December 24, 2004
This is the one that made our presence known and has let some of the community
know we exist and that we have good intentions to be a working part of a
charitable community.
From Danny:
As most of our regular members know, Our chapter sponsored a family this year at Christmas. I'll just use first names. Dakota, 7 years old and Clinton, 4 years old. For privacy reasons, I won't go into their entire situation, but I will tell you that Dakota has a brain tumor and is undergoing radiation treatments. Clinton is on medication for seizures. They are living with their mother in their Grand-mother's home. Our club provided their toys and other necessities as well as their Christmas dinner. You can check out some photos of the event on our web site. Several of us rode our bikes to their house on Christmas Eve. along with Santa Clause. The boys love motorcycles and we took Dakota on his first bike ride. Clinton was a little reluctant to mount up. He was, however, not scared of Santa. When we arrived at their house, Clinton approached Santa with outstretched hands. Dakota has good days and bad days, this was a good day. Santa delivered two large stockings to the boys and we all had fun watching them pull the items out. For some reason, they received allot of toy motorcycles.
Dakota's Grand-mother had informed us early on that Dakota was very smart for his age and was really wanting a computer for Christmas. We tried to come up with one for a few weeks but to no avail. The day before Christmas Eve is when Debbie and I met with the Grand-mother to deliver the toys. She mentioned the computer again but we had to tell her that our club just didn't have the money to provide one at this time. After we left, we just couldn't get this out of our minds. I remembered that I just happen to have the cell phone number of Rick Jones, the owner of Lynchburg Computer's on Timberlake Rd. I called him and explained the situation. Without hesitation, he told me to meet him at his shop and he would come up with something.
Well, Rick came through. He and his staff worked for over four hours on the day before Christmas Eve. putting together a computer and all the accessories one could want to go along with it. Thanks to Rick and his good hearted staff, a Christmas Miracle took place. He even donated free internet service!
Needless to say; when we informed the Grand-mother, the tears started flowing, even from some of us "Hard Core Biker guys". We were all touched by Dakota, Clinton, the Grand-mother and the Mother. We learned that, it is truly more blessed to give than to receive.
August 20 and 21, 2004
From the President himself and I had to make sure everyone had access to this
one.
Hey Cruisers, The rest of the story….
What a ride we had this weekend!! We (Paul G. & Cindy P., Mike W., Derin F., Bob & Gloria L. and Debbie and me) left from Sheetz in Lynchburg around 10:15 AM Saturday headed for Goshen Pass and Green Banks West, VA. Our route took us up 29 N. to 501 S. to Rt.60. to 39 into Goshen. While stopped at a pull over along Goshen Pass, we heard a rumble that sounded as if a Dam had burst and we expected to see a huge wall of water coming up, wait a minute, coming up…? Water doesn’t run up hill, maybe a train, no, there aren’t any train tracks around here. Well, it must be a jet or Military Chopper flying over. NO, wait, LOOK!!!, It’s a bunch of Harleys coming up the Mountain. There were 15 to 20 that rumbled by. That doesn’t count the Gold Wings that were quietly holding their place with the group. We all looked at each other like DUH? We didn’t even think about the noise being bikes! Well, Goshen Pass was breath taking, but even more so for Debbie and Gloria. It seems they had seen another kind of gorge. Across the tranquil mountain stream of Goshen Pass, they had spotted some folks that were naked and about to take a dip. They had been mooned! There’s never a camera around when you need one. Well, we figured by the time we turned around for the rest of us to get a look, well you know what cold water does to ones body, probably wouldn’t have been much to see anyway. Besides, it was starting to drizzle and it was about lunchtime. We headed on up a few more miles to a restaurant. We weren’t the only ones with eating in mind. There must have been 60 to 70 bikes there. Fortunately, most of them were getting ready to leave. (We were later told that there was a Hog Rally up at Snow Shoe) Mike W. tooted his horn and waved as he peeled off and headed back home. By this time the bottom fell out and it rained for about an hour. We didn’t care, we were warm and dry and surrounded by food! The rain stopped just about the time we were ready to leave. We said goodbye to Derin as he headed back home and off we went to visit the GBT site. You can read all about this facility at www.gb.nrao.edu/GBT/GBT.shtml. So, it was just the six of us now on three bikes. We came prepared to stay overnight, so we headed on toward Monterey via 250 N. We were making fun of Paul G. and his three-gallon gas tank because we had to stop about every 70 miles so he could fuel up. The joke kind of stopped when we were cruising along on some lonesome stretch of highway and Bob’s bike coughed and spit and died! OUT OF GAS! Paul was in front and oblivious to Bob and Gloria’s misfortune, and he soon was out of sight. Debbie and I were in back so we stopped, made a couple of jokes about my tank on the Harley and Bob’s Intruder being the same size and we had fueled up at the same time. Man, I love my Harley! Debbie and I turned around and headed to a gas station about 5 miles back. We returned about 15 minutes later with a gallon jug of gas. By this time, Paul G. had come to realize we weren’t close behind anymore and had returned to the scene. Bob poured in the gas and we were off again! We arrived in Monterey about 7:20 PM. We stopped at a restaurant and while there decided to stay in this pretty little town for the night. Paul G. called a number he had for a motel there to guarantee some rooms. The clerk said they were available and didn’t need a credit card number, his word was good enough. Well, this should have clued us in about the accommodations, but I’ll get to that in a minute. He asked for directions and the clerk gave him a couple of cross roads, which Paul could see from where we were standing. He told the Clerk where we were and the Clerk said just look this way, over behind the Church. We were only about a block from the motel (I use the term motel loosely) and could see it from there. High’s Restaurant was delicious. It took a while for the “home cooked food” but everyone agreed, it was worth the wait. It was dark by the time we were through eating and we headed for the motel. It didn’t look too bad from the outside and we were tired so we didn’t ask to see any rooms (mistake) before we paid. The clerk was an elderly lady with a journal to which she made hand written entries of our information. She seemed surprised that our names were not “Smith” and that we actually wanted the rooms for more than an hour. Luckily, she did take credit cards and put them in one of those manual card swipers that you grab one side and slide it to the other and back. Oh boy, what are the rooms going to look like? Well, one of us read that the motel was built in the late 1950’s. Yep! Sure was, and hadn’t had a single improvement since! It was a double decker with all the rooms having outside entrances. I noticed right off the pretty pink, (the color of Flamingo’s) louvered doors. I opened it to find about a 12” threshold and another solid door. The Flamingo colored door had been boarded with ply board on the back side. Whoa, if the walls of this motel could talk, they would have started ranting and raving about this new invention just out called a television set. The one in our room had to be among the first made. 1950’s beds and bed spreads complete with cigarette burns, 1950’s curtains and furniture. I’m talking original here! No phones in any of the rooms. If you need the clerk during the night, you have to go to the office and dial a number provided near their phone, hang up after three rings and dial it again and someone would answer. Debbie wanted to watch TV, but I advised her not to turn it on. Like I said, it was old, had tubes that had to warm up and I didn’t want to heat up the room (or the roaches). Oh, did I mention there was no Air Conditioning? That’s right, just open the windows and hope for a breeze. Debbie and I didn’t get much sleep that night and it wasn’t because we were spending quality time alone. We took shifts watching for peeping toms, bears and things that go “Bump” in the night. Have you ever heard of the “Bates” motel, the one in the horror movie? I checked for bullet holes in our room, but found none. I can only assume that’s because this place is so primitive that the weapon of choice must be a stone tied to a stick! The bathroom was small with just a tile shower, sink and toilet. It had one of those florescent lights over the mirror like our grandparents had. The switch beside the light didn’t work.. We figured out there had been another one installed on the outside of the bathroom on the wall just to the right of the door. What door? Where is the bathroom door? Well, I finally found it. It slid into the wall. You just pull it out like in a camper! I flipped that switch on the outside of the bathroom and waited to see what would happen. A few seconds went by and I was just about to give up when that old florescent light dimly blinked, made a few clicking sounds, flicked like lightning and then lite up about as bright as the sun. Anyone in the parking lot must have thought I was arc welding in there! I kept my shoes on until I got in bed. I got in first, then Debbie. The bed was so soft that we both rolled to the middle and that’s where we stayed until morning. I slept pretty good in 30 min intervals. That’s how often Debbie would ask me what time it was. Finally, the sun was coming up and we felt like maybe all the little creatures would go into hiding again, so we put our socks on and walked across the carpet to the bathroom and made ready for the day. Debbie stood guard while I showered and I reciprocated. Bob, Gloria, Paul and Cindy said they had a good nights sleep, but Debbie and I noticed they were acting a little strange. They stared off in the distance and kind of spoke with a monotone voice. We kept an eye on them the rest of the day. I’m still not sure something didn’t happen to them, or if it’s really even them! Oh well, we walked back over to the restaurant, had a great breakfast and headed on toward Waynesboro. We stopped at Shenandoah Harley, but they were closed, so we visited the ice cream stand that was in the parking lot, prior to traveling the 82 miles to Roanoke to the Harley shop there. They were closed as well. Ok, I guess it’s time to eat again. Our last food stop was at the “New Yorker” in Roanoke where we dined on sub sandwiches and cheese cake. Paul G. took us by his parents vacant lot between Roanoke and Evington, where our club cookout is going to be held on October 16th. We left there around 5:30 PM and headed for home. A little over 400 miles in a couple of great riding days through some of the most beautiful country side I’ve ever seen. I can hardly wait for our next ride. Although, future “overnighters” will include well known “chain” motels J).
And now you know the “rest of the story”.
Ride Safe,
Danny, Prez 26
August 28, 2004
The Lynchburg firefighters are having the Annual MDA Poker Run
http://www.lynchburgfirefighters.org/welcome%20home%20links/mda%20page.htm
Visit their website for more information
August 22, 2004
Some of the Members went in search of the Green Bank via Goshen Pass
The rest of us stayed here and took a long ride around the Blueridge.
Photos have been posted in the Photos section if you are interested.