Benjamin Voiles
You all should have been at the last campout! We had a blast. First time I had ever even seen the newer side of Fort Yargo! We got to see Udo’s new rig, and Udo’s old rig’s new owner, Mel. Even after camping with the usual suspects, he still joined the club!! Will wonders ever cease? So, if you see a rig that looks strangely like the former UDOBUS, but has a guy wearing a half helmet, you’ve seen Mel, wave… What did Udo replace the UDOBUS with, well, what any other Beemer rider would, with a new and improved rig, with the same UDOBUS tag! SO, Udo is still easy to spot from behind… Still a K1200LT, looks like about the same rig to me, just newer, shinier, and faster. Wonder if it has BMW’s groin crushing power brakes? Will just have to check Udo’s walk the next time I see him…yes, I have rig envy… I had to ride a two wheeler, Red is down at the moment, but like the Phoenix, will return! Finally figured out why she keeps blowing brake light switches. The braided stainless steel brake line was the culprit. It’s been replaced, so she can be ridden to the shop to get the motor looked at, eek... Of course I forgot my tent. Sure was glad we were camping right down the road from Eddie’s house! That’s for lending me a tent Eddie! With state route 11 being closed just outside of Winder, traffic was insane! So we didn’t do a lot of riding, but quite a bit of tire kicking and lying! Also found out that what I thought was a biker bar in downtown Winder was actually a Loco’s, having biker night. Gee, the Loco’s in Macon doesn’t do that…Speaking of Loco, the Rinaldo’s appeared for a few hours. The older ladies of the family were recovering from a girl scout outing, Chuck, well, he is just recovering. Sarah was a hoot, as always, and then she got tired, but I get ahead of myself… We checked out a place Eddie suggested for dinner. It’s called Peckers. Now with a name like that and being Eddie’s choice, we were a bit concerned! What in the world could a place called Peckers serve in Hoschton? Sounds like it could be a bar in midtown (gasp), but no, it turned out to be a fine food restaurant right down the road from the George residence. Since Cindy joined us, figured it had to be safe. Excellent food, nice atmosphere, good time had by all! We were joined there by the Hoovestol’s and a friend of the Rinaldo’s whose name I can’t remember (CRS strikes again). Brent had to tell us the bad news that he sold his rig, but fear not, I do believe that there is a new and improved Hoovestol rig in the future. We’ll know by this summer I bet!
That brings us to the next item! We liked the place so well that we are having the Christmas Party there on Sunday December 17th. The restaurant is generally closed on Sundays so we will have the place all to ourselves. Time to be announced a little later, but it will be late afternoon so folks can get home (correct time is probably in this issue Sidetracks, because to be honest, I forgot what time we agreed to! CRS again). This is on the club, so we would REALLY like to see everybody there. Face it, it is the only time we se some of you! Come on out, please! If you have a calendar, you will notice that this is on a 3rd Friday weekend! So, in the true spirit of the no rule aspect of the club, we are breaking a long stranding “tradition” of not repeating campouts by having the very next one at, you guessed it, Fort Yargo State Park in Winder, again. Janis and Chuck mentioned something about renting a cabin. They generally sleep 8 folks and if several folks pitch in, the cabin ends up costing a little less than camping. So, if this sounds like something you want to do, get in touch with me and I’ll get in touch with Chuck and Janis and see if we can work something out. Who knows, maybe Carl can talk Carole in to joining us on that one with a nice warm cabin and bed as bait…ok, maybe not…but it’s worth a try Carl! Eddie and I will probably camp, because we like sleeping in tents (or Yamabagos as the case may be) when it is colder than most sane people can stand. State Parks are really nice to camp in w hen they are not crowded! The tent heaters help that out a lot too.
One more thing about the party. We had some upset kid issues at the last one that really could have been avoided. We are going to institute one rule for the gift swapping (this is kinda like the crown rule if you are on a campout and we discover that it is Kathy’s birthday). Only because we don’t want to deal with crying kids. If a young child, as in not a teenager, grabs a gift for themselves (as in not getting the thing Mom or Dad want, but one they really want) the gift is done and stays with the kid. Even after explaining the rules, small children don’t understand when someone takes something that is “theirs” in their eyes. Since it is not fun to deal with this sort of thing and our club is all about fun and we truly encourage family participation (otherwise we get no new members with kids) we’ll try this out. All I ask is that no one put their kid up to snagging some swag that the parent wants and having the kid claim that the item is for them…that would just be a hassle and we are a no hassle zone….
This may be too late for most of you (and sidetracks may or may not be to you in time for it), but several of us and some of the HRAC crowd are going to Louisiana for a bike rally. It’s listed on the BMW MOA and BMW RA web sights as well as the Swamp Scooters sight. Will have a rally report with sordid details and may be even some pictures for the next sidetracks. Should be fun. Hanging out with Cajuns generally is! The club that is hosting it started out as a BMW club but has evolved (while keeping the BMW MOA and RA affiliations) into a multi brand club (their prez is Guzzi Dave for instance). Looks like we are all leaving at different times, so if by any chance this gets to you before the weekend of the 10-12, come on down to Lafayette, La and join the rest of the cold weather riding crazies!
Unfortunately, have to close with bad news; we lost a member September 7th, G P "Albie" Albertson. Please keep Albie, Flo and the Albertson family in your prayers.
James
We had a great weekend for camping. The weather was perfect, the company was good, and the meals were consumed with no problems. We went for Mexican Friday night and to a restaurant in Hoschton Saturday night. Attending were Frank Cabeza, the Rinaldo family and the Ryscamp family. Camping were Udo Reif, Mel Harris (new member), Carl Schantz, James Allmond and myself. We discussed the upcoming Christmas party and since we were asked to make a decision about the party--we did. The party will be held on a Sunday night Dec 17- at Peckers Restaurant in Hoschton, GA, at 6:00 pm. The next middle Friday campout will be Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, Dec 15, 16 and 17, for those who wish to camp after the Christmas party. It will again be held at Ft. Yargo State Park outside Winder, GA. Reservations are recommended--1-800-864-7275.
Eddie
The Georgia Sidecar Club recently lost one of its members. GP Albertson passed away from an aneurysm. Albie’s friend, Benjamin Voiles, was kind enough to notify us of his passing. Although I recognized Albie’s name from my mailing list, I could not seem to match a face to the name. I got in touch with Mr. Voiles, and asked him if he could help me out. I would like to extend a special thanks to Ben for sharing his thoughts with us on the passing of GP Albertson.
There are a couple of sidecar events coming up in the Southeast. March 2nd to the 4th will be Florida’s Y’all Come Sidecar Rally at the Silver River State Park, just outside of Ocala. This is also the start of Daytona Bike Week. The other event is the 29th Annual USCA National Rally to be held at the Grandfather Campground, near Boone, NC. This is the first time a USCA National has been held in the Southeast since 1999, when it was at Hiawassee, GA. I have attended several USCA Nationals, and enjoyed all of them. A weekend spent with a few hundred sidecarists…
Kathy and I have added a 2005 H-D 1200 Custom Sportster to our garage (for Kathy). We bought it on Ebay. We hope to add a 3rd wheel to it by the next issue of Sidetracks. Elsewhere in Sidetracks I would like to share a story about how I spent the afternoon of All Hallows Eve with Ol’ Blue. Also be sure to check out the details for the Georgia Sidecar Club Christmas party.
Art
On September 19, 2006, Joe Semas and I headed north toward the great state of Maine. Joe was riding a Yamaha Venture and I was riding a Suzuki Bandit with a Velorex sidecar attached. Hence the title. Anyway we had a beautiful day to start the trip and we enjoyed every moment of it.
Joe, being in the lead, early on tested the speed at which we could travel and determined that we could travel at a fairly rapid rate. We did. We were taking back roads at least as far as New Jersey and the ride was exhilarating to say the least. We rode through South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia to Virginia Beach the first day and spent the night on the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
The second day we crossed the Bay Bridge and Tunnel into Maryland and Delaware. Staying on back roads we rode to the Cape May Ferry for the ride into New Jersey. So far we had no rain fall on us but after getting off the ferry we did have some wet roads. Traffic also had increased in volume, slowing us down just a little bit.
After a couple hours’ time in New Jersey we arrived at a friend’s house where we were going to spend a couple of nights. Freddie is also a biker and a sidecarist. He has a Goldwing with a Vetter Terraplane sidecar. We tried to get him to ride with us to Maine but he was in the process of moving and didn’t feel he had the time.
We spent the next day roaming the local area of New Jersey. Joe is from there and we visited several old friends of his and talked about many more. The guy has friends everywhere. We had lunch at an Irish pub named Kelly’s. Their rubin sandwich is probably the best rubin sandwich in the world. Even if you don’t like rubin sandwiches I promise you would like this one. The sandwich alone is enough reason to go to New Jersey.
After a day in Jersey we again headed north. The weather was still being good to us and the sun was shining. After reaching New York we picked up the Interstate Highway System for the rest of the trip to Maine. We went through Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and into Maine.
The reason for going to Maine was a party. A friend of ours up there decided he had too much money laying around and he need to spend it, so he and his lovely wife spent it. We, the guests, ate like kings and queens for a couple of days. And I do mean we ate like kings and queens. Mike and Lina are fantastic cooks and all their preparations were greatly appreciated and consumed. Of course they had to do something to keep us busy (feed us) because while we were in Maine we had the only rain of the trip. And rain it did. For two days. But at least we were inside and dry.
On Monday, Sept. 25, we headed out. Mike led us through some scenic roads in New Hampshire and Vermont and into New York. We stopped just inside New York for the night, staying in a “rustic” motel. We thought most motels had closed for the season but some were still open until after the leaf season, which by the way, was just beginning to show its colors.
Tuesday-what a day. We rode the magical mystery tour through the Adirondacks. And magical it was. We had the roads pretty much to ourselves and the scenery was there just for us. We didn’t have to wait in any lines for food at restaurants, gas at stations, or deer on the side of the roads. There was plenty of most and too much of some. Tuesday is the day Mike came closer to a deer than he ever wanted. The deer was going the correct way but suddenly turned around and came back to meet up with Mike. Can we all say “Oh S**t”? The bike was scratched a little, Mike was bruised and had a couple of cracked ribs and the deer became meat for someone’s freezer. But in a way we were lucky. Mike, though sore, was able to continue on and was able to ride the bike. The bike suffered a few scratches but the engine guard (crash bar) died doing its job. The front fender did have a bend but we were able to pull it almost all the way out and off the tire. One tough bike, one sore rider, one dead deer.
After the little run-in we stopped for lunch and decided to cancel the rest of the trip due to Mike wanting to get home before he would be wracked with too much pain and where he could visit his own doctor. Joe and I headed south.
We split up in southern Pennsylvania and I rode the freeway the rest of the way home. The trip, except for the accident, was a great diversion from the anticipation of winter coming. I got to see some good friends and meet others I hope to see in the future. And the food-let me say that if I lived much closer to Mike and Lina this little story would probably be title A Fat Man With Eighteen Wheels.
Eddie George
In September, Kathy & I made a run to Panama City for the Fall Edition of the Thunder Beach Rally. We were part of a group of 15 people from Middle Georgia on 8 bikes and 2 chase vehicles. Just for the record, the weather was gorgeous and a fine time was had by all.
Anyway, while we were perusing some of the vendors, we ran into Tim & Colleen. Tim is the Director of the Macon Chapter of the Harley Owners Group (one of the groups that we belong to), and his wife, Colleen, is the chapter Activities Officer. They tell us that the McKibben Lane Elementary School in Macon has a reading program going on that they are calling HOG Wild For Reading. If the participants read enough books, their reward for winning the contest is to be able to come out and look at our bikes and talk to us about our different careers and what it took to get there. They are asking that we wear our normal work attire, in order to show our diversity.
Tim & Colleen responded to the school’s proposal with an unequivocal yes. The motorcycle clubs of today are known for their big hearts and generosity, especially when it comes to children. They are often contacted by various groups and asked to organize poker runs and other money raising projects. This time the request was solely for our presence. HOG Wild For Reading had 189 students win the contest; this is almost double the participation of the last reading promotion. I guess kids like bikes.
Turns out, the school Principal asked if there was anyone in the chapter with a sidecar. She would really like to ride up to the school in a sidecar on the reward day. Being is how Kathy & I are the only sidecarists in the chapter, I “volunteered”. If the truth be told, I was happy to do it. After all, how often to you get to do a good deed that involves driving your rig?
I feel the need to go of on a tangent here… I got my motorcycle license in 1969. Back then, as I am sure that all of you the long-time riders can attest to, folks on motorcycles were not very highly thought of. A lot of the attitude towards bikers can probably be attributed to how we were often portrayed in movies and the media. Yet it stills blows my mind how we went from being perceived as the “scum of the earth types” of yesterday to the “role models of today”…
The event was to be held on Friday October 27th, but due to a couple of inches of rain in the Friday forecast, it got pushed back to the afternoon of Halloween. Close to 2- dozen Harleys met at Harley-Davidson of Macon for the ride to the school. As we drove up the to front of the school, you could tell that the students were stoked. They stood on the sidewalk and waved and cheered us as we rolled slowly past. We exited the school grounds and stopped in a parking lot around the corner to pick up the Principal. As she got comfortable in Ol’ Blue, I gave her my standard instructions that I give to all new passengers. That is, you need to smile and wave. Her reply was: “I can do that!” So off we went, back to the school. The kids might have been stoked on our first pass, but when we came around again with their principal waving to them from the sidecar, they were simply off the hook!
We spread out our bikes in a lower parking lot while Colleen addressed the kids. While I was out of earshot, Colleen’s comments were along the line of: If you are diligent and get a good education, then you can get a good job. Then you are able to afford to own a motorcycle, or whatever it is that you desire.
We all know that kids love sidecars. I believe that all of them had a turn sitting in Ol’ Blue at least once.
Art Rhoades
