We all love riding with friends and being part of a club, but have motorcycle clubs lost their appeal? I don’t think so, I think that we as club members need to take some ownership and get more involved in our local groups. Embrace social media and invite new members to this great hobby. I did a video, explaining some of my thoughts on this subject.
David Petersen wrote a great article on the Decline of Motorcycle Clubs that sparked my video. Go check out the article here. It is a great read.
Tell me your thoughts in the comment section. Thanks for stopping by and reading the blog. Don’t forget to watch the video.
I had been planning this weekend jaunt for more than a week. When I saw that we had the chance for great weather and sunshine, I knew I had to hit the road and go look for some bonus points. This is a quick little ride report from my 950 mile ride. I made some big mistakes, stupid decisions but enjoyed the hell out of the ride.
I told my wife Jamie that I would be leaving at 8AM sharp no matter what the weather. It looked to be in the upper 30’s by that time according to my trusty weather app. Well, my app sucks and is not very accurate.
It was 28° when I walked into the kitchen to get my cup of coffee. I decided to delay my departure by an hour. I left at 9am as it had warmed up to a warm 34°
My first stop was less than 2 miles from the house as I wanted to get my first bonus and to also make sure that my app was working. I picked up my first bonus points of the weekend. I headed off to visit a couple of airports in Springdale and Fayetteville. Things went smoothly and the weekend rally was on.
I rode down towards Fort Smith, with my route taking me towards Talihena Scenic byway. If you have not ridden this stretch of road, you are missing out. I did a spirited run up and back before heading down to Idabel OK. I picked up a couple of Creek bonuses before heading over to Detroit Texas and to pick up the big 6 points for the CT bonus list. I rode into that small “big named” town and found the sign that I needed to take the bonus picture and to document these points. All was well and good. I took the picture, submitted it and got a confirmation that the points were awarded. (More on this later) I jumped back on my trusty steed and pointed her in the direction of Bossier City Louisiana, my stop for the evening.
It was 4PM in the afternoon and I was still a good 120 miles from my room for the evening. I realized that I would be riding some in the dark. To be honest it is not one of my favorite things to do. I hit the road and passed up a good 15 points, as I rode by a minimum of 5 creeks. It was getting cold and dark, my thoughts were more on the critters looking to make me a bonus prize.
I arrived at my room for the evening. Our friends Becky and Jeff had offered me a place to stay and I was more than willing to take them up on their offer. After I unpacked the bike, Jeff and I rode over to meet Becky and to have some awesome Cajun food. We ate at Crawdaddy’s Kitchen. The food was very good and we exchanged stories and enjoyed each others company. I want to thank Jeff and Becky for opening up their home to me. Jeff’s garage is AMAZING! Talk about the ultimate man cave… wow! Becky had spent the entire day at the Canton Trade Days event selling her delicious Whoopie Pies, then comes home and has to play hostess. Thank you both again for the hospitality!
Sunday morning arrived and the weather was fantastic. I had a quick cup of coffee with Jeff and then headed out to Barksdale AFB for the 2nd bonus of the day. I got the first one 100 yards from Jeff’s house so the morning was off to a great start.
I bolted over to Minden airport for more points then jumped over to Hope Arkansas. I took a couple of small off road adventures and bagged as many points as I could. The last big stop of the day was in London Arkansas to grab a small town big name bonus. I rolled into home in enough time to take a shower before the Superbowl started! Jamie made me home made pizza. It was a great way to finish up an awesome weekend.
I made a couple of larger mistakes. One where I did not place the placard in the picture and another you could not read the location. You can see all of the good, the bad and the ugly for my submissions here. All in all it was a great weekend. I can’t wait to do it again soon. Ride safe everyone.
16.63 points, 110 miles and a great day for a ride!
What a great day for a ride. It is mid January and the temps hit the high 50’s. I had not collected any bonus points in the Big Money Rally until today. My first stop was the Northwest Arkansas Airport, it only took me three tries to get my bonus. I just need to slow down and be more strategic when taking my photos.
I made 5 more stops before heading home. It was a great day of riding. Next weekend I am taking a longer 500 mile + ride to collect more bonus points. Stay tuned. I am currently in 84th place. I need 144 points to be a finisher. That is the goal for my first big rally.
Sorry about missing last week. We will try and stay on schedule.
Don’t miss out on the Ozark Great Escape happening April 17 – 19 in Eureka Springs Arkansas. You can read more about the event here: https://www.motoadrenalinetours.com/o…
West Virginia is going to be awesome. We hope to meet and have some time with Mario and his wife. They have a great YouTube channel – Make sure to go check it out: https://www.youtube.com/c/2wheeledrid…
Big Money Rally is a long term riding event. Should be a lot of fun. Read more about it here: https://bigmoneyrally.com/2020/
Hope you all liked the video. My Superbowl prediction is a great game with Kansas City winning 34 – 24 Until next time everyone –
Ride Safe
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Jamie and I will be enjoying another great year of riding in 2020, here is our ride schedule for the upcoming year.
April 17 – 19, 2020: Ozark Great Escape – Eureka Springs Arkansas
The riding season is kicked off with our own event. Jamie and I are hosting the Ozark Great Escape in Eureka Springs Arkansas. If you would like to sign up and join us click here. This is a just for fun FREE event and open to all riders and clubs. There are 15+ bikes signed up already. It will be a fantastic event.
June 5 – 14, 2020: Almost Heaven – West Virginia
This will be our long summer trip for the year. We will be heading out to the MSTA STAR event to spend a couple of days before heading out to West Virginia. Jamie and I have never spent anytime in this area and we are looking forward to experiencing the great riding that everyone talks about. We are also trying to get together with Mario and his wife from over at the 2 wheeled rider page. He is looking over our routes to ensure we hit all of the good roads. Jamie and I will also be visiting a couple of Civil War historical sites. We are hoping to visit Harper’s Ferry, Antietam and maybe even Gettysburg.
We will be figuring out routes and other places to visit, so if you all have any ideas, please shoot us an e-mail. We are really looking forward to this upcoming adventure.
July 9 – 12, 2020: Red River gorge – Mount sterling kentucky
Jamie will be attending a Pampered Chef event in Chicago this weekend and so I started to dig around for a motorcycle trip. So after a lot of research I decided that I would shoot over to the Red River Gorge Event. It is 673 miles each way, but hey what else would I be doing ? It is a great excuse to jump on the bike and meet up with some new friends.
This is the three events that are in the books so far. I am sure we will be doing a trip in September as well. More on that a few months down the road. We are asking for your help. If you ride in the areas that are listed above and know of some places we should not miss, then shoot us an e-mail. We would love to have more places to explore.
I have taken the plunge and will be taking part in the BMR 2020. Stay tuned! Thanks Richard swim for getting me involved!
When Jamie and I were in Dallas we ran into long time friend Richard Swim. He does a lot of long distance riding, but he has also been doing these rallies that you do at your own pace. They have always intrigued me. He has a great blog and you can read about his BMR from last year. Go check it out! Well now I am involved. I am not into the Iron Butt thing, but I love the idea of riding someplace that I would probably never ride too. These rallies promote that sort of riding. Jamie and I are going to give it a shot.
I signed up at Big Money Rally 2020 and downloaded the Bonus list. it can be overwhelming at first, but a few phone calls to Richard and I was all squared away. It takes some planning and my goal for this year is to be a finisher. That requires that Jamie and I get 144 points. Not as easy as it might seem.
Above is a list of the themes for this years boni. (This is a term for bonus) The cool thing about this is the AP that you submit your entries with. You log into the AP, take your picture, it places all of the day, time and identifiers needed. You hit submit and BAM that is it! It get scored and posted on the event site. This is done in ‘Real Time” or very close. It is awesome! You can see if you have been awarded points and then you can move along. This way avoiding the dreaded “did not qualify” tag. The website is very cool and you all should check it out. Even if this is not your thing, there are a number of people that have put in some serious work.
We have done anything like this before, so I am sure we are doing some leg work that is not needed. I would love to have a GPS file with all of the waypoints for the themes, but I guess that is part of the planning for a ride. I have sat down and will map out a few rides that we will take on for an entire day or maybe even a weekend. The goal is to get as many points possible while being efficient with your miles ridden.
Stay tuned, as I will be reporting on these rides and how many points I was able to collect. Below you can see my first entry. The selfie and what my placard looks like. Until next time everyone, Ride safe!
