FROM THE RAMBLIN RIDER
Reprinted from IA Chapter “L” Newsletter
Written by Mary Fox
Well……. it is time for another article and just like last month I have nothing to say. I know that you don’t believe that. For those of you who don’t know, a bunch of us went out to the Gold Classic and had a great time. We had four bikes and a clean up car in our group and Gary Williams had three bikes and no one doing cleanup. They aren’t as messy as our group. We left for West Virginia on Thursday right after I got off work. As usual we were the last ones to get to the designated meeting place and we live the closest. Don is so darn slow I swear? Hey give me a break he had the whole day off I had to work my fingers to the bone and then get home and change and pack the bike and the suitcases and the cooler, I mean really can you really expect me to be on time. (You do believe me that I packed everything right? I wouldn’t fib not even a little.) J When we finally got on the road we had to lead. That could have been bad with the Rainman leading but all was well. Mrs. B and Escort Granny stayed close behind never once losing us. Way to go girls. Rich picked out a great motel for the first night right next to a Cracker Barrel. Not one of us complained. After supper we went back to the motel and had cake for Escort Granny’s 29th birthday. By the way for those of you who don’t know Escort Granny, she is Denise Benson’s mom Jody. She is a spring chicken yet and can run circles around all of us. We had to put a hook on her butt to slow her down. We could all learn from her. Friday all we did was ride. I swear Rick had us up and moving by 6:30 AM. There was hardly any grumbling among the ranks about the early morning riding. Some of us didn’t look too good but we were on the bikes and moving out. Right Sue. You and I looked great and were very chipper it was the rest of those guys that looked like warmed over death at 6:30. Friday was our long day but we still managed to see a few things. Rick let us stop and shop at Tamarack rest area in West Virginia, which was a really neat place with lots of local artists selling their wares. Don wanted to go to a coalmine not far from there so off we went. That is not a place I like to go, to close and too far under ground. NO thanks. You would find me screaming and clinging to the roof of the mineshaft trying to claw my way out. Kind of my same reaction when you take my coffee away. We had a great ride out with lots of curvy roads and beautiful scenery. Rode Deals Gap again, but the boys weren’t able to take the curves the way they would have liked to because the road was wet. Gee that really broke my heart that we weren’t scraping metal. Friday night we ate at Ruby Tuesday’s so a few of our group could have a tottie or two. It had been a long dry spell. Donna is only allowed one drink a night cause she gets too out of control. She ordered a Strawberry Daccari, which was terrible, so they brought her another one. I guess that one wasn’t up to par either because she tipped that one over on to the table. Gee Donna just don’t drink it. We wouldn’t let her order another one for fear of not getting our food or one of the bartenders spitting on it. One drink for Donna is her limit. She just gets too out of control.
We reached Snowshoe on Sunday without any problems. Rooms were nice and the staff was more than accommodating. Once we got there we got a very rude awaking. There is NO, I repeat NO, cell service in that area. None, nada, zilch zero, get the point. Talk about going into withdrawals. Man that was a quite a shock. If you went to the top of the mountain and stood in one place you could get service sometimes. Depending on which way the wind blew and which direction you were facing. You should have seen us fighting for the spot. There was a cute little shop across the street to buys gifts and get a bite to eat if you wanted to wait. I worked there a few mornings making coffee, wiping tables and cleaning up cause the cook couldn’t keep up. Help him with the orders and anything else that I could do while we waited for our food. Once a waitress always a waitress I guess.
Monday we didn’t do anything because it was raining and you know how I feel about getting wet. Forget it. Gary Williams had a ride planned so we all went on that one day and it was really great. The riding was so beautiful. Went through several rain showers but I didn’t get wet cause I kept my raincoat on most of the time. It wasn’t real hot out there so I had a coat on most of the time. I am always cold now that I don’t have as much meat on my bones. Wednesday we road to Humpback Bridge and Falling Springs, one of the rides on the tour package. It was really pretty. We stopped somewhere to find a place to eat and came upon the Starlite Café. Figured this was a good place to eat because I could see an old lady sitting at a table, so if old people eat there it must be good and cheap. Wrong. It was a bistro filled with yuppies and the old lady had more jewels on then what is in the Smithsonian. Well I guess I called that one wrong. The food was really good though, but very pricey. A piece of cake costs $5.00. I didn’t eat and our bill was $17.00 and Don only had a sandwich and a piece of pie. Bev had a brownie with whip cream on it and they charged her for the whip cream plop. Guess we weren’t in Iowa anymore. We really fit in too. Everyone was dressed very well and in came us dirty bikers in our sweaty jeans, t-shirts and dew rags. We would have really impressed them if we would have had lots of tattoos. If I had only known I would have found some rub on tattoos. You know Mickey Mouse and Scooby Do. We made quite the impression.
Another day we a rode to Cass to go on the logging train. Rick’s GPS took us on a short cut. It was a very cool one; we made a complete circle and ended up right back where we started the short cut. Is that the same as circling the wagons like the old days? The GPS even had us on a bike trail - right Chuck. The cop in Chuck didn’t want us breaking the law but we finally nudged him on so we wouldn’t lose our leader? Hey a bike trail is a bike trail right, we are bikes after all. We just happen to have a little more horsepower than the other ones do. Chuck might have been right but where is the spirit of adventure; you know riding on the wild side? We would have missed the git on to a round about and then the git off to get to were we were goinin. YALL.
I could go on and on about our trip but I have just kind of hit a few of the highlights. The rally was a lot of fun and we met a lot of people. There was a staff meeting which all of the Iowa people went to sporting bright orange Iowa shirts. Boy were we a hit. It was fun going to a rally that was just for riding. Believe me we rode and rode. Headed out of Showshoe on a chilly Friday morning. I had on a t-shirt, sweatshirt and my leather coat, Don was wearing just a t-shirt. We got quite a razzing from the people standing out side. Hey I keep telling you I get cold. Much later in the day I was able to ride in just my t-shirt. I know it is hard to believe but it is true. We only got rained on once on the way home. Don didn’t think we needed to stop and put on rain gear. I, however,voiced my opinion without any hesitation or stuttering. I must have gotten my point across because he stopped so we could suit up. As usual I was right because not far down the road it
poured. I can get very cranky when I am wet and cold. I know you all find that hard to believe about me but it is true. We stayed in Peoria on Friday and hit it early Saturday do we could get home before it got too hot. Don suggested we stop at Granny’s Kitchen to grab a bite before we got home. Well let me tell you we hadn’t heard anything from Denise about where she wanted to eat or what she wanted to do, but this time she let him know in no uncertain terms we were going to eat at the Machine Shed or she was going to take all her toys and go home. Well I have to say I had to agree. Why would you ever pass up the Machine Shed? His helmet must have been a little too tight that morning. I am so glad that we stopped because Denise showed us a new way to butter corn. You butter it first then start eating and while you are eating your first row you get butter on the end of your nose so that you can butter the next row as you are eating the first row. Did we laugh at her, no not at all. Did we tell her right away about what was hanging off her nose, well maybe not. We were all laughing so hard we couldn’t. Sorry Denise it was just too funny. Kind of like the time you went into the men’s can and waited for the guy in the stall to get done. Well me made it home around 1:30 on Saturday before it got really hot. Good thing because it really did get hot.