Monthly Meetings Monthly meetings are held on the 2nd Monday of each month. This is a time to share information and to meet old and new friends who like to ride together for FUN, Safety and Knowledge. See you at the next meeting at the Fox Hollow Golf Club, 9th Street and 32nd Avenue N.E. 6:30; Meeting at 7:00 PM. Friends for Fun, Safety, and Knowledge Come ride with us...everyone Welcome! For the latest updates on what we are doing and where we re going, check out our website: Rain, snow or shine, we meet for breakfast every Sunday morning about 9 AM. This is a great year round way to stay in touch with your GWRRA friends. So, if you have missed the opportunity to join us for breakfast recently, why don t you come on over to the Fox Hollow Golf Club, 9th Street and 32nd Avenue N.E.

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