BACK ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Written by Wanda Densmore

Illinois Chapter “G”

Our Goldwing riding has been greatly reduce during the last two years.  We both are now retired and have moved to the country to be close to nature.  I was born on a farm in the hills and love animals.  (Also it got us away from the hectic life of the city!!!)  That took care of the first year.  Russ had surgery last year and I had one during the winter.  So my loving husband (Russ) decides this year we will make up for it. 

We planned on starting the year out right by going to the Tennessee Mousetail picnic via the Pennsylvania Memorial Day weekender.  We decide to take 10 days to make the trip, stopping to visit relatives along the way.  The first little bit of excitement occurred when a bird flew between the windshield and me.  Started my heart going just a little.  We made it to PA without any further excitement.  We had a great weekend visiting with our AGWA friends and riding between raindrops.  Thanks to George and his members for the great weekender. 

We leave the weekender to go visit my father in Ohio.  Our friend, the rain, came back to visit on the way to Ohio.  We decide to take the PA Turnpike instead of the back roads that we took on the way to PA.  Cruising down the Turnpike doing 70 miles per hour, the rain finally had stopped, so I put my full-face shield up for the wind to take off the raindrops.  Just a little further, I see something coming from the left, I raise my hand to pull down the face shield when a big black bird hits my hand just in front of my face.  Russ yells across the CB, what happened, all I can see is feathers flying from the right side of your head.  This really gets my heart pumping.  We stop at a service plaza to wash up and put something cold on my hand.  All the time thinking what are the odds of a bird flying up at you twice in one trip.  First bird was lucky, the second one wasn’t.

Our trip to Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee was good.  Missed the rain, we were asleep when the storm came through.  The Mousetail picnic was good as always.  It normally is a Saturday event, but to accommodate some of the out of town members, they made it a weekender.  The weather was too warm for us northern folks.  But the park is very nice, roads are great to ride on and the food was worth the trip!  They raise money by playing games, so you need to bring lots of quarters.  The object is to win as many tickets as you can from the games.  There are lots of prizes, so you pick out the ones you want and put in your tickets from the games.  At the end of the event, a lucky ticket is pulled and the holder of the stub gets the prize.  I saw several people, that will remain unnamed, who needed a truck to take home all their winnings.  Don, thanks for putting the event together.  It was the perfect ending to a long week.

Life continued without any rain.  We are in a drought.  Watering the flowers, trees and garden to keep them alive.  All that rain we drove through and none of it fell at home. 

We leave for the AGWA National Rally at SnowShoe Mountain, W. VA.  For those of you that don’t know Russ, he is not a morning person.  Weather is still hot and dry, we leave home at 5:00 AM (which means that he had to get up at 4:00 AM---totally unheard of) to meet our son and his wife to ride to Ohio.  We meet the rest of Chapter G in Lancaster Ohio.  We split up the next day and two groups ride to the rally.

The rain still comes and goes, but tired of being in the hotel, we take off to ride one of the many motorcycle tours listed.  Russ is leading, as he really likes to get into the curves.  I am next, as I like them also.  Behind me are Frank and Carol Tierney (CT State Director) and Don and Marion Oller (TN State Director).  This makes up our small group.  The road is beautiful as it winds around the various ridges.  Wildflowers are colorful along the edges of the road.  Russ and I are a little ahead of the group as we start into a curve; I see a deer starting to jump out in front of Russ.  Of course, he doesn’t see it and continues into the curve.  All I can think of is to stop the bike; I lean on the left hand grip, pull in the clutch and hit both brakes.  Thank God for MSF classes, I remembered to upright the bike before I tried to stop.  I slide to a stop with the deer looking at me through the windshield.  It took a leak on my front tire and over the CB I hear Carol saying,  WANDA LOOK OUT FOR THE DEER IN FRONT OF YOU!  My heart starts beating again and my first thought is “Carol, YA THINK.”  I started laughing, the deer took off and I took off.  That was one real lucky deer.  I was sure that it was going to get hit by me. 

The rain finally quit and it was sunny on Wednesday, so we took the same route that we had taken the day before.  Found my tire mark, but not any sign of my deer.  (Don and Marion found me a pair of deer whistles, Thanks!)

The moral of my story is that I still like birds and deer, but I will always watch for them coming out of the bushes.  Next time the deer or me might not be so lucky!

Our next long trip is to Sweetwater, Tennessee for the Smoky Mountain Roundup, and I’m hoping it is not another animal adventure.