GOLD WING TOURING ASSOCIATION Destination Friendship F-TROOP The Bugle September 2014 Pray for America, our President, our soldiers, sailors, Marines and their families REGION B ARIZONA STATE CHAPTER F www.gwta.org https://www.facebook.com/gwtaazftroop Chapter F Commander s Call News from the Directors September is here. Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Christmas cannot be far behind. I got to go out shooting on Saturday. It was a fun day. Last week when we planned to go out on Monday we had the rain of the century and I got stuck in my backyard. The only rain we get in Queen Creek this year and it has to be the rain of the century. We went for a ride in August, four bikes up 87 to Payson. Stopped for breakfast at the Payson airport. (Very good) Then back on 87 to the 260 junction. We took 260 over the mountain to Camp Verde. We gassed up and two bikes headed down I17. It got very hot on I17. The other 2 bikes headed on west. I was one of the bikes on I17 that had to stop half way back for cool off. I don t know but maybe it is because of my age I just cannot take the heat the way I used to. Bernie & Judy Stout P.S. Sam s Club has their Christmas things out already. ** As you can see to the right, we have opportunities for folks to volunteer to fill a variety of positions within the Chapter. If interested in any openings, even if to give it a trial run, let any of the officers know. To my knowledge, we have never turned anyone down.** CHAPTER F STAFF Commander Bernie & Judy Stout TAFTroop@aol.com Asst. Directors Gary & Colleen Stout ftroopgary@aim.com Treasurer Sandy Callihan Education Directors Event Directors Webmaster Gary Stout 480-390-7739 ftroopgary@netscape.net Newsletter Editor Wayne Flentge 480-857-2431 wflentge@cox.net Membership Directors Ride Director Quartermaster Sunshine Jacque Ross Helping Hands Directors 50/50 Directors Historian
F-TROOP - The Bugle September 2014 2 Birthdays & Anniversaries for September 2014 Birthdates 6 - Jamie Trhlik 9 - Gary Darling 15 - Sandy Calihan 26 - Howard Crowe REGION B DIRECTORS Steve and Ralphine Andrus Phone (707) 429-9547 Placement of Ads in the Chapter F Newsletter is greatly appreciated Anniversaries 4.25 X 5.5 - $120.00 per yr 8.5 x 5.5 - $240.00 per yr 8.5 x 11 - $480.00 per yr 15 Bernie & Judy Stout If you have not notified the Chapter of your birthday and/or Anniversary, Advertisements are used to help pay for printing costs of the F-Troop Bugler monthly Newsletter. The F Troop Bugle is published monthly and distributed at the Chapter meeting. Deadline for all publication submissions is the 10th day of each month. Newsletter editor is Wayne Flentge, wflentge@cox.net. Attention Freebies!! Anyone who writes and submits an article for the newsletter will be awarded 5 50/50 tickets at the next month s Chapter meeting. Pacific Coast Hwy Heading north on CA 1 during Debby and Wayne's PCH ride.
F-TROOP - The Bugle September 2014 3 Chapter F Rides & Events All Chapter F scheduled rides leave from the Circle K Inverness & Stapley, unless otherwise stated. Rides will leave at stated time and pre-ride meeting will take place 15 minutes prior to departure so please be on time, fueled, fired up, and ready to roll! Ride Schedule Sat, Sep 20th Sat, Oct 18th Sat, Nov 15th Sat, Dec 20th OPEN DATES 8:00 AM. Ride afterwards, local area. 8:00 AM. 8:00 AM 8:00 AM Need suggestions on where you want to ride to. As you may be aware, the ride schedule looks a bit bare for any month in fact there are no rides scheduled! So provide ideas for rides to any Chapter Officer and we will do our best to schedule and plan the ride. Sponsor provides the Bulge Newsletter Printing Perks 15% off Aftermarket Parts In Store Purchase from Western Honda 20% off Purchases from Western Honda 15% off Aftermarket Parts In Store Purchase from Western Honda From the Editor: I want to encourage everyone to submit items, articles, photos, etc. for inclusion. If you go on a ride, I welcome a summary of your experience and of course photos. My email address is: wflentge@cox.net. I can take items in most any format and convert to the newsletter. Who knows you may get recommended for the Annual F Troop Pilsner Award for your contributions. The actual award is not very valuable but it is tasty.
F-TROOP - The Bugle September 2014 4 Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), August 2014 By Wayne Debby and I decided to take an extended bike ride to California over the period of August 9th through August 20th. I moved the Kwik Camp trailer from the back yard shed to the garage the week before to clear out, clean out, and repack the trailer. I was able to get all our things into the storage bay of the trailer with enough room left to pack a Snicker s bar had to take a bite out of it before it would fit. We departed about 5 AM on a Saturday so we could get through Palm Springs before it got too hot. It was good planning as we did move through the Springs about 11AM with a temperature of less than 100 degrees. From there we proceeded to Malibu Beach and made time for some chow at a Fish Grotto on the beach. It was a nice meal and reasonably priced. By the way.. This was the eating theme for Debby for the entire trip..seafood, sea food, and just a tad more SEAFOOD! Once chow was out of the way, we made our way to our first night s stay, the Santa Paula KOA. Sunday, after a hearty breakfast at the campsite, we made our way along the PCH heading north and ended up taking a walk through a Danish town before settling down for a night at a rather large RV park named Flying Flags. Deb was a little worried about folks in those LARGE RV s looking down their noses at us in our little Kwik Kamp. However, night after night, folks would stop by at our camp sites and admire our set-up and them showing a bit of envy in us for being able to travel on the motorcycle and stop where we like. After another well prepared campsite breakfast ( we had a very skilled chef that joined us for the trip), we headed again north on the PCH with a stop at the Hearst Castle. We took the main tour that resulted in gobs of photographs. The place is truly amazing and just the reflection of a man with way too much money to spend. After the castle tour we headed north towards San Francisco. We ended up staying in a Hotel for the night as it turned out to be a very long day. After a very hearty dinner (Deb had fish, I had steak) we slept in a room getting a good night s rest. Now it is Tuesday and we headed to San Francisco. This is truly the best part of the ride heading north. We traveled right along the coast, overlooking the Pacific from our cliff height road. two lanes with very limited opportunities to pull of the road. We decided before leaving Gilbert that we would return via the PCH instead of taking I-5 back to LA, so we made mental notes of places that we wanted to stop and see on our way back home. The trafficl was not bad heading north but we noticed that there was a lot od rubber-neckers heading south. This proved to be the case when we headed south on the PCH for the return trip. As we approached the Golden Gate Bridge from the south we encounter a fair amount of traffic in the urban area. We actual had a very close call with a green sedan just prior to getting to the Golden Gate Park. Due to my superb mental alertness and awesome riding skills (with a co-rider aboard while towing a rather large trailer)... I was able to detect a cage pulling out of a service station, coming across two lanes directly towards us on a path perpendicular to our path of travel. I quickly sounded the collision alarm (I sure love my air horn!), swerved to the 3rd lane to our left and proceeded out of harm s way. We did make it to the Bridge and safely across. We continued for about another hour to the Petaluma KOA were we made this our basecamp for the next three days. The next day after arriving at the KOA, we took a guided tour of San Francisco (ran by the KOA). We visited a variety of spots in the town, took a cable car ride (of course), visited Chinatown ( left with a large bag of fortune cookies), and had a great lunch on Fisherman s Wharf. Guess what Debby had for lunch! (Continued on next page)
F-TROOP - The Bugle September 2014 5 PCH Ride (Continued) The next morning we took a self guided tour of the wine country. The driver/guide of our tour into San Francisco provided us with a print out of a map/directions for a 4-6 hour ride through the wine country. We went north of Sonoma and westward back towards the cost and stopped at the Korbel Winery for a free tour and wine tasting. Korbel does bottle wine and brandy beside their famous Champagne... which was a surprise to me. The next stop was to one of CA s Redwood forest parks. There are some really BIG tress out there! We next made it to the PCH for a lunch stop. I had a beef burger and Deb had nope, she had a veggie burger! Next stop was back to the KOA. Now being Friday, we began out trek south for the homeward leg. We stayed the next two days at the Salinas KOA. Saturday we visited Carmel by the Sea where we walked out to the sandy beach and walked the streets (spotting Clint Eastwood s place, Hog s Breath). There was a car show in town that weekend so it was very crowded. Instead of finding a place in town to eat, we headed back to the KOA and found a seaside seafood restaurant. They had great food at a pretty reasonable price. Sunday was finding us on the road again to the Santa Margarita KOA for a two night stay. We did get to the Pismo Beach and laid around for a few hours, spotting some whales spouting just off shore. On Tuesday we made it to Riverside and stayed the night in the Riverside Mission Inn a really nice place. On Wednesday we left about 6 AM for the final leg home. We did hit a little stretch of light rain just before getting to Palm Springs. This was the only time during our 12 day ride that we encountered bad weather. And other than the close call with the cage in San Francisco, the only causality on the trip was my cell phone which fell off my belt as we entered Los Angeles on the return leg. Despite the heavier traffic on the south bound ride of the PCH, it was the more scenic leg. We stopped and visited the Elephant Seals, toured a lighthouse facility, walked the beach, and took some really good phots. I had my GoPro camera recoding for much of the trip. Once I find the time to edit the over 6 hours of video, I ll post them to YouTube and provide the links. We had a great time and would recommend the route to anyone that has the time and desire. Debby did earn her Kwik Kamp merit badge! PCH Ride (Clockwise) Golden Gate Bridge RV Park Flying Flags Redwood Forest Cable car Ride
GWTA GOLD WING TOURING ASSOCIATION DESTINATION FRIENDSHIP REGION B ARIZONA State September 2014 F-TROOP Bernie Stout 20402 E. Ryan Rd. Queen Creek, AZ 85142 ARIZONA CHAPTER F ALL motorcyclists are welcome!