Northwest Area COG Newsletter SPRING 2016

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1 Northwest Area COG Newsletter SPRING 2016 From the Director s Chair Greetings! Join for the bike, Stay for the People I wanted to restate that 2016 is the last year of my third term as Area Director. It s time for a new AD to come in and see how the Director s Chair fits their seat. It s a nice one, and if you do a good enough job your friends just might decide you re worthy of a trip to Europe. At this time there is a great group of volunteers willing to help make you look good. Who s next? See you all at the Bun Cooler! 25th Bun Cooler Jim Sherman The Bun Cooler is one of the most successful events in COG. What makes it so successful to have lasted for 25 years? There have been a lot of dedicated people that have worked to put it on year after year, but the real reason for the success are the riders that show up. Two of the things that keep them coming back, are the roads and the scenery. The Clearwater area of Idaho is full of deep canyons that are thousands of feet deep. The roads either March May Sport touring at its Finest! follow the twisty scenic rivers or climb twisty roads out of the canyons. No place has this mixture of fun riding and scenery, all within a day s ride of Kamiah. You have the famous Lolo Pass, with it s 99 miles of twisting road, the appropriately named Spiral Highway, the beautiful twisty ride along the South Fork to Elk City, the Cavendish Grade, Winchester Grade, Greer Grade, Harpster Grade, Whitepine Pass, Rattlesnake Grade, and the list goes on and on. COG Northwest Officers Area Director Charlie Gary (253) nwad@cog-online.org Marketing AAD & Newsletter Editor Kari Flint (208) sweyotigger@gmail.com Alaska AAD Gary Benson (907) bensonga@gci.net Alberta AAD Don Carruthers (403) ddukeitout@mac.com British Columbia AAD Dave Owen (250) cogdave@telus.net Eastern Washington AAD Tim Rieb (509) kidcop703@hotmail.com Idaho AAD Bruce Flint (208) brucebflint@roadrunner.com Montana AAD Jack Salsbury (406) curruscanis@gmail.com Oregon AAD Steve Mustoe (541) smustoe@comcast.net Puget Sound (North) Joe Siegel (253) joesiegel55@gmail.com Puget Sound AAD (South) Dan Paulsen (253) danodemotoman@yahoo.com Saskatchewan AAD Jim & Helen Tait (306) tait@siast.sk.ca Wyoming AAD BJ Swanson (307) bswanson20@hotmail.com AAD at Large Rich Reed (425) richreed@clearwire.net Continued on Page 3 COOLER

2 SPRING 2016 OtP: An Epic Adventure Installment 2 by Charlie Gary Fresh coffee gone from the cups and old coffee gone from the bladders, we continued on in the rain. It wasn t cold inside my rain gear, so for me it was just another ride in the rain. After a while it stopped, and we continued on toward Italy. We rode up the Passo dello Stelvio from the Swiss side, and stopped at the top for the obligatory photo at The Sign. The next OtP traveler to Europe MUST DEPLOY WITH A COG STICKER FOR THE SIGN. I can t believe no one has adorned it with one, yet. The trip down into Italy was nice with no traffic, all because of the rain. We were able to swing wide through every switchback, so our pace was spirited but sane. About half way down we saw two bicyclists working at making their way up the mountain, and we don t think one of them was going much further. Poor guy bit off more than he could handle that day, and I wonder how bad his legs were hurting in the following weeks. If he wasn t smart, he may have even hospitalized himself. Poor guy needed an engine and throttle. Motorized transport was definitely the way to go. Dinner was in a town about 50 klicks past Stelvio, and that was where I had the best pizza I ve ever had. Gie had fun watching me work my butt off to cut this super-thin crust pizza with the world s dullest table Continued on page 3 OtP Page 2

3 Northwest Area COG Newsletter SPRING OtP from Page 2 knife. It worked best when I could get the knife up on edge under the pizza and use my fork tines to push down on either side of the knife. The crust was about 1/16 inch thick, had just a light smearing of sauce, a light sprinkle of good grated cheese and lots of prosciutto. It probably had some kind of veggies on it too, but those don t usually stick around in my memory. After dinner we continued on, and I was glad it didn t rain any more since we were riding through the cold front that pushed the rain. We left Lucerne, Switzerland, at about 8:30am, and we arrived at the pension in Italy about 9:45pm. It was a long day of riding, but it was great. If I hit the jackpot and end up with buckets of money, I know where I m going to spend a lot of time in retirement. At the pension we hooked up with Al Norcross, Ted and Judy Adcock and Bernd Neumann and his wife Anette. And Anette s dog Sammy. A very energetic dog. The dog that almost killed Bernd. More on that later. Bernd and crew were down the goat path at a restaurant eating and drinking, so I just went up to the room and touched bases with Al, who had already been in Europe riding around for about a week before I arrived. He was trying to get his clothes dry from being laundered the day before by a lady who said she could wash them. Al neglected to ask if she had a dryer. Dryers are unpopular energy hogs in Europe, kind of like air conditioners but more necessary to life so at least they exist in some places, unlike air conditioners. There just wasn t one any- Continued on page 4 OtP COOLER (Con t from Page 2) The COG motto, Join for the bike, Stay for the people also describes why people come to the Bun Cooler. Old friends get together and new people make friends and riding buddies. I joined COG 12 years ago when I attended my first Bun Cooler. I sold my Connie a couple of years later, but have stayed a member because of the great people I have met. It changed me from a day rider to riding all over the country on COG rides. I often think of all the places I have been, the things I have seen, and the friends I have made, because of COG and my first Bun Cooler. So quit just thinking about attending and register. We hope to make the 25th Bun Cooler the biggest and best ever. Enjoy more photos on Page 6 Page 3

4 OtP Continued from Page 3 where near Al s wet laundry, so the first few days of travel with Al involved watching him pull damp clothes out any put them anywhere he thought they might get some air flow. Anyway, Al and I spent our first night together in Italy. Lucky for me I travel with ear plugs. Al s last name is misspelled, but not the way he thinks. It should be Snorcross. The next morning we awoke and enjoyed another European breakfast. Have I mentioned I m ruined for life when it comes to hotel breakfast? I hope no Super8 manager ever asks me what I think of the continental breakfast being served because I will ask which continent inspired such a cheap offering. Europeans treat hotel guests a little differently. Enough about breakfasts. We packed up and left the pension, headed into town for gas and experienced too many people in one place. Once we broke free of the gridlock, we headed up into the Dolomite mountains and began to experience Italian and Austrian mountain roads. This day was our biggest challenge due to weather and distance. It was cool and rainy much of the time in the mountains, except for our time going up the Grossglockner High Alpine Road. For that we added fog to the mix. It was so dense I could sometimes see the four-way flashers on Bernd s bike. Bernd was leading, and I was the fourth bike in a line of five. We spent a few minutes at the top of the mountain (I think we were on top, but it was too foggy to see beyond the barrier at the edge of the parking lot) waiting for it to clear before Al, Ted and I convinced Bernd and Gie that we weren t going to see anything other than wetness. We slowly made our way back down and began our journey into Austria. Bernd took us on many back roads, and as day turned into night we began to wonder if there was a hotel in our plans. We turned up an asphalt goat path a little before 9pm, and just as I was beginning to think I was no longer having fun we rounded a corner and went through a gate to Gasthof Druckerhof, a wonderful place overlooking Lake Attersee. The dining room was still open, so we enjoyed dinner before retiring to our rooms. It was at dinner I learned that Bernd was riding with broken ribs and a recently dislocated shoulder. It seems that the week before the group with Al was touring a German concentration camp. Bernd was hanging out holding Sammy s leash and drinking a soda when Sammy saw something that needed his immediate attention and presence. This caused Sammy to attempt to run at light speed, which only worked when there was slack in the leash. As soon as the slack was gone, Bernd s arm was stretched out sideways. This caused him to fall over, breaking a few ribs when he hit the pavement. I m not sure when the shoulder dislocation happened, but it was part of the prize for holding a leash. I had no idea he was riding injured. The next morning, day 5 for me, we had a nice, sunny ride through Austria. The only hiccup was when we rounded a corner to the right. That corner was followed by left, but there was a bonus road construction stop light that began to turn red just as Bernd was setting up for a left hand curve. I saw his brake light come on, and I saw his left foot go out to support the bike when he stopped, but the stop was sudden and the road camber was working against him. Bernd rides a big BMW 1600 touring bike, and it was too much to hold up. I watched Continued on Page 5 OtP

5 OtP Con t from Page 4 him go over on the same side as the broken ribs and injured shoulder, and I thought to myself that it must have hurt. When I got to him to help him up, I couldn t believe the size of the smile on his face. Even when he s falling down on broken ribs, Bernd is having fun if it involves a motorcycle. We got past that incident, which was the only dropped bike for the trip. One thing I did learn was Austrian drivers will drive in the ditch to pass you if you re going too slow for them on dirt roads. We found our way around Vienna and arrived at our hotel. Ted found Hans Dressler waiting for him, and they went into the hotel kitchen where Ted taught Hans and the hotel cook how to make jalapeno poppers. We enjoyed them with dinner, hung out for a while as COGers do and then went to bed. The next day was set aside for a walking tour of Vienna, and Hans son was an excellent tour guide. He s a commercial property manager in the city, so he knows his way around. We saw more art on display in public than anywhere else I ve ever been, we saw where Mozart spent a lot of time, and I took lots of pictures. Afterward we went back to the hotel and began preparing to leave. The following morning we went to Hans Dressler s house, where we parked the bikes in a willing neighbor s driveway and hopped into cars to drive to Bratislava, Slovakia. Peter Lukac was kind enough to lead us around town on a tour, and afterward we went back to Austria where we got on the bikes and headed to the Czech Republic. We spent the night in Prague, where many of us experienced pork butter for the first time. Al is not a fan. Prague is a beautiful city, and it was surreal driving down a street I had seen before, but only in historical pictures showing Soviet tanks. The next morning we began to head west. We stopped at a town called Lidice, where there is a very powerful war memorial. Back in WWII the Nazis levelled a village after killing every man and sending the rest of the people to the gas chambers- except children who looked Arian. They were sent off to live with SS families. After the war people rebuilt, but they left the original village empty to preserve it. Someone gathered photos of all the children sent off to the gas chambers, and they made life-size bronze statues of them. The statues are all grouped together in one spot, where you can read plaques describing what happened. It was a difficult place to visit. Look for the next Installment of OtP Epic Adventures in the next newsletter! Visit our Forum on the Web! Newsletter Submissions Kari Flint - NWCOG Newsletter N Crimson Drive Hayden, ID Phone: sweyotigger@gmail.com

6 2016 UPCOMING COG EVENTS BY AREA FOR MORE INFORMATION ON EACH EVENT VISIT Cog-Online.ORG Calendar of Events NORTHWEST AREA April 23 Longhorn Barbeque [RTE] Spokane Valley, WA May th Annual Bun Cooler Kamiah, ID June 4 Coast Range Rumble XIII Eugene, OR Sept. 2 4 Ride the Ribbon John Day, OR Sept. 24 Bob Rainey s IHOP Ride Lopez Island, WA