Chapter 230 Idyllwild ride Saturday April 3rd, 2010, the day before Easter, when Idyllwild has their Easter Egg Hunt...

Nice day for riding, at times cold, but had a lot of fun. A milestone and another oopsie.
Milestone-I got my Tin Star. Terry and the Chapter recognized this accomplishment and Scott gave it to me at the meeting.

1st gas stop, Pala. HI, CAROL!!!

Now you can see the owie-I was on a small slope and felt it going. Since I had gone to the Skills Day that Vinnie Greva held, I took his advice to heart; 'If the bike's going over, DON'T TRY TO HOLD IT UP! For once I didn't, but I of course had to make an 'exit', so I pushed myself away from the bike and rolled off like a kid doing gymnastics. Chuck G. gave me an 8.5 but I wonder if that was for artistic content or on the Richter scale?

Nothing worse happened on me or the bike except the rear L flasher unit which broke off the 'stay, so I need both items. I was told that they are pretty easy to put on, so I'll order them and give it a shot.

The bikes lined up in the parking lot.

Neat neat place, "Merkaba" where I got some tea and wind chimes.

Going back down 243, twistys were FUN FUN FUN FUN. Held the outside line until the end of the curve, late apex turns, FUN FUN FUN.

Ah, the joys of online information searching!

This url/piece of information below is pretty much it in a nutshell...

http://www.towncrier.com/publications_files/2009.idyllwild.map.v2.pdf

Idyllwild certainly has some INTERESTING places and things! For instance, the local newspaper's ad in the pdf above:

(Would that our politicians were so honest.)

A couple of interesting businesses that are flourishing in this quaint burg:

OM SWEET AUM YOGA
(951) 659-4705, 26120 Ridgeview Dr. The Courtyard.

(Say the above businesses' name a couple of times to yourself, you'll get it.)

HIGHER GROUNDS COFFEE HOUSE (951) 659-1379, 54245 North Circle Dr., B1, The Village Centre. http://www.highergroundscoffee.com/ - A popular meeting place in the heart of Idyllwild. Free wireless Internet. Amazing specialty drinks and cookies baked fresh daily. Try our homemade fudge. Open early ~ Open late.

(I guess there's no middle ground when you're open? HEY, I just made a funny with their business name! Get it-'middle ground' reference for the 'Higher Grounds' coffeehouse??? Geez, I crack myself up)

Planned San Diego Trip 3-31-10 BUT actually did Carson/Long Beach. San Diego was April 4th Easter Sunday, blog soon about the actual San Diego trip.

Originally were supposed to go to San Diego, possibility of rain (I guess it DID rain in Oceanside, so we did a small day trip to Diana's Bakery on Sepulveda in Carson; Schooner or later in Belmont Shore at the Marina; and the Harley Store at the Anaheim GardenWalk.
Bub hadn't been to Diana's Bakery in about a decade, so I thought this would be good for lunch: I had heard about Schooner or Later from that Food Network show "Diners, Dives and Drive-Ins", and wanted to also check out the Harley store and the Anaheim GardenWalk.
Diana's has still the same wonderful food, Bub said. Easy to get to, 91 to 710 to Willow/Sepulveda.
Halfway thru, and after.

Next stop, up the 710 to the 405 to Bellflower Blvd to PCH to 2nd Street to the Belmont Shore Marina and Schooner or Later. Interesting stuff-it was about 55 degrees and windier than shit, but we were comfy because I was doing a try-out of the stuff I was going to wear on our Saturday ride. Weather.com said cloudy with 40% chance of rain in Long Beach...you can see the pic that weather.com, as usual, was dead on. BULLSHIT!
S or L ONLY has outside seating and a covered patio...THAT'S IT. Pretty small.

After my mini-burrito, I saw this and had to have it. The waitress thought I was nuts since it was so cold outside. Somethine cute-there was a group of girls about Jackie's age and as they were leaving they were taking pics of each other. I offered to take a pic of all of them and one of the girls admired my leathers. I asked her if she wanted to try them on and she said 'of course'! So I took mine off and put them on her and her friend was taking pics of the whole process, as if I was fitting a bridal dress on her instead of leather chaps! She got them on, her friend took pics, I posed her, then took a pic of them all. Made her day, it did.
What made MY day was this Hot Fudge Brownie Sundae. Buh-bye, diet.
Next stop, Anaheim GardenWalk. Very pretty but only at half capacity. At the Harley store Barry saw a 1947 Harley that was pretty close to the 1946 Harley he used to ride in Roswell, NM when he was stationed there.

Check out the bear in front of the chocolate place.

I thought this sign pretty much said it all, to the left.

Final stop, Cycle Gear because Barry noticed I lost my Guardian Angel bell.

A pretty nice day, overall, even though it WAS mostly slab.

Thursday morning STARBQ group leaving Brea!

WARNING-you MUST have a gmail account to sign in and view this photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Schmink51/ThursdayChapter230GroupLeavingForSTARBQ032510?locked=true#

Since I can't upload vids to the Picasa album (or at least I THINK I can't -must check), here's what I have...
PLUS apologies folks, I did something wrong and didn't get Group 1 taking off on Imperial, but only got Group 2.





Coco's has pretty good food, TOO good if you're on a perpetual diet, like me. Here's the link to the nutritional information. I think their Angus steak and biscuits and gravy tops the calorie list. http://www.cocosbakery.com/menu_09-2009_Breakfast-01.php

BTW, they have a neat thing called "Club 55", a special menu for those 55 and over.
ME? ME? Guys, I am NOT 55, HOW, can you SAY or THINK such a thing??!!!!

I'm 56...

Motorcycle Skills Day THE BEST DAY Multi-Chapter sponsored by STAR Chapter 109 with Vinnie Greva, Master Trainer

The Sunshine Boys, Chuck and Glen.
Click on the outlined picture of Marge, the lady with the sunglasses, to see my Picasa Album of that day.

Multi-Chapter Motorcycle Skills Day

This Skills Day was especially important in that last Saturday March 13th (THANKS, Richard! I accidentally put April 13th, DUH) was the first time I had ridden since early January, so a 2 month layoff created a lapse in what Vinnie Greva called 'muscle memory' (I think that's what it was), whereby your muscles and your brain forget all the proper riding techniques and you look like a newbie, until you can either rehearse them, re-learn them or learn them anew.
Kinda like fitness-use it or lose it.

To quote a GREAT statement by Bob "ACGuy" Barbano, "some of the skills we learn come directly out of the Police motorcycle handbook. As a Police Motorcycle Training Officer (for over 20-years), Vinnie does an awesome job explaining how each skill is mastered."

MAN, did he ever.

I once heard an extremely expert rider comment about an ERC class that he took. (he could almost TEACH a skills class and could definitely professionally demonstrate what you should do in any given situation; anybody who rides with this guy feel confidence in themselves and feel safer knowing he's there, he's THAT good. It's almost like having your own personal PD motor officer).
I heard him say that even though the ERC was pretty easy, he learned something that day i.e. look ahead to where you're going. I got the impression that he was surprised at learning something he didn't know (or knew it subconsciously and didn't realize it until that day).

To me, that shows we all can continue learning new things throughout our lives, motorcycling or not. That statement he made shows that I can not only be aware of what I do that may be improved, but what others do that may affect their riding.
THAT is the bottom line as to why everyone could benefit from a Skills Day-AWARENESS, AWARENESS, AWARENESS.

This birthday week has been a really really interestingly diverse week, physically, emotionally, mentally, and motorcycley. (I just made that word up) Between the regular 230 ride, my birthday, the Weekday Wednesday ride, the Garage Party and today, it had been a jumble of STUFF, so I was glad to not be rushed and treat this as a learning 'neat' day. I love learning stuff anyway, the perpetual student, so this was gonna be great.
It happened that I got invited to the Multi-Chapter Motorcycle Skills Day by Leonard Wasson, Prez of Saddleback Valley Chapter 422. Since I've been meaning to go down and ride with them and fill out the waiver/rider intro paperwork, this would be a great time to do it.
I had to be at WingStuff by 7:30 AM for their meeting so I left at 6:37 AM because I wanted to make SURE I was there on time. (I must mention that in Brea,at 6:30 AM in the morning, IT'S FRIGGIN' 45 DEGREES, so even though my body screamed at me to stay in bed another couple of hours longer, my mind said GET THE HELL OUTTA THERE and down to where you should be! Not wanting to argue anymore, I went. Was a good thing to do, now I know what I NEED to wear to stay warm. Great time to realize it, in springtime, but hey, better late than never AND I'm writing what I wear down for future reference)

I shouldn't've worried about getting there on time, considering the way (sorry, SPEED) I ride. It's not a question of speed really, it's a question of maximizing your potential for hitting a straight line while avoiding time wasters and things that slow you down. Like cages. ("If you're gonna get there, GET THERE QUICK") I got there in 31 minutes, RIGHT when dawn was hitting. Absolutely beautiful, wish I had had my camera around my neck to take a pic.

Phil and Hank at Wingstuff were the most wonderful hosts, having coffee and donuts and setting up tables and chairs for us. http://wingstuff.com/company.php

I saw a bobblehead trike rider and had to have it for my brother in law Ted's birthday. THE ONLY PROBLEM was carting that thing around in my tankbag, but it was worth it. He LOVED it.

I gave Colin Cunningham my camera to just take one or two pics...holy COW, dude, you got some awesome pics! (and some NOT so awesome-there is no WAY those suckers are going here.)

We got there pretty quickly and Chapter 109 was having their meeting. Their president reconized that quite a few chapters were represented and he noted each Chapter and wanted their riders to be recognized. When he came to 230, Chuck and Glenn raised hands then pointed at me. Somebody from 422 said "She's with 230 but she came with US". I pointed out that I was bi, like Bi-Chapter. For some reason, they took it another way...yeah, always going for the laughs, during non-serious times...during the training, VERY little kidding. I did SOME, but very little.

The skills day really reaffirmed my belief in my own riding skills and abilities; I had forgotten some basics and so reacquired them: I was shaky on some techniques and so mastered them anew: I learned new techniques. The science of motorcycle riding is always changing.

We practiced:

1. Curving in and out of cones placed appx. 15-18' apart. The first time, I hit one. The second and third times, perfect. Even gave Chris, my ridercoach, a high five from my bike.

2. Going extremely slowly down the middle of cones. I always did well with this one because Barry and I would have competions to see who could come up to a light and continue slowly behind cars until the light changed.

3. A full U-turn-the object was to 'crank turn' the motorcycle with the handlebars against the frame, without stopping.

4. A 'slalom' course with cones on either side of the area; the object again was to 'crank turn' the motorcycle with the handlebars against the frame, without stopping, BUT tighter and more Figure-8-ish. It involved what I call 'feather throttling', I forget what he called it, and light back brake. IMPORTANT, and I always forget this or mis-do it, 'SLOW RIDING, BACK BRAKE. FAST RIDING, FRONT BRAKE'. I tend to go at a lower speed into curves BUT use my front brake. Bad.

5. A 'Keyhole' turn, with two sharp left turns and a sharp right turn. Now, Marge and I are really really analytical, we have to see where we're going to go. One of the guys came over to us and quietly told us that it's the same thing going into this exercise as the U-turn, with an added right turn. That helped.

During these exercises/skills trainings, I was surprised at myself for only putting my foot down once. Yeah, I nailed a couple of cones on the first run-thru of each exercise, but I was kinda pleased with myself. I shouldn't-a been, though, considering how light and small my bike was. I know, quit making excuses.

6. The last exercise was braking quickly. I always shine at that. We started at 15, then 25, then 35. Each time I went faster and faster, finally up to 40 MPH.

I got feedback, both evaluative AND positive. (When I was President of our local Toastmasters, we didn't criticize, we 'evaluated' and gave a few points for improvement.)

I also received indirect positive feedback, 1 riding-related, and 1 other, in the form of requests:

"Can you/will you apply for, and receive your Tin Star thru STAR International". (this makes approximately 5 TIMES different people this week has said, sometimes politely, sometimes NOT, to GET THE HELL OFF MY DUFF AND DO IT). I mean, I passed the EMT-1 training in the top 5, might as well not waste it.

"Can you train to be, and potentially later perform as, a Tailgunner for one of the Chapters" (I put 'potentially' because it's not my decision to use me; however, it was a very positive and supportive statement)

It was also a great day because not only was I pleased with my performance, but I got direct comments from other riders and rider coaches that I rode VERY WELL. Not just good, but REALLY REALLY WELL.

Our two 230 guys of COURSE were friggin' perfect, I hate those guys (not really), and I respected their abilities on their bikes even more, seeing them expertly doing the slow skills trainings, moving those big behemouths around like they were nothin'. Especially (and I can't believe I'm saying this) Glen Sandstrom. Holy shit.

Too many things to put in blogs,BUT here's the first-The Garage Party at Harley Davidson Anaheim/Fullerton was a BLAST!

I am SERIOUSLY thinking that my next bike will be a Harley. There was a Garage Party for women only last Thursday at Anaheim/Fullerton Harley Davidson.
The Garage Party that Fullerton/Anaheim Harley Davidson put on was for women ONLY, who hadn't ridden or who wanted some additional information about riding, gear, bikes, just STUFF. I likened it to a Tupperware party but instead of plastic storage stuff, it was about motorcycles. Since I'm on their newsletter mailing list, I found out about it and emailed Disco to RSVP. The event was 6-9 & I was coming straight from class, so I walk in and there are all these women with jeans, tops, some with tats, heavy MC boots, you know... And I'm in shorts, a tshirt and tennies. Ooookkkaaaayyyy-but it was still cool. The information was AWESOME.
I was telling my girlfriend that I got SUCH a good feeling from them, even above and beyond the ‘Girls-Only Garage Party’.

I'll prob go w/a Harley for my next bike because the Harley corporation is SO in tune w/women’s desires, motivations & interests, plus proactively addressing our concerns. Yamaha’s mindset, sorry to say, is still in the ‘50’s –I’m surprised they don’t make a pink Touring Cruiser with an airbrushed picture of pearls on it, complete a little stove, an ironing board and dishcloths on it!
Harley realizes that it’s a big step for women, a huge mental, emotional and physical step to not only ride something that we pretty much KNOW we can’t pick up, but also to 'insinuate' or involve ourselves physically, mentally, & emotionally into what had been traditionally men's area while trying to maintain our self-sufficiency, sometimes a MILITANT self-sufficiency if we grew up in the “I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar” 70’s. Hey, I still feel like I'm in Jr High when I feel I've been overlooked or slighted, that's why I sometimes get the feeling that I'm 'tolerated' in groups-I sometimes STILL feel too much damn emotion, some more than other women & I am really aware of what others verbally or subconsciously think. I can SENSE that UBER sharply. I don't get that feeling from the HD Corporation...they welcome us, make us feel special, don't overlook us or patronize us.

One other reason to get a Harley is that everybody calls my V-Star a Harley ANYWAY.
I’m really tired of correcting them.

Disco’s a crackup.

HD positive aspects:
OC HD has what they call a "Custom Fit" program where you buy a bike and they help you customize it to your individual needs, hence we women being able to flat foot on a touring bike.

I ACT like an independent cuss, but I don’t FEEL independent; I mean, if I truly felt independent I probably wouldn’t be in a group. Or would be leading, like last year.
More to come...

Weekday Riders Joshua Tree trip 3-17-10, flag ceremony and a great way to end the day...NOT

Joshua Tree 03-17-10

Click on the pic of Barry in front of the house getting ready to leave to see the Picasa Album.

Above is the most important stop in the whole damn park.

Not too bad, to the left, with Laine's jeans on AND my chaps.

This pic above I think turned out really cool.

We met at Coco's in Brea all layered up for the morning ride. I figured out that morning it was going to be about 59 degrees until we hit Indio for gas, so I layered up accordingly. Bub of course only wears 3 layers-thermal turtleneck, sweatshirt, jacket. He never needs anything else.

One of the things I did do was take some Benadryl because I have allergies, especially in spring when everything is blooming and in the air. Aside from a dryness in the mouth, it seemed to work really well. Preparation is KEY on trips.

Left pretty much on time when the rest of the guys got there. Stopped at the Cabazon rest stop then went to Indio for gas, zoomed on over to Cottonwood Springs entrance to Joshua Tree.

I had read all about all the flowers that were starting to show themselves but we didn't really see any. I realized later that you have to HIKE up the trails to see the flowers, they're not on the side of the road.

First stop getting the permit/pass to go in and since I went to the non-profit org's website that helps the park out, found out they had pins specific to Joshua tree, so we got pins. Bub also bought a $10 senior pass that allows him to go to any National Park anytime for LIFE, and take whoever's in the car with him (or on his bike).

Tooled on up the road and first stop was Cholla Garden, a cactus garden. It was our first OFFICIAL photo op so we stopped, stretched and took pics. Wasn't really impressive, it was pretty in its' way, but had a gravel parking lot which meant we were very careful getting out.

Next stop, Skull Rock. Interesting formation-looks like one of the Coneheads from Saturday Night Live. I took another pic of a rock that looked like a hand clenching something or putting a hand over a face.

I took some pics from my bike at times & felt like stopping on the side to take a pic of a really interesting joshua tree, but never did.

After that was Keye's View. Pretty nice, you could see the Salton Sea and the San Andreas Fault. I pointed the fault out to some of the guys. I did get some interesting artistic pics and a pic of the most important place of the whole park.

When everyone was down at that important place, the guys were chatting about lunch and since I looked up some places online, I said why not try The Route 62 Diner. I had mentioned it to Rick earlier in the day when I asked if he had any ideas about food. One of the other guys knew exactly where it was so he led us to it. I had the address but he had been there before which was a lot better-it was kinda far down. Hey, it was probably as much or even cheaper than Carrow's or Sizzler.

This is very interesting...to get out of the park, you have to stop at the ranger station and they look and see if you have your permit on the front left side of your windshield. THAT'S how they get people that don't pay! Whoa.

Went to the Diner and found out that their hours had changed-I had read on a blog that they were only open until 2:30 but NOW open until 9 PM! Pretty good food, Barry liked his beef dip a lot. The tuna melt and patty melts looked good also.

The diner is adjacent to a Harley Dealership. Ironic.

Gas up again in Cabazon Chevron, home by 5:30 PM.

We both went to the Flag Retiring Ceremony in Orange, thinking that we and the guys would all go for some dinner, but the other guys had already arranged to do something else after Joshua Tree and went to Blake's for the Irish corned beef special when they got back to town-these guys can sure chow down the calories since we had all eaten at 2:30 PM in Yucca Valley and they then went and had ANOTHER meal at 5:30-5:45. Whoa.

Bub and I went to Big 5 because it was suggested to try there for riding goggles. Nope, didn't have what I needed, but here's the big WONDERFUL (NOT!) finish...I came to the stop sign by Big 5 (which was a kind of double incline-incline down and then incline to the left) and I was preparing to go when I saw another car coming to my left. They didn't have a stop sign so I kinda braked hard with my front brake and yup, fell over. So I dropped my bike AGAIN, but the difference is that I ALMOST stopped it from falling..ALMOST. This time it was easier to lift, thanks to muscles and the engine guard. Bub did help me lift it and I took care to make sure it didn't tip the other way-I had heard about someone dropping their bike in a fender bender, picked up his bike and it fell over the other way.

The thing that ticked me off is that I had JUST been trained to USE THE BACK BRAKE WITH SLOW SPEED MANEUVERS. Maybe standing still isn't a slow speed maneuver.