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March/April 2008

Cover Story

Atlanta Chapter Visits the Whistle Stop Café in Juliette , Georgia

Story on page 22

By Janis Perfetto

MORE STORIES

The Winter Traveler

By Mary Ann Ohsol

These days I am a winter traveler Woman on Wheels®! That makes you think motorcycle, right? Nope, hubby at home feeding cats, watering my lemon tree, and I actually just gave him the privilege of starting my bikes, moving them off the flat spot on the tires, and maybe switching the charger to the other bike. I can't remember which bike I had it on when I left.

I ride them faithfully, when the weather allows. Mustard, my trusty 2002 BMW F650GS, fun on road (rips through curves dragging my pedals (!!!!), and my sweet old faithful Cherry, my 2003 Honda ACE Shadow, on whom I can carry 10 tons of gear for long rides! I love them both so much.

Well, here's the scoop. My daughter Lisa surprised me with a plane ticket to Austin , Texas and back (from horrid weather Kentucky ). She is a physical therapist, first born with great self esteem of course, a world class traveling triathlete, and sculler, (she rows these skinny boats with very long oars! She put me in a double and rowed me around, and it was the most scared I've ever been! Don't rock the boat baby is for sure true! But she kept me safe.)

And, ya gotta know my sentence structure is weird. The point being, she flew me down to Austin for a week. They claim Austin is the music capital of the world. They lie. Never found much. I did paddle a Kayak in Town Lake , which they renamed Ladybird Lake , (go figure), and did a kite festival. I love flying my kites!

So, where was I? OK. Spent the week in Austin , had a blast, and flew home.

Got in my car, (the weather in Kentucky sucked majorly!) and drove back to Austin ! I took my time, did Hot Springs , Arkansas , and the hot mineral bath, massage, all that good stuff. You can get coupons for top quality hotels/motels from the booklets you pick up in rest areas, the chamber of commerce, and gas stations, so I stayed at a top-notch hotel super cheapo! and are you still enjoying my sentence structure--the structure of an ADHD gramma, lol!, and did the Diamond mine in the state park in Arkansas.

I didn't find any diamonds, but DID find really cool rocks for my flower gardens.

Well, to make a long story short, after a few days back in Austin , I told my daughter I was gonna check out the beach and the Arkansas Wildlife Refuge! I really wanted to see the Whooping Cranes! I did, and it was the thrill of my life! I will die happy!

For the rest of the story, please turn to page 16.

Winter Time Blues

By Irene Hargrett

Have you ever wondered what the chapters do when they can't get out and ride through the winter months? Just think about it, for just a moment. It's cold, rainy, snowing, sleeting, and possibly ice. You definitely can't ride in conditions like this. Well, let me tell you about some fun that our chapter does. It all started at Christmas. We were to have our monthly meeting on the 15 th . At this time, we also have our annual Christmas party. Just so happens that on this day, it snowed. Our meeting and party were cancelled. In January, we held our monthly meeting and decided to have our meeting in February on the 16 th , (every 3 rd Saturday of the month). This was Valentine's Day! We could have our Christmas party and a Valentine's party together, which we called our Valimas party. All red and green. Pretty cool. Great idea!

We started off with our meeting. We had a great turnout of friends. We then progressed into our party. We played games, talked, ate (way too much, I might add), had a silent auction and did a 50/50. We had a great time!

See page 12 for the rest of the story!

Honeymoon DownUnder
- Part 3

By Carolyn Bierman

Leaving Bamaga.

Despite the previous night's adventures, I was sad to leave Bamaga and the Loyalty Beach campground. I had made friends with a white-lipped green tree frog that hung out in the middle stall of the women's bathroom (our first bleary-eyed middle-of-the-night toilet encounter was a mutually startling experience) and was feeling quite comfortable with the beaches and mudflats of Loyalty Beach . But, time to head south.

Before leaving Bamaga proper, Linc led us to two sites of crashed WWII airplanes, just southeast of the community. The main site was that of a DC3 aircraft which crash-landed on May 5, 1945, on its way to New Guinea , killing the six people onboard.

From Bamaga, we took the Northern Bypass Road for about 45 km to the Jardine River ferry. The road is in good condition, dusty of course, and a deep copper red stretching out into the distance. I wasn't having any trouble at all that morning; I'd slept well and the ride was fun.

The ferry itself is a bit amusing, run by the Injinoo Aboriginal community; the ferry trip is no more than 100 feet across, but costs a pretty penny ($90 return for a vehicle; $35 for motorcycles, though that includes Aboriginal permission for any access and/or bush camping north of the Jardine).

See page 14 for the complete story .

Biking Across the Border

By Joyce Hensley

For this year's Ride-In, you may pass through Canada to get to Michigan . The rules for crossing the border are the same as if you were visiting or staying in Canada . In this article, I tried to anticipate some of the things that may be helpful. It was not possible to capture every possible scenario, but it covers crossing from Buffalo, New York into Canada, who may and may not gain entry to Canada, preferred bridge to use, cost to cross, how to cross, easy ways to loose your group, identification requirements, typical questions to expect from a Border Inspector, miles per hour vs. kilometers per hour, and helpful websites.

Since 9/11, new initiatives have been undertaken to tighten border crossing. Canada will not allow persons with a criminal record or DWI into their country.

There are four Niagara Frontier Regional bridges. Consider the location of the bridge by which you will get into Canada because some bridges are located further north and may add miles and travel time. Chances are, at some point you will ride by way of Interstate 90 heading East or West, which then connects to any of our local expressways, then taking you to what is called the Peace Bridge (recommended). For a full list of bridges, Google Niagara Frontier Regional Bridges or try Lockport.com.

What to expect upon arrival at the bridge crossing:

See page 8 for the rest of the story!

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