Region H Chapter AR-E

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1 June 2011 Director s Ramblings 1 Calendar of Events 2 Friends helping Friends 3-5 Thunder at the Beach 6-8 THE HUB 9-15 Don t ride on Friday the 13th 9 Road of the Month 9 Course on riding with a Trailer 16 Chapter Education 17 By the Book 18 District Director s Report 19 As I write this article, I am reminded of one of the reasons that we are members of GWRRA. When the storms hit Arkansas, there was a response to help from the membership; when someone is sick or not feeling good, there are calls and cards. When there is a request for the membership to support a cause, such as a ride to honor the Arkansas Fallen Heroes, the membership steps up to the plate. We could not ask for a nicer group of people than the friends of GWRRA and Chapter E. We are so blessed that we have a group of members who are concerned and care about their fellow man. Our many thanks to all of you for the fantastic support and encouragement you give to this chapter and the team members! It s definitely good riding weather, so let s stay alert to the weekly rides we are having and enjoy that beautiful Arkansas countryside! We are planning some good eating and social times for the chapter in the coming months.watch your for that information!! Richard & Jean Penuell Chapter Directors Chapter E

2 June 2011 Chapter Director Richard & Jean Penuell Assistant Chapter Director Charlie & Cheryl Stockton Treasurer Carol Bass Chapter Education Tom Harrison Newsletter Valerie Hewett Ride Coordinator Don Hewett Couple of the Year Skip & Joan Klink Recruiting/Retention Bob Bass Event Coordinator Tom Templeton Scrapbook Carol Bass Sunshine Person Joan Klink Quarter Master Cheryl Stockton Meet to Eat Katie & Gary Glenn Web Master Dave Scott June July OPEN Talking about an extended trip someplace. July Wing Ding in Knoxville, TN-Microtel Inn Skip August Picnic on the lake, boating Don Aug Mt. View Bike Rally, Dennis Hintz, stay at Jacks on the river September Sept 17 Chapter Picnic Pavilion 2 at De- Gray Lake Richard & Jean AMA SuperBike Championship Barber MotorSports AL Sept 28-Oct 1 BBQ- Bikes Blues & BBQ in Fayetteville, AR - Don October Oct 1 Chapter J Rally Hobo Fest Russellville Branson Trip Oct 22- District Memorial Picnic, Little Rock, Go to picnic after Chapter Mtg Oct OK District Rally, McAlester November Wounded Warrior Ride -Clinton Library-Tom T December Nov 12 TX Honor Ride Houston to San Antonio Carl Smith Dec 3 -Chapter Christmas Party Dec 10 - District Toy Ride, Little Rock Dec 10 District Christmas Party

3 Tornado Damage Working Hard

4 Tornado Damage TAKING A NEEDED BREAK GWRRA Helpers Don Hewett Jerry Sloan & Dalton Richard Penuell Jim Russell Charlie Stockton Ed Hagan Mike Kessling Dennis Van Leeuwen Dan Gruben Sylvia brought Ice Tea Valerie brought BK Flamenco Lane Rick Hiemenz & Tom Harrison s houses got hit by the tornado last month. I counted 72 trees down and then stopped counting at Rick s house. Both their houses are on the 16th green of Coronado GC. When we all arrived at 7am, the trees were strewn all over the driveway. There were about 7 trees on his house. After about 4 hours, we started to see the driveway.

5 Tornado Damage THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Sue and I just don t know how we can begin to thank all of the Chapter E Gold Wing Riders that came over to the house and worked there butts off getting seven tree s off my roof as well as additional trees that were blocking our driveway. I made one phone call to Don Hewett and before I knew what was happening there were 12 plus guys at the house. Not to mention Valerie Hewett taking her time, running around getting lunch for everyone. Once again you don t know how much you all were appreciated. In addition to the work, we were loaned a generator and canvass covers as well as a cooler with ice cold beer at the end of the day. Too all of the Chapter E riders, in case you don t know it, you are part of a very special Group of People. Things are finely settling down a bit, we have a roofer and contractor lined up to repair the house. Many folks have been by offering to clean up the debris, so that will get done in time. One thing I can assure you, is that all your time and efforts will not be forgotten. Thank You, Thank You, Thank All of You Honda Rick and Sue

6 Panama City Beach June 2011 TORNADOS Cheryl & Charlie Stockton, Pattie and Wally Melik, & Don & Val Hewett went on a mc trip to Thunder at the Beach at Panama City Beach April Pattie and Wally are golfing buddies of mine and just happen to ride their own BMW s. Wally has logged 280,000 miles on his BMW. Pattie has logged 150,000 miles on her BMW. Needless to say that they are great riders. The Stockton s and the Hewett s met at BK (where else). The previous day is when the tornado came through HSV, and, there were storm clouds going due EAST. We had planned to head east and then south, but due to the storm clouds we decided to go south first, then head east. That seemed like a good plan at the time. Pattie & Wally were going to leave a little later. As we headed south on AR 7 we saw 5 Entergy trucks heading north. Wonder where they were going?? As we continued down 7, the fog got thicker. The misty fog wrapped itself around us like a wet blanket. It was a mystery ride. You never knew what was around the next curve. Then all of a sudden we came around a curve and we saw HER. The beauty of AR. The clear blue lake of De Gray with the fog creeping like a lazy spider, the green mountains, the smell of clean fresh air, and oh, just a hint of skunk. Jim Russell once told me that if you drive fast enough, you won t smell any skunk. We were not going fast! FLOODS We are now in Arkadelphia on Rt 7 and start seeing signs Closed High Water. We forged ahead determined to prevail. Just south of Arkadelphia, there it was..this big sign saying ROAD CLOSED. It was obvious. AR 7 was washed out. There was a nice fast moving stream going over it. OK, folks, time for a new plan. We decided to go back to our original plan of heading east first, then south. Our GPS does not tell about washed out roads. So, we head north toward the town of Tulip, where there are NO tulips. However, there was the SUN. We stopped and peeled off our rain gear fast. I saw a sign that said Tulip population 62 counting farm animals pop 78. We were now about 5 hours into our trip and we had just gotten to the MS River. I kept seeing signs to Pinebluff and asked Don if we were ever going to get out of AR. He said that he wasn t sure because there were storms ahead.

7 June 2011 Hurricane Winds We are now in MS and as we are driving we see a bunch of police cars and this young girl coming up from the swamp. She had run off the road and luckily had gotten out of her car. The car was floating in the swamp. She was a lucky gal. We continue our jaunt and are on a road with NO trees. Without protection from the trees you can get some fierce winds. Hence, we did. Charlie & Cheryl were swaying all over the road. We had to slow down so Charlie could maneuver his Trike. The winds were probably gusting to 60 mph. I felt like a dish rag being thrown around. If I turned my head around a certain way, the wind would howl through my helmet. By the time we got to head east, after we retraced our steps, the storms had already passed. You have to have some luck. We got to Hattiesburg, MS. Pattie & Wally had arrived earlier than us. How is that you ask since they started later? They did not take as long as we did. BUT, they were just in time to ride with the storms. They said that they had to stop in a farmer s barn because of the down pour. The second day s ride was semi-uneventful. Wally s face shield broke and neither of the 3 men could fix it because they did not have DUCK TAPE. So, he had to ride without a face shield. He just hunkered down on his BMW. THE SUN We finally arrived at Panama City Beach where the sun was shining and it was 75 degrees and just as lovely as FL can be. The smell of the Atlantic, the pretty white beaches and, of course, the bikers were a welcome sight. We went to Coyote Ugly that night and saw the gals dancing on the bar. They were not ugly. THE NIGHT LIFE We went to a nightclub where they were having a bikini contest. The men enjoyed that outing. We then went to Club LaVela where they were having a Tribute to Garth Brooks and a Tribute to the Motley Crew bands. These bands look and sound so much like these artists that you really could not tell the difference. Garth Brooks impersonator wore the same black hat and clothes as Garth does. Even his stature was the same.

8 Panama City Beach June 2011 I would like to explain this T-Shirt. A Fatboy is a Harley Motorcycle. So, she is just letting everyone know that you can save a horse and ride a Harley. It is just that SIMPLE Pattie sipping a Beverage SOME STORIES Don was running to catch the elevator that we were holding for him. All of a sudden we heard a crash, a grunt and a water bottle came whizzing by us. Don had tripped over a tiny little 2 inch step in the concrete. I tried to take a picture of him sprawled out on the floor but he was too quick to get up. Don & I drove out onto a peninsula where there were some beautiful homes..all for sale. We saw signs that said Development for Sale, Liquid Auction, Short Sale. And, we are very thankful that we live right here in HSV. Saw signs that said Bears Next 4 miles. Did not know that there were bears in FL. While we were on our way home, Pattie dropped her BMW key down the drain in the bathroom. She came out all flustered not knowing what to do. Wally saved the day. He just so happened to have an extra key wired to a hidden place under the bike. He said that he always does that due to an experience he had years ago with his daughter...don t ask. All in all it was a fun trip, but we were all glad to be back in AR and HSV..

9 THE HUB The first road slide we encountered was on AR 7, just south of Pelsor. The whole lane had fallen down the hill, so we had to ride carefully on the other side of the road. The next was on AR 43, just west of The Hub. It looked like they were in the process of fixing it, but the road was split up badly. Why you should not ride on Friday the 13th Don & I were riding on AR 23, south of Eureka. I was sleeping peacefully in the back. All of a sudden Don slams on the brakes. I wake up just in time to see a Deer dart out in front of us. Then, I heard & felt his hoof hit the front of the bike. Our bike wobbled some. WE DID NOT GO DOWN! Road of the month AR 341 between Mountain Home & Mountain View off of AR 14. It is called Push Mtn. About 40 miles of tight S curves and gentle sweeping S curves. It did not have many straight aways and there were no hairpin turns. Road was in good condition with plenty of shoulder room. I asked Randall why there was a bullet hole in my window. He said That is just the way it is.... (when I bought it)

10 There were about 10 bikes and 16 people that came up to The Hub. It got real cold so some people left early, but those of us who stayed had some good riding (after we bought sweaters) THE HUB

11 THE HUB

12 THE HUB Sharon pulls her Trike around back. Then she backs in. Then she gets out the rags and cleans the Trike. I am going to have a talk with her!

13 THE HUB Randall let us store our Bikes in his BIG Garage Debbie set up & decorated a table especially for us in the Game Room. Most of us had the delicious Prime Rib dinner. Keith & Mary Ronnie & Glenda Chapter F Slidell, LA Don got the MOST TALKA- TIVE Award. After Peter finished talking, then Don started. Peter left & Don was then talking to his wife, Marian

14 THE HUB The Fire was a WARM welcome at night when it was 42 degrees A number of us went to Wal Mart to buy sweatshirts & face covers. ON SALE

15 THE HUB This is the bridge when it is NOT under water Biker Babe took 11 yrs to grow this long hair This is the bridge when IT IS under water

16 Trikes with Trailers (TTRC ) On April 16th Cheryl and I traveled to Morrilton for a day long training course of Trike Trailering. This is a new course just authorized by GWRRA and never given before outside the test period. Our instructor was Rodd Polk from De- Ridder, Louisiana close to Lake Charles. Rod is about 6 5 with a full beard and long hair wearing a GWRRA vest covered with enough buttons, metals and patches that it must have weighed 20 pounds. We met Rodd outside the classroom with a warm hand shake and a welcome that made us feel right at home. He at once informed us we were the only ones to arrive and he didn t know if there would be others but he came all this way and he was going to teach the class even if we were the only ones. Well it turned out we were the only ones. But what a blessing, he went through the entire classroom activities just as if there was a full class. Just as most GWRRA courses this Trike Trailering course is based on safety. He gave us a check list of all the things to look at on the bike and the trailer before leaving the house. The list included proper tongue weight and how to determine it. The current industry standard is 10 to 15 percent of the loaded weight of the trailer. An example is 150 pound trailer with 100 pounds of stuff = 250 lbs. The tongue weight should be 25 to 37.5 lbs. The tongue weight will affect the operation of the trike as well as the trailer By Charles & Cheryl Stockton so this is important. Hitch alignment is also important making sure it s not too high or too low. A good rule of thumb is to level the tongue line of the loaded trailer in the garage or driveway. Of course there were lots of other things to discuss about trike trailering but I will leave that to you when you take the class. Just as we had about finished our classroom training one of our district guys comes in and announces the parking lot where the range was to be set up was full of cars making it unavailable. Rodd said we had two choices - call off the session and give our money back or wait around to see if the lot becomes available. We chose to go to lunch and return after one o clock then make the decision. Fortunately when we got back the lot was empty and the session could go on. The next four hours were exciting and stressful. We covered riding exercises like: How does a trailer affect your ride, how the co-rider can affect the trailer and ride, stopping in a straight line or in a curve, turning and using reverse plus we even went into parallel and vertical parking. Overall a great rider s course we recommend to all trike riders who even think they might pull a trailer.

17 June 2011 Summer Riding By Tom Harrison, Chapter Educator Glory hallelujah, after a hard winter, summer is on the way. At the risk of being a kill joy, it is my job to remind you that we need to prepare our motorcycles and ourselves to maximize our enjoyment and safety. Here is a checklist to consider: 1) Stay hydrated!!! Mounting a Butler cup or some other form of fluid conveyance to your handlebars will help insure that you drink plenty of fluids. Just after I purchased a large Butler cup, I looked at it and thought what were you thinking? But when I had to ride across Kansas in 104 degree weather, it proved to be a life saver. If you allow yourself to get dehydrated, you might not discover it until it is too late! Heat sickness can happen in a hurry so don t take chances. 2) Wear sun screen and cover exposed skin. On a long hot ride, a long sleeve cotton or microfiber shirt wicks off sweat and helps cool the body while protecting against sun burn. Mesh motorcycle jackets will also accomplish the task. Don t forget to protect the neck area, a dew rag with a tail or a collar that turns up will help protect your neck coupled with as needed applications of sun screen. I wear a dew rags or a welder s cap with the bill reversed under my helmet to protect my neck. Unless you want your lips to look like crisp bacon (I know this because I have done it twice I am a slow learner!), buy a tube of Lip Balm with UV screener in it. I suggest you store sun lotion and lip balm in your dashboard so you don t forget them. 3) Check the antifreeze level in your motorcycle and if necessary top it up. I have checked 4 other motorcycles and in EVERY case, the antifreeze level was low. If you don t know who to do this, drop by or nab me at the Chapter meeting and I will show you how to do it. Believe me, it is so simple, even I can do it! 4) Check your tire pressure. If a tire runs low on air, it can get hot which could cause it to overheat, blister and explode. Also, do NOT carry heavy loads in motorcycle trailers. Some trailer people don t want to leave much at home..only carry what you must carry. If you have trouble loosing air (it is not uncommon for a Gold Wing to lose 1-2 lbs of air weekly, consider having nitrogen put in your tires and/or Ride On which is a tire sealer. In any event, you should check your tire pressure weekly. 5) Since the Gold Wing is liquid cooled, a good multi grade motor oil typically can be used year around. However, if you plan to ride in extreme temperatures or heavy traffic, you might want to kick the viscosity of the oil up.check your owner s manual and/or consult your dealer. If my grandfather was still with us (that s him on the left), he would tell the Harley riders not to use oil to high in viscosity. He always said that a Harley should use a little oil since it helps keep the rings and pistons cooler. 6) Wear you protective equipment!

18 Since it is the riding season for almost everyone regardless of your location and weather, I thought it would be appropriate to cover the Alcohol Policy of GWRRA. This is a very timely topic at any time of the year, but especially when our Members are out on their motorcycles riding. One of the few rules we have as Volunteer Leaders (meaning a Region/District/or Chapter officer in GWRRA language) is the Alcohol Policy. And unfortunately, it is one that is often misinterpreted. During the times I have been involved in presenting the Officer Certification Program (OCP), questions and discussions always seem to need clarification concerning the Alcohol Policy. Information regarding the Alcohol Policy can be found in the Officer s Handbook on page D- 15, and the policy is stated in very clear and precise statements. Basically, the Alcohol Policy has four parts to it. As representatives of GWRRA, Voluntary Leaders may not (at any GWRRA event): Sell alcoholic beverages, Profit from the sale of alcoholic beverages, Distribute as an award or prize any alcoholic beverages, GWRRA and the Alcohol Policy Encourage its use by advertising its availability or causing it to be available. While GWRRA makes no attempt to legislate policy as it relates to an individual s freedom, we must give strong consideration to potential liability exposure of the Officer group. There are a couple of areas where Chapters, Districts, and Regions have the potential of misinterpreting this alcohol policy. They may not have any type of alcoholic beverage as a door prize, or as a part of a raffle at a poker run or gathering. Also, they may not pay for any alcoholic beverages to be served at a picnic, get-together, or Christmas party. They are not supposed to advertise BYOL parties. Now, don t get me wrong. This does not mean that every Member of GWRRA must be a nondrinker or teetotaler. Although this policy may seem very stringent, it is not new, and has been in existence for many years. GWRRA Members may still exercise quite a bit of freedom when it involves the consumption of alcohol. This policy does not prohibit Members from consuming alcoholic beverages during a GWRRA event. As a matter of fact, any GWRRA Member may purchase and consume alcoholic beverages whenever they want as long as it is not paid for, or encouraged by, a Volunteer Leader. Members may even bring their own beverages with them to a GWRRA event. Of course, for those who do choose to consume alcohol, your fellow Members will still expect you to exercise good judgment and responsibility. Even though most people are not willing to admit that they cannot hold their liquor, alcohol will affect your judgment. And, when it is time to leave the event, you are not only putting your own life at risk, but also that of your fellow Members if you choose to drive or ride. So, in consideration of all your GWRRA family and friends, wait until you have parked your pride and joy and put it to bed for the night before you celebrate the fact that you have just experienced another wonderful day traveling on your Gold Wing. Let s stay safe out there, and not do anything that would bring harm to yourself or our Association.

19 June 2011 I cannot think of a better way to start this newsletter than to say THANK YOU to each and everyone that made our Arkansas Convention possible. We had a great time and I believe by the majority of responses so did everyone else. I waited to send this out so that hopefully I could tell all of you thank you and this time the gamble was worth it. We had a total of 258 registered and 12 different Districts represented. I will include all the stats that I have in the complete newsletter. Well our convention is complete, but that does not mean that this riding season is over, as a matter of fact it is just beginning. We have Chapter C s day rally on June 11 th and then off to Knoxville for Wing Ding the 6-8 th of July. We have a bike show that region H is putting on during Wing Ding and we need all volunteers that can, to help out. You do not have to be a bike show judge to help, so if you are interested please let me know so that I can pass a list on to those that are putting everything together. We are hoping that over the next two months we can accomplish two things; first continue to work on our communication between chapters and District, we have been sending out Hello from Chris & Pam DePriest s, but only a few are being answered; Second, we are planning on going to El Dorado and to Pine Bluff to look at new chapters in these areas, if you know folks there please send their contact info to us, and if you would like to go there and be a part of starting these new chapters, then let us know and we will make sure that you have the info needed as the time approaches. We hope that each of our chapters and all of our participants in Arkansas know that we are here for them and that we want Arkansas to grow in every way possible. If you need anything that we can help you with, please let us know. One thing that we are experiencing is that one way to have fun is to participate in everything that you can. I encourage each of you to get out and have some fun. The Spirit Stick is showing that some chapters are out and doing things, but it also shows that some are not getting out much at all. We are hoping to see you at the next event and many more after that one. If it looks like a good day to ride, it probably is. Chris and Pam DePriest