Jason Talley - WMA Member # 85 - Spokane - Cool picture!

I ride with my wife in the Spokane, WA area and race with the Washington Motorcycle Road Racing Association (http://www.wmrra.com).

Best Regards,
Jason Talley

Howard Meiseles - New Member - Great Ride Story!

Contributed by new WMA member Howard Meiseles.

Click on the picture to blow it up to full screen. You can see several more of Howard's trip shots by going to the Photo Gallery. Just click on the link to the right to go and see the more than 80 shots from members around the world!

Thanks so Much Howard....I love the story about your ride....and the great pictures.


Robert,

Ellen and I love to ride together. The pictures enclosed were taken in 2006 during our 3 week vacation ride to the eastern provinces of Canada. We were living in Atlanta, Georgia at the time and our itinerary took us to Portland, Maine, a ferry ride to Nova Scotia where we rode for three days, a ferry ride to Price Edward Island for another three days of riding and onto Quebec, Montreal and to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. From there, we were off to our real destination at Burlington, Vermont for the BMW Motorcycle Owners annual gathering. After the gathering, we traveled back to Georgia via a stop in NYC for dinner and theater.

Upon leaving NY, we decided to travel one of the great motorcycle roads in the eastern United States, the Blue Ridge Parkway. The ride on the Parkway is amazing. The Blue Ridge was authorized in the 1930s as a Depression-era public works project, the Parkway was more than a half-century in the making. It was the nation's first, and ultimately longest, rural parkway, connecting Shenandoah National Park in Virginia with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. The Parkway winds for 469.1 miles (755 km) through the famous Blue Ridge Mountains, a major mountain chain that is part of the Appalachian Mountains. There is no fee for using the Blue Ridge Parkway and other than tour buses, commercial vehicles are prohibited. The parkway was built so that it appears that the road grew out of the ground instead of being place on top of it. There are no billboards or commercial establishments other than those provided discreetly by the National Park Service. I recommend that if you are on the east coast during the late spring, summer or early fall that you ride this road.

Regards

Howard Meiseles

Free at last, free at last, good lord almighty, I'm free at last!

I hereby declare this to be a bike riding weekend for all.....

It's a three day weekend here in the USA....

All persons who view this statement are authorized to put aside all work; and focus on the true meaning of life!

The Worldwide Motorcycle Association hereby declares this to be a weekend for riding! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

and one last thing......be sure to visit the huge collection of motorcycle pictures...just click on the link to the right. Ride Safe!

Weekend - 90 degree temperatures; THE RIDE IS ON!

First gear, it's all right;
second gear, lean right;
third gear, hang on tight;
faster.....its all right!

I'm gonna ride my Honda tonight!

The words to a 60's song.....well; they're true for us. We'll be riding all weekend. I need to do a lot of cleaning this morning. I've been slack about keeping the dirt off my bike all winter. It's time for a long cleaning session this morning. We'll be riding the backroads of Southwest Washington this weekend. Cars are rare and the roads are full of twists and turns.....and plenty of scenery. Ride Safe!

75 Members as of today!

Welcome to the latest members! We are now at 75 members worldwide!

The motorcycle picture collection is also at 75 pictures! Go figure!

We've got some great enthusiastic members and some great motorcycle shots from around the world.

Make sure to take a peek at the pics when you have a moment.

RJGrawet
rjgrawet@yahoo.com

One of my favorite rides! 'The Moonset Ride'

In mid September of 2005, Joyce and I rode up the Hood Canal in Washington State to Port Townsend. We then took this ferry (see picture) across to Whidbey Island, Washington. From there we rode north to cross the border with Canada at Bellingham, Washington.

We rode to our friends; Peter and Francis Galea's house in North Vancouver and spent the night with them at their house. Peter always cooks up a great breakfast. After that breakfast the next day we jumped on our bikes and rode over to the ferry dock in North Vancouver to cross the water and head north up the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. There are a series of ferries (3, I think) as you go up the coast to the city of Powell River. We didn't have reservations anywhere, so we pulled into a resort like facility to check for rooms. They had two nice rooms right next to each other facing the Strait of Georgia and looking across to Vancouver Island.

We freshened up and went into PowerRiver to find dinner. There was a very nice little place on the main road right in town; I'm sorry I don't remember the name. It was in an old house that was several levels. They had a deck on the back side facing the water. The four of us each enjoyed our dinners and a glass of wine and then jumped on the bikes to ride back to our home for the night.

There is a liquor store right on the resort property so we bought a couple of bottles of wine to have while sitting on the deck. As the sun set and it turned dark; we really enjoyed our water view; the beautiful evening, and the friendship we share as we talked freely and shared stories.

Somewhere near the end of several bottles of wine; we all noticed that the extremely big bright moon we were watching had progressively moved across the sky and had now 'set' behind Vancouver Island. WHAT!!!!!! The moon doesn't set!

We were freaked out! What!!!!!! The moon does NOT set! The Sun sets......the Moon doesn't set!

I ask you now; does the moon set? Does it?

We walked down to the lawn in front of the complex to the boat docks where many people were out strolling on this warm September evening. One after another; we asked people if they had seen the moon 'set'. When asked; not one person had ever seen the moon set; and we all began to wonder what in the world had just happened. Was it a disaster? (we really didn't think that for long). Was it some phenomenon? Was it a hallucination? (we did drink several bottles of wine). The more people we asked the more strange it seemed........no one on that night had ever seen the moon set, and no one was sure that it was supposed to.

Luckily we had consumed enough wine; to eventually move on to another thought and finally we all went to bed later.

In the morning; I went for the local newspaper; and ......... lo and behold! There on the back page was the posted daily times for:

The Sun Rise and Set times.

and

The Moon Rise and Set times. Holy Moly! The Moon DOES set!!!

So......at an age where one of us at least should have known this; not one actually did. Neither did anyone walking that night. Since that day; on a regular occasion; I'll ask a new person if the moon sets. So far; of the 100 or so folks I've asked; only about 5% are absolutely sure that the moon does set. It's probably something every farmer knows....but no one in our group did.

We decided to make 'the Moon Set Ride' a regular event. This last year we rode to Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island to watch it. What an amazingly beautiful city; and some of the finest surfing on the west coast. (really)

Joyce and I continued on from Powell River on that first ride. We took the ferry across to Vancouver Island and landed at Campbell River, B.C. Peter and Fran had to return back to Vancouver for business. Joyce and I rode down the east coast of Vancouver Island and stayed the night at Sidney, B.C. right on the water. The next morning; we took the Washington State ferry from there to Anacores, Washington. After that beautiful 2 1/2 hour ferry ride, we rode back down the Hood Canal to our home in Olympia, Washington.

A 3 night/4 day trip. 5 ferry rides. THE MOONSET! Fantastic weather. Great Friends. Plenty of wine (never when riding). This will be a trip to always remember!

We haven't decided this year where we'll go for the moonset ride. Maybe the Oregon coast.

Tell me about one of your favorite rides. Send your post to me: robertgrawet@worldwidemotorcycleassociation.com I'll post it for all to read. Also; send me a picture of you and your bike to post with it.

Ride safe!