It's a rainy day in November 2015 so what do you do? You bust out the 2016 calendar and begin planning your Harley-riding bucket list. So far, here are a few preliminary riding events penciled into the 2016 Raymond Riding Schedule: 12 monthly Chapter rides following the meetings (first Saturdays) At least 10 dinner rides At least 10 lunch rides A couple of overnight rides with the Chapter Scootin America the first weekend in April (w/david Patterson, Alan, and Scooter Trash) Iron Horse Rally in Ft. Smith, April 29-30 Open invitation ride to Indianapolis to drive a NASCAR (via the Petty Experience) in the Spring HOT (HOG Officer Training) Conference in Shreveport, Louisiana, May 6-7 Frontier HOG Chapter from Lincoln, Nebraska, to visit Pig Trail HOG during Memorial Day Weekend Tennessee HOG Rally in Memphis, May 31 June 4 Arkansas HOG Rally in Hot Springs, June 23-25 Sturgis Rally, August 6-13 Bike, Blues, and BBQ, September 21-24 Open invitation ride to Dallas/Ennis, Texas, for the Fall Nationals NHRA drag races in October Hopefully, many of these rides will also be entered into your 2016 calendars because it is beyond awesome when we are RIDING AND HAVING FUN WITH FELLOW HOG MEMBERS!!!! Deb and I wish you and your loved ones the Merriest Christmas and the Happiest New Year. ~ Garry Jon Fuqua Treasurer
Darlene Smith-Lee Ladies of Harley Thanksgiving is gone and Christmas is upon us. I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving. This Thanksgiving, I personally thought of how blessed I was for the Hog Chapter. The Hog Chapter has introduced me to new friends from all walks of life that I am very Thankful for. The LOH has allowed me to get to know other members more on a personal basis, form bonds, laugh more but more than anything, it has allowed me to appreciate the friendships. The LOH Christmas party is scheduled for Dec 16 @ 6:30, hosted by Kristie Ballow. This will be a White Elephant party ($15.00 max). Kristie will provide the meat and all guest should bring a covered dish. The Cookie Bash was once again a HUGE SUCCESS. Once again, the weather was cold and damp but that didn t stop the laughter. We put together over 40 trays of cookies and delivered to 9 different stations in Rogers, Springdale & Lowell. We started at 9:00 am and ended up at Chouy s at 2:10 pm for a late lunch with lots of laughter. We even made a special delivery to Wal-Mart RX (Pleasant Grove) to deliver a special tray to Gary Ivey, just to say Thanks for all the pictures! I do believe it s the first time that any of us saw Gary blush! So with all this being said, I hope all of you have a Very Merry Christmas a great New Year and looking forward to more laughter in 2016. ~ Darlene Name tags came in last month! If you placed an order for a Chapter Name tag, it s here. For your convenience, the dealership has them at the cash wrap, so you may pick yours up during store hours. ~ Janet Janet Stewart We added four new members the past month which brings our membership total to 240. We started taking forms, wavers and dues for 2016 membership last month. I ll see you at Saturday s meeting. Please see me to get your membership for next year taken Jeff Johnson care of. I ll have the 2016 membership cards at the January meeting. ~ Jeff Membership
We held the first portion of the Road Captain training this month with a great turn out, a total of 20 current and potential RC's. The open communication and discussion was more than we could have hoped for. With the addition of our new prospective RC's came fresh ideas and a renewed spark. For those who weren't able to attend, we will have a make up session in the near future. The feedback we have received confirms that members are excited about the new direction we are headed. We are on schedule to have everything in place for the next riding season. As always, we encourage your feedback and suggestions. ~ Paul & Harv Jingle bells, jingle bells... fa la la la la la la It s is hard to believe that another year of riding is under our belts and the holidays are here for us to celebrate. This is the time of year for us to reflect with our family and friends including your HOG friends. The Christmas party is almost here and we have lots of fun things planned. Gift exchange, food, drink, and door prizes. Hopefully you have signed up as the party is Saturday, December 5 beginning at 6 pm. Last chance to sign up is this Saturday at the Chapter Meeting which starts at 9:30 sharp! Thomas & Janet Ptacek Because this is a busy time of year, making your lists and checking them twice, Activities we don t have any other activities planned for the month. However you never know the weather in Arkansas and we may plan spur-of-the-moment rides to take in the sunshine when we can. We wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Until next time.... ~Thomas and Janet Ptacek, Activities Officers By Kyle Johnson The Christmas Holiday is in full swing and we want to thank each of you being valued customers to Pig Trail Harley- Davidson and friends. We have two toy runs I want to highlight. The Rogers Toy Run will be Saturday, December 12 th and the Eureka Springs one will be Saturday, December 19. Each year we want to help less privileged children have a special Christmas and we couldn t do this without all of you. We are inviting you to drop off unwrapped toys at Pig Trail Harley-Davidson. See Mike or Scott in marketing. Thank you for considering this special opportunity. Other URGENT NEWS! We are going to have our VIP shopping Night on Thursday December 3 rd and you are all invited. We are going to extend the shopping hours between the hours of 3-8 p.m. this year. Don t miss out on this night as it is the best savings of the year on your favorite Harley products! We hope to see you here. We at PTHD wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and thank you for making us your home dealership! Enjoy your family and travel safe. Merry Christmas, ~ Kyle
The 75th Black Hills Motorcycle Rally Our 2015 Trip to Sturgis -- Making Memories by Garry Raymond Much planning went into our third trip to the Sturgis rally where we partied with a million of our closest friends. Deb and I were blessed to have fellow HOG members, Butch and Yevon Prater, join us for the trip in our motorhome. The first challenge was to figure out how to strap four large Harleys to a 16-foot trailer. We left on Thursday, July 30, and made it to Mitchell, South Dakota, where we "camped" for the night in a Wal-Mart parking lot. We arrived mid-day Friday in Sturgis and checked into the Downtown Sturgis RV Park. We love this location since it is a short walk to downtown, and more importantly, to Easyrider's Saloon. Saturday the four of us did the pre-ride for our HOG Chapter ride scheduled for Monday. PERFECT day with less traffic. Sunday was spent shopping and enjoying the free concerts at Easyrider's. We met several of our Pigtrail HOG friends at the Saloon and enjoyed music from two of our favorite bands, Hells Belles and Hairball. On Monday, Deb and I led what's probably the best ride in the Black Hills. About 15 members joined us as we traveled Needles Highway, the Custer Park Wildlife Loop (saw hundreds of buffalo), Iron Mountain Road, and ended up at beautiful Mt. Rushmore. On Tuesday about 12 members and friends joined us for a ride down Spearfish Canyon to Bridal Veil Falls, Roughlock Falls (near where some scenes from Dances With Wolves were filmed), and ended in Deadwood for fun and frolicking. On a side note - please plan a visit to Roughlock Falls, it's a gravel road off the beaten trail but well worth the trip. Due to the extreme crowded traffic volume and the difficulty keeping the group together, the other planned group rides were not taken. Smaller group rides were taken to Vanocker Canyon, Nemo, Devils Tower, Hulett, etc. Friday evening provided an opportunity to cross one off the bucket list when we attended the Def Leppard Concert at the Buffalo Chip. Beyond outstanding! We departed Sturgis Saturday and "camped" in another Wal-Mart parking lot in Iowa. The trip ended safely when the RV rolled into the Raymond Ranch in Gravette on Sunday, August 9th. In summary, it was an awesome trip spent with awesome friends and fellow HOG members. It was extremely crowded since it was the 75th rally and we learned to be very patient. Hopefully many of our chapter members will plan to attend next year when the crowds will be much more manageable. Let's plan to go to the 76th!!!!!!