Where We Go One, We Go All

November 2002

Trails End.......

The October meeting of the Memphis Tour Riders was officially gaveled to order at 7:00PM 

ROLL CALL: Don and Marion Oller, Floyd Nunnelee, Rusty Higgins, Brenda Hamilton, Mike Hopper, Bill and Libby Franklin, Dan Randall, David Elston, B. J. and Hildia Max, Charlie and Darnell Gibson, Larry Cole, Shelby Criddle, Dick Salveson, Jean Viets and yours truly, Stan Viets.. We welcomed our visitors Jim and Pat Brewington. Thanks to all for coming out on this wet and dreary night. I also thanked and expressed appreciation to the group for their consideration of others by not smoking at our meetings. 

In Terry and Mary Carol Scott's absents, Dan Randall gave us a detailed committee report on the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home charity activity they have been working on. MTR will be adopting the Davis Cottage, www.tbch4kids.org. Dan passed out flyers on the report and rather than repeat the memo it is detailed elsewhere in the newsletter. MTR authorized the expenditure of $550.00 to purchase gift certificates for the six female residents. We will be joined in our efforts by the Bass Club of Oakland to help make this a special Christmas for the kids. Between now and our next meeting we ask that our members solicit suitable gifts for the Children's Christmas stockings. Please see items needed in the Charities Committee Report.

Also we are planning to have our Christmas party, a bring a covered dish event, in association with the Children's party. Tentatively this will be Saturday December 14th. At the Baptist Children's Home at Summer Avenue and Stage Road (Highway 64) the party will be in lieu of our regular December meeting. Additional details on the Christmas Party will be published and e-mailed when they are finalized.

Unfinished business:
To date we haven't heard anything on the second letter our attorney has written to GWTA Executive Director, dated August 8th and additional action may be pending. 

Up dates, news and comments:
David Elston, you might remember, hit a dog while riding his motorcycle north on Hwy. 51 near Atoka. David is doing well and drove his truck to the meeting. In the accident his bike sustained approx $ 7000.00 in damages. David is anxious to be released so he can go back to work. Jimmy Rogers is back at work after a bout with pneumonia. William (Bill) Jones is still in room 506, 726-7506 Thomas Wing at Methodist Central, and is slowly improving. You can send email to patients in the Methodist Hospital by putting their name, room number and location in the subject of the e-mail and send to roarkk@methodisthealth.org We also passed around the THANK YOU note from Julia expressing their thanks and appreciation to all for the cards, calls, e-mails and especially the prayers for Bill's recovery. You can also send e-mail to patients that are in the Baptist Hospital in the same fashion and addressing your mail to jill.mccord@BMHCC.org Another on the sick list is Jim Ashe. Jim is still at the Med and remains in very serious condition. At this writing Jim was still in a coma. Rumor has it that Jim will be transferred to a re-hab center in Atlanta. We need to continue our prayers for all. 

Continued On Page 3

Member Will Attempt The 2003 Iron Butt Rally

Our very own Stan Viets, has decided to throw his hat into the ring and enter the 2003 Iron Butt Rally. Now for those of you who are not familiar with this event, I'll give a brief description. The Iron Butt Rally consists of an eleven day, eleven thousand-mile circumnavigation of the United States. Along the way riders are lured off course with bonus point detour's and the thing ends up in a hell bent for leather race with time. It takes iron willed men to even finish this rally, much less win it. I don't know what Stan's plans are but I would guess that he would be tickled to death if he just managed to finish this grueling test of human endurance and discipline. A thousand miles a day for eleven days would be tough on an eighteen year old not to mention some fossilized specimen from the Jurassic era. But despite this disadvantage, Stan is tough and I personally think will pull this off with class.

But tough or not, you first have to get your name drawn and that will be Stan's first hurdle. There will be less than fifty slots open and over a thousand applicants vying for these coveted slots so it ain't gonna' be easy. Here's why;
All entrants will be divided into three categories-Iron Butt Rally Veterans, rally workers from previous rallies and new riders. Even though Stan has finished a Saddlesore 1000 IBA ride and is a bonified member of the Iron Butt Association, he hasn't competed in the Iron Butt Rally itself and therefore will fall into the new rider category. Right off the bat, thirty applications from the Rally Veterans category will be placed in play, the rest thrown into the new rider box, further diluting Stan's chances. Then five applicants will be drawn from the Rally workers box and the rest of that group will be mixed in with Stan's bunch cutting our hero's chances to the bone. So, until sometime this month, Stan and all of us who are rooting for him will just have to bide our time and let the thing play itself out. If Stan should get picked, and with his record at our own 50/50 drawings it don't look real good, then we, the Memphis Tour Riders, might be able to play some kind of minor role in backing his effort but that remains to be seen. More next month on this exciting development within the Memphis Tour Riders organization.

PAGE 2

Blazing Saddles 2002

Riding east on Highway 64 just outside Lynchburg I glance in the rear view mirror at six motorcycles, a trike and one automobile, all safely staggered except the car of course. It's not a nice day and as we ride along I wonder what kind of strange force could be tucked away in the MTR riders mental makeup that manages to entice us from our warm and cozy living rooms on such a cold, damp and dreary morning. And we do it time after time. No matter what the weather we always seem to have a decent turnout. Why? I've asked myself that question many a time and I can't come up with an answer. Its almost like we're trying to prove a point. Maybe that's it. We took a dare and any five year old will tell you that when you take a dare you can't back out.
As we slip gracefully through the beautiful rolling hills of Middle Tennessee I am vaguely aware of a flatbed truck up ahead, overloaded with bales of fresh mown hay. My eyes become fixed on the load and I steer almost hypnotically as I waltz the motorcycle back and forth through the gentle curves. I continue to stare and gradually my mind wanders from the job at hand to other rides ridden this year. 
As I glide along flicking the bike left then right with my eyes fixated on the truck something starts to knock on the door of my conscientiousness but I can't quite pick up on it. One of the hay bales rocks back and forth on the truck and then, in slow motion, it begins to fall. I smile. Ain't that nice. The way it tumbles gracefully from the truck. In the back of my mind the beautiful Blue Danube plays softly. The heavy bale bounces on the pavement, tumbling slowly towards me keeping perfect time with the music. Magically it begins to separate like golden threads and as if in a dream, the straw swirls up around me glittering in the moist morning air. Beautiful. Life is good and I am content.
Then suddenly, this rude little voice screams at me, jerking me unceremoniously back to reality. "HEY STUPID! WAKE UP! THERE'S HAY BALES BOUNCING ALL OVER THE ROAD UP AHEAD. DO YOU WANNA' GET US ALL KILLED YOU IJIT'?
I am happy to say everybody managed to miss those errant hay bales but a couple hours later, we didn't miss the rain. After lunch at Shoney's in Lynchburg we didn't get three miles outta' town when it dumped on us. There was no place to pull over and suit up so we had to plod on. Mike Hopper alerted me over the two-way that according to his GPS there was a town about five miles up the road. It turned out to be Pulaski and there we escaped the downpour under a gas station awning. We suited up and re-fueled then continued on in the rain. Hey, we had an Itinerary and I wasn't about to let a minor little flood deter us from our schedule. 
We arrived at the Best Western in McMinnville on time. We were welcomed at the lobby by Larry and Juanita Cole. They had driven up the day before and it was nice to pull in and be greeted by familiar faces. The desk clerk, with his blinding fast computer skills, managed to check us in before our social security kicked in. The clerk referred to here is a nice fellow but he is excruciatingly slow and it was all I could do to keep from jumping over the counter and strangling him with my bare hands. Slow and steady may win the race but history records that the tortoise only won one race with the hare.
After settling in we saddled up and rode the short ride to Walling and the Foglight Foodhouse in a sprinkling rain. The Foglight is located on a winding back country road and sits on a hill with a very tricky gravel parking lot. On arrival I barely slowed as I wheeled in and shot up the slope to the relative safety of a grassy knoll, the only level spot around. Everybody made it in safely, dismounted and whipped out their cameras faster than Wyatt Earp could whip out a Buntline Special.
During the photo op it began to rain and the good folks at the Foglight expressed compassion for their dimwitted motorcycle riding patrons, God bless 'em, and opened their doors ten minutes early.

Continued -->

Blazing Saddles 2002………continued
Unlike last year, the Foglight service was a bit slow but the food was the same. Delicious. It poured down rain while we feasted, laughed and carried on but we paid it no mind. We were having too much fun and were so loud and boisterous the regular's probably thought we were drunk. But to my knowledge everyone was stone cold sober. Umm, except maybe Mike Hopper who for some strange reason wound up laughing and rolling around in the floor aiming and clicking his camera in all directions, the waitresses squealing with delight as they "skirted" around him.
We filed out of the restaurant around eight, suitably stuffed. The rain had been replaced by starry skies and a big yellow harvest moon. We cleared the gravel lot safely and headed for the main highway. As we exited on 70-S towards McMinnville, I was second or third in line I guess, and just as I went into high gear I heard Charley Gibson over the two way alerting us that a bike was in trouble. Hildia and I immediately doubled back and as we pulled in Charley was already stooped over Shelby Criddle's Harley, plying his mechanical magic. He managed to get the bike patched up well enough for Shelby to ride it to the motel and there he devised a more permanent fix. Good ol' Charley. Everybody's best friend. 
Sunday morning, some of us met at Shoney's for Breakfast and a few decided to sleep in. After pigging' out on the famous Shoney breakfast bar, Mike Hopper and Brenda, Charley and Darnell, Ed and Evleyn, Hildia and I made a little scouting trip for Blazing Saddles Three. We turned south out of McMinnville on Highway 56 and later west on Highway 41 thru Monteagle, down the mountain and back to US 64, roughly 35 additional miles. Despite the heavy fog that slowed us to 25 MPH at times, we could see well enough to know that next years Blazing Saddles Fall Foliage Tour will be greatly enhanced by the inclusion of this smooth, twisty and scenic backroad. Meet me at Shoney's, October 18th, 2003. 
The following members enjoyed the food, camaraderie, rain, fog, birthday pie and tumbling hay bales of this years Blazing Saddles Ride: Shelby Criddle and Pam, Danny Parker and Lori, Terry Scott and Mary Carol, Charley Gibson and Darnell, Mike Hopper and Brenda, Larry Cole and Juanita, Stan Viets and Jean, Bill Healy and Bonnie, and Hildia Max .and BJ 
Thanks for the cooperation of all involved in helping me keep the ride on schedule. All hail the Itinerary

HAPPY TRAILS

PAGE 3

Happy Trails  is Published Monthly by Possum's Anonymous, Memphis, Tennessee 901-377-9140