Finally some saddle time!

AT LAST, I got to do a little riding! Wednesday and Thursday nights last week, we took a couple short jaunts – one to the HOG club meeting and on Thursday, out to supper followed by a park-and-walk through bike night at Porky’s – first visit to Porky’s all year!

Then on Sunday, we set out with a group of online friends to make a day of it. Our original plan was to travel from Des Moines to Fort Dodge and back by way of some two-lanes. We left about 11 a.m. from Waukee, and stopped for lunch at the Golden Corral in Boone. While there we hooked up with another rider who had an alternate plan, and while we ultimately didn’t go as far as Ft. Dodge we took some outstandingly beautiful roads just south of there. We left Boone about 1:30 p.m. and traveled north up Highway 17, then cut over going west on County Road D56. Some beautiful twisties – the kind my Sportster loves! – and then took a turn to the north and went through Brushy Creek State Park. Coming out on County P73, we jogged back south down to D56 and continued west into the town of LeHigh. Entering this little town on D56 has got to be one of the most picturesque spots in Iowa: D56 comes into town at the Des Moines River, and just as you cross the little bridge you come to a stop sign where you’re stopped in front of historic business buildings and tree-lined roads going uphill to the north and south. It reminded me of some of the historic towns in Colorado and the Black Hills.

On through LeHigh and then through Dolliver Memorial State Park, then south to Jefferson, a stop in Perry, and then home. About 220 miles total – only a couple of flat stretches and some really beautiful roads in between. Minor problems included me taking a big sweeping curve a little too wide and having to “look HARD at where I wanted to end up” to get out of it… Steve says he did the same thing on a big sweeper to the left and we wondered if it was the same curve. And a suicidal black dog who came charging out of a farmyard and chased us down the highway til our 2nd-in-line blasted a good-sounding horn at him. Some of these folks were people we had never met in person before – all became instant friends and we are so glad to have met them! In all we spent nine hours and traveled about 220 miles in absolutely perfect summer weather.

A quick update

Wow, I’m not sure where the summer is going, but it’s going fast! We just spent the past weekend sitting in our lawn chairs in 100-plus degree heat at the GoodGuys Rod & Custom Heartland Nationals here in Des Moines – here’s a few pictures!I’m sorry to say I haven’t ridden much in the past few weeks – we did get down to Indianola for June Bike Night, but I’ve been focused on a couple other projects that have been taking some non-work time. So aside from some short jaunts, we’ve had no major rides. We do have one with a fun group coming up on Sunday, so I’m definitely looking forward to that! And of course, the all-girl Estrogen Ride (with my HOG club gal-pals) is coming up at the end of this month. I’m also hoping Susan (Coyote) and I (Corn Dog) will be able to take another overnight trip yet this year.

One thing I did want to be sure to share here is that I am planning to move this website onto a blog platform. Over the past couple of months I’ve really learned a lot about using WordPress blog software as the basic “skeleton” of a frequently-updated website, and I’ve always known that there had to be an easier way to maintain this site other than editing the raw HTML. I finally decided to just bite the bullet and move the entire site onto a WordPress installation on my web-host. The biggest challenge will be adding back all the old content. I’m still working out how to do that efficiently since I can’t generate the usual OPML file, but rest assured that down-time will be minimal and the site will be much easier to search, read and update! And, you’ll be able to subscribe to my RSS feed so you can easily be notified whenever the site is updated! More on this coming soon.

And, more to come as July wraps up – I can’t wait to get the bike back on the road! Thanks for reading!

Random Stuff

First, a couple of old questions answered:
1. Scooter.
2. Rizzo on the shirt, Corn Dog elsewhere.

Next, a link: If you aren’t yet a biker chick but you think you might want to become one, check out the “Garage Parties” held for women by many Harley Davidson dealerships across the country. There’s a news release currently on PRnewswire that’s available to be picked up in publications everywhere. Look for it perhaps in your local newspaper. Or save time and just read it here.

And finally, while researching a post for my other blog I came across a website for a swing dancing club in Des Moines (my home city). I read this post about the importance of practice, and realized how universal the advice in it really was. The Cliff Notes version is that practice doesn’t necessarily make perfect, but it does make permanence. So it’s important to practice things (i.e., new physical skills) correctly.

Biker Chick Buzz: Hollie in Iowa

Hollie riding pillion with Kristin lasted about 2 weeks into the riding season. Once she got a taste of learning to ride that Sporty 1200, she was determined to ride her own. Within a week she had a learner’s permit and this awesome 1983 Yamaha 750 Midnight Special Virago.

More good reading

Here’s a nice piece about women riders that ran this past week in my hometown daily, the The Des Moines Register:
Iowa Mamas Open Throttle

And, a great piece about an awesome biker chick in Appleton, WI:
Harley Rumble Lures Neenah Administrator

Biker Chick Buzz: Ronda of California

 

Ronda of Clovis, CA began her riding journey in December, 2006, when she learned to ride at age 55. She passed the MSF course in March, 2007 and had purchased this ’07 Honda Aero 750 just prior to taking the class. The bike “just felt right,” she reports. This photo shows Ronda on her first long trip after getting her license. She notes that California offers tremendous geographic diversity for riding adventures, including desert, mountains, valley and oceanside highways. Congratulations on your achievement and on the Honda purchase!

Two good articles for your reading pleasure

Here are a couple links I’ve been meaning to share, by or about biker chicks!

• A May 19 piece about “Why I don’t wear a helmet.”
• Second half of this piece is about the trend of more women riding motorcycles.

Our Memorial Day visit to the Iowa Wall

Here’s two things that happened over Memorial Day weekend that I feel bad about. For the past three years, we’ve made a point to go on a large-group ride to our state capitol’s memorial grounds, for a service at the Viet Nam memorial that’s hosted by a local ABATE member. It’s not an official event – just his own personal ride each year – but it has grown quite large. It’s usually held on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Well this year, I didn’t receive any notifications about it like I usually do so on Saturday I went online to check the start time – and discovered it had been held a full week earlier. We missed it!Determined not to miss our own annual “moment of reflection” at the Iowa Wall, we rode up to the capitol on Sunday anyway (what a perfect, beautiful day!) to leave some flowers. As we approached on our (noisy) bikes, we discovered a large crowd gathered around the Viet Nam memorial where we focus our efforts – there was a service in progress! Embarrassed, we coasted as quietly as possible into the parking lot… we cut our engines off as soon as we were positioned to back into a parking spot, and then discovered that they were in the middle of playing “Taps.” Which, ideally, I’m sure they would have liked to have been played with a noiseless background. We felt awful about interrupting the ceremony, having had no idea that it would be taking place.

And, one thing I feel GREAT about: We approached the dispersing group looking as apologetic as possible just as it was breaking up to leave. My husband took the small bunch of silk flowers I’d fashioned and left them at the foot of the wall and then stepped back to study the names. This is, for him, a traditional visit that gives him the opportunity to remember why he carries on despite depression, diabetes, weight problems, divorces, etc. etc – because other guys didn’t get the chance to carry on. As we were standing there, a woman who was there quietly asked him if he knew how many Iowans had died in Viet Nam. We did a quick estimate of the number of names on the wall and guessed it to be about eight hundred. As she turned to walk away she said to him, “Thank you, sir, for your service. I appreciate it.” He was barely able to sqawk a “thank you” in return – he carries enough survivor guilt and all the baggage of a less-than-welcoming return, and to actually have someone thank him for years of service he’d been conditioned not to talk about was almost too much. Having lived with him for almost 18 years now, I know a little something about how much her words might have meant to him, and I believe it was good for him to hear it.

Then a little while later, back at the bikes and getting ready to leave, another woman was visiting with another couple on a bike – the man was wearing his Viet Nam veteran cap, and the other woman was relating a story about her brother who had been killed in combat during that time. Steve and I listened and joined in, Steve and this other man swapped a couple reminiscences. And again, as this woman turned to leave, she said, “Thank you both for your service. It was important and it means a lot.” And again my poor hubby was just ready to cry. This has never happened, I realize. No one has ever said “thank you” or “welcome home” to him.

I’m proud of him in so many ways – for coming out of that horrible time with his head screwed on fairly straight, for having a heart when it would be easy to become bitter, for continuing to be a courageous man who treasures esprit de corps and means it when he tells another marine, “Semper Fidelis.” I think this Memorial Day was really for him, more than any other we’ve shared in our 18 years together.

Welcome home, honey, I’m glad you’re here.

New book looks like fun

Many of us probably dream about quitting our jobs to take the motorcycle journey of a lifetime. Well today I found this article about a new book by a woman who did just that: Lois Pryce, who chronicles her 20,000-mile bike journey from Alaska to Argentina. The book is called Lois on the Loose and I can’t wait to read it! Also be sure to check out the Lois on the Loose website!

Rizzo… or Corn Dog? Indianola Bike Night and a short Saturday ride

Another beautiful weekend here, 70’s and 80’s for daytime temperatures – a little windy, but bound to be that way in Iowa til July so might as well ride. And attempt to answer the age-old biker chick question, “Rizzo? Or Corn Dog?”

Friday night was Indianola Bike Night, one of our favorite monthly events. Only part of this event I don’t like is the ride home… it’s usually 10 p.m. when we head home, up Highway 65/69 which is hilly – meaning, visibility is bad enough because it’s dark – but add lots of hillcrests where you are really trusting there’s nothing stopped (or crossing) in the road just over the top of the hill, and it begins to feel like a sort of “gauntlet.”

This particular night we rode with Garry & Shirley, Susan “Coyote” & Paul, and Kristin & Hollie – had a little trouble when we got separated on the way down, but everyone made it to the event within a few minutes of each other so all was well. As usual we just walked around the square looking at bikes, had supper… should note that Shirley got awesome loud pipes on her Yamaha V-Star… just in time to take a trip to Colorado!

Cute side story: Susan and I are going on a “Ladies of Harley” 3-day ride in late July. This group decided it would be fun to adopt road names for the event, and since I always liked the Stockard Channing character from the movie “Grease,” I was going to call myself Rizzo. Susan was debating calling herself “Coyote.” So as we’re walking around the square in Indianola debating the road name “Coyote,” we round a corner and come upon a food stand called “Howlin’ Coyote.” “See,” says Susan, “it’s a sign – I’m supposed to call myself Coyote.” Well I turned and just 10 yards up the way is another food stand that just says “CORN DOGS.” So I said, “Well if we’re relying on signs to pick our names, then mine must have to be ‘Corn Dog.'” Maybe you had to be there, but we got a huge laugh out of that and decided that we would have to produce a female buddy film called “The Adventures of Coyote & Corn Dog.” And now I’m not sure if I should pick Rizzo or Corn Dog for my “road name” for the LOH ride… if you’d like to cast a vote, just send me an email!

Anyway, Saturday I bugged my family until they agreed to go on a ride… I wanted to go all the way over to Toledo, Iowa to see the last remaining Lincoln Highway Bridge in Iowa, but we ultimately compromised and went down to visit some friends in the southeast part of the county. (I must be hormonal or something – when I saw my friend Kathy, whom I haven’t seen for about a year despite being really good friends with her for about 15 years, I told her I missed her and got all emotional. Gads I’m a dork sometimes.) Visited with them for a couple hours and then took a scenic route home down Highway 316 – through some really severely flooded farm fields – to Highway 5, then back up 5 through Carlisle and home.

Killed the afternoon doing all this and had a blast – beautiful again on Sunday but spent the day working in the yard and doing laundry. Going to have to pick a road name soon… one of the LOH gals will embroider it on a shirt for me if I can make up my mind in time!

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