1 www.4windsbmw.org MOA # 6 RA # 76 JULY MEETING INFO The regular meeting of the Four Winds BMW Riders will be held on Sat., July 19th, 2014 at Ohiopyle State Park in Ohiopyle from 5:30– 7:30 PM. We’ll meet and park the bikes at the Ohiopyle State Park Park- ing lot on Main St.: GPS Coordinates: N39.86892 W79.49411. The meal will be your choice at one of the sev- eral restaurants in the area. A list will be handed out at the meeting. INSIDE THIS ISSUE: President’s Column ................... 1 Board Of Directors 2014 .......... 1 July Meeting Info ...................... 1 Publication Info ......................... 2 Safety Bits... ............................... 2 Meeting Schedule 2014 ............. 2 2014 Shacks ................................ 2 Glasses Found! .......................... 2 Ongoing Events .......................... 2 June Meeting Minutes .............. 3 June Meeting Pictures .............. 4 Add’l Rally Accomodations ...... 6 Rally ‘T’ Graphics .................... 6 Syria Shrine Poker Run ............ 8 Rally-T Preordering Info ......... 9 Rally-T Pre-Order Form ......... 10 It’s to Laugh... .......................... 11 North Breakfast Ride ............... 12 4 Winds Scooter Squad ............ 13 For Sale ..................................... 13 The Way We Were .................... 15 Scooter Squad Ride to Brown’s18 Map to Ohiopyle Parking ........ 19 How do I join ............................ 20 Directions to the July Meeting: 20 J J J J J ULY ULY ULY ULY ULY 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2014 President – Adrian Marini [email protected]Vice President – Diane Pears 724-656-1239 [email protected]Treasurer – John Humphrey 412-897-1903 [email protected]Corres. Sec’y – Joyce Elk 724-935-2062 [email protected]Rec. Sec’y – Marge Humphrey 412-897-1904 [email protected]Director – Jeff Harlich [email protected]Director – Ralph Meyer [email protected]PRESIDENT’S COLUMN The Four Winds rally preparation is motor- ing, the T-shirts are available on a pre-order basis with an order form in this newsletter and Diane Pears is running the T-shirt opera- tion. Volunteers are needed for the rally, so please notify a board member for helping in registration, clean & tidy, security, field games, T-shirt sales, coffee & tea hospitality or 50/50 sales. September is not far off so please con- sider taking a position on the board so the Four Winds will continue to prosper as a club. The July meeting will be held at Ohiopyle State Park in Ohiopyle, PA at 5:30 pm to be held in the grass across the road from the base of the falls. If it rains we will meet at the Ohiopyle railroad station on the bike trail (Great Allegheny Passage Trail). A list of restaurants in the area will be handed out at the meeting for individuals to dine at after the meeting. I will be leading a ride to the July meeting from the Get Go gas station on route 51 south side of the route 51 and 70 interchange. The ride will leave at 4:00 pm and please have a full tank of gas and an empty bladder. The ride will parallel a stream leaving Dunbar, PA with lots bends and changes in elevation for a relaxing and ad- venturous excursion. ENJOY THE RIDE ADRIAN SPE- CIAL RALLY AND RIDE INFO-- PGS 6-10.
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www.4windsbmw.orgMOA # 6 RA # 76
JULY MEETING INFOThe regular meeting of the FourWinds BMW Riders will be held onSat., July 19th, 2014 at OhiopyleState Park in Ohiopyle from 5:30–7:30 PM. We’ll meet and park thebikes at the Ohiopyle State Park Park-ing lot on Main St.: GPS Coordinates:N39.86892 W79.49411. The mealwill be your choice at one of the sev-eral restaurants in the area. A listwill be handed out at the meeting.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
President’s Column ................... 1Board Of Directors 2014 .......... 1July Meeting Info ...................... 1Publication Info ......................... 2Safety Bits... ............................... 2Meeting Schedule 2014 ............. 22014 Shacks ................................ 2Glasses Found! .......................... 2Ongoing Events .......................... 2June Meeting Minutes .............. 3June Meeting Pictures .............. 4Add’l Rally Accomodations ...... 6Rally ‘T’ Graphics .................... 6Syria Shrine Poker Run............ 8Rally-T Preordering Info ......... 9Rally-T Pre-Order Form ......... 10It’s to Laugh... .......................... 11North Breakfast Ride ............... 124 Winds Scooter Squad ............ 13For Sale ..................................... 13The Way We Were .................... 15Scooter Squad Ride to Brown’s18Map to Ohiopyle Parking ........ 19How do I join ............................ 20Directions to the July Meeting:20
JJJJJULYULYULYULYULY 20142014201420142014BOARD OF DIRECTORS
PRESIDENT’S COLUMNThe Four Winds rally preparation is motor-ing, the T-shirts are available on a pre-orderbasis with an order form in this newsletterand Diane Pears is running the T-shirt opera-tion. Volunteers are needed for the rally, soplease notify a board member for helping inregistration, clean & tidy, security, fieldgames, T-shirt sales, coffee & tea hospitalityor 50/50 sales.
September is not far off so please con-sider taking a position on the board so theFour Winds will continue to prosper as a club.
The July meeting will be held at OhiopyleState Park in Ohiopyle, PA at 5:30 pm to beheld in the grass across the road from the baseof the falls. If it rains we will meet at theOhiopyle railroad station on the bike trail(Great Allegheny Passage Trail). A list ofrestaurants in the area will be handed out atthe meeting for individuals to dine at afterthe meeting. I will be leading a ride to theJuly meeting from the Get Go gas station onroute 51 south side of the route 51 and 70interchange. The ride will leave at 4:00 pmand please have a full tank of gas and anempty bladder. The ride will parallel a streamleaving Dunbar, PA with lots bends andchanges in elevation for a relaxing and ad-venturous excursion.
ENJOY THE RIDE
ADRIAN
SPE-CIAL
RALLY AND
RIDE INFO--PGS 6-10.
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PUBLICATION INFOThe Four Winds BMW Riders
Newsletter is published formembers’ use. Articles’ and pic-tures’ copyrights are held bytheir authors. Author’s permis-sion should be obtained beforeany form of republication.
Editor: Ralph MeyerDeadline: Articles submitted must
be received by the editor nolater than 6:00 PM on theTuesday after the club meet-ing of the month preceding themonth of publication (e.g.,July. Meeting: July 19; Augustissue deadline: Tues., July22nd). Articles/Info rec’d afterdeadline will go in next month’snewsletter.
Submission information:E-mail submissions: Send as at-
tachments with “4 Winds News-letter Article” in the e-mail‘Subject’ line to:
Ralph Meyer, Editor4 Winds Newsletter6056 Meadow LaneBakerstown, PA 15007-9720
Submission formats:Articles: Send as plain text with
headings and hdg depth defined,or in Word Processor (e.g., MSWord) format. Save trees: avoidpaper if you can.
Pictures and graphics: Submit inJPEG or TIFF format withclearly marked locations in thearticle.
Long articles may be split betweenissues.
National Club Affiliations: FourWinds BMW Riders is char-tered club #6 of the BMWMOAand chartered club #76 of theBMWRA
Newsletters in color PDF formatare at the Four Winds Site,www.4windsbmw.org . Down-load a free Adobe PDF readerby clicking the ‘Get AdobeReader’ button atwww.adobe.com and followingthe directions thereafter pro-vided.
2014 SHACKSKeep an eye out on the web site allyou lady and gentleman wrenchersand attendees out there, for anyShack locations and dates to helpkeep ‘em rolling!
ONGOING EVENTS
Breakfast Rides, et al.:These rides are free-form. Those
attending decide what theywant to do and where, if any-where, they want to ride. If youjust want to show up in the carand have breakfast with fellowmotorcyclists, that’s fine too.
COME! EAT! CHAT! RIDE!
Ride Schedule — Month:Sun, July 6 — North at King’s
Family Restaurant, I-79 & Rt910/VIP Drive., 10:00 AM
Sat, July 12 — West at Bob Evans,Rt 60 & Campbell’s Run Rd,9:00 AM
Sun, July 20 — South at EaglesLanding, Rostraver Airport,Rte 51, 10:00 AM
Sat, July 26 — East at Dick’s, Rt22 Westbound Side,Monroeville, 9:00 AM
If you’re going to a breakfastride, you might want to no-tify others: It’s not necessary,but it’d be nice to let othersknow you’re going to a particu-lar Breakfast Ride by puttinga notice on the 4-Winds SiteMessage Board’s BreakfastRide section saying so. That’llhelp save a rider from discov-ering too late that no one elseis going that day. The Break-fast Ride’s URL is: http://www.4windsbmw.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=9 . Be sureto erase your post after the rideif you can so the board doesn’tget cluttered.
MEETING SCHEDULE
2014Mark the dates on your calen-
dars, but remember...All meeting sites are tentative.
Please check the web site andnewsletter for changes andupdates.
July 19, 2014, 5:30-7:30 PM —Ohiopyle Park Parking Area,Ohiopyle
August, 2014 — Friday, August15 to Sunday, August 1748th Annual Four WindsRally!
November 15, 2014 — Corner-stone Grille, Aspinwall
GLASSES FOUND AT MAYMEETING
A pair of Reading Glasses were found on ourtable at the Double Wide Grill at the Maymeeting.
Let me know if they are yours, I willhold them.
JOYCE ELK, FOUR WINDS BMW RIDERS
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY
SAFETY BITS...A study in England found that motorcyclistswearing white helmets were involved in 24%less multiple vehicle collisions than thosewearing helmets of other colors, especiallyblack. Apparently white helmets are muchmore easily seen by other motorists. Anadded benefit is that sometimes the cagersthink you’re a cop and treat you extra care-fully! Nice!
Note too that Do-rags aren’t helmets. It’sun-smart to equate blind stupidity with ma-cho like the some do. Thinking a do-rag issafe riding equipment could result in tradingan IQ of 50 (Idiot) for an IQ of 0 (Dead) and,unfortunately for their loved ones, some al-ways sadly suffer that trade due to believingthis bad equation.
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FOUR WINDS BMW CLUB
JUNE MEETING MINUTES
JUNE 14, 2014
Eighteen club members turned out for our June meeting in conjunction with The Laurel Highlands BMWClub Rally at the Pioneer Park Campground. Following the meeting, a scrumptious dinner was provided byThe Italian Oven. It was perfect riding weather--clear & crisp. Adrian led a ride from the south of Pitts-burgh. Before the meeting started, club members attached address labels and stamps on the rally postcards.Thanks to all that helped.
Adrian called the meeting to order at 5:30. The first topic of conversation was the rally. The postcardsand posters are done. The pins have been ordered. There was a call for rally volunteers-again! Specifically,Joanne asked for a field events chair and a coffee volunteer. Please sign up to help.
John Humphrey gave the Treasurer’s report. He stated we were in good shape leading into the rally. Hehad received only one bill for the postcards. We had a new member join our club. Everyone welcomeWilliam Wegener from Carnegie.
The next meeting will be at the Ohiopyle State Park. Adrian will lead a ride from the south starting at4:00. Upon arriving, meet at the lower end of the falls parking area. Everyone will be making his or her owndinner arrangements. There are three restaurants in the area to choose from.
Members! Watch for our preorder forms for rally t-shirts to be posted shortly on our web site. Allpreorder t-shirts must be paid for at the time of the order. All shirts will be black as the design dictates thiscolor. Diane Pears will be handling the shirt ordering.
SUBMITTED BY MARGE HUMPHREY
RECORDING SECRETARY
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JUNE MEETING PICTURES AT THE LAUREL HIGHLANDS BMW RIDERS’ CAMPOUTphotographed by Diane Pears
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ALTERNATIVE RALLY ACCOMODATIONS
Prepared by Diane Pears
WE’VE SCOURED THE COUNTRYSIDE HIGH AND LOW, NETWORKING AND FORGING NEW COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS TO FIND COMFY AND
CLOSE ALTERNATIVES FOR THOSE WHO PREFER SHINGLES ON THEIR RALLY TENTS! HOPEFULLY THESE OPTIONS WILL ENCOURAGE AND MAKE
IT POSSIBLE FOR MORE FOLKS TO JOIN US AT REDBANK VALLEY PARK IN NEW BETHLEHEM FOR OUR 48TH ANNUAL RALLY THIS YEAR.
Ask about their 20% discount for 4 Winds Rally!
http://brickhousebandb.com/
595 Oak Ridge RoadOak Ridge, Pennsylvania 16245(814) 227-3567(Reach us daily from 8 am to 9 pm)[email protected]
Historic Luxury Accommodations – remodeling finished and fully operational at multiple properties thisyear, hosted by our riding friends Glen, Brenda and Patti.
A few Brick House B&B Rooms may still be available. These are their only rooms that include abreakfast: $115/night (Ask about a cancellation waiting list.)
3 Brand New Cabins: Sleeps 5 = Each have 1 Queen bed and 3 single beds, includes fridge, stove,microwave, sink, pots pans and dishes, gas grill, located directly across road from B&B beside creek.$150.00/night
RALLY ‘T’ GRAPHICS
Front
Back
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Mahoning Apartments, 330 Pheasant Farm Road, New Bethlehem, PA 16242 are located 4 ½ miles and10 min. from rally site out in the country with flat, paved, securely gated parking with the following roomtypes available:
2 Extended Stay Rooms: Each have Queen bed, large plush “L” shaped sofas, complete kitchens androom for air mattress if someone wants to bring one. $95.00 (+ $10 extra for each extra person overtwo in a room)
2 Motel Rooms: Each have Queen bed, mini fridge, microwave, coffee machine. Motel room #6 hasroom for an air mattress. $55.00 (+ $10 extra for each extra person over two in a room)
http://houseattheendoftheroad.com/
518 Bauer Rd. (used to be named “Barr Rd.”)Summerville, PA 15864(814) [email protected]°06’02.9"N 79°11’53.9"W
Two Queen bedrooms, private baths, full country breakfast: $75/night
About 20 min. and 12 miles, going NE on Rt. 28 from rally site, half way to Brookville. The last half mile ofroad is hard packed dirt. Driveway is flat hard packed gravel easily accommodating motorcycles. Theowner’s son has a BMW bike and he and his parents have both taken the off road driving course at theBMW plant in Spartanburg, SC (the parents drove it in their car). This cozy, peaceful retreat has beenhosting guests for 12 years.
The Usual ‘Concrete Camping’ in Brookville & Clarion:
The full list of traditional motels 30 minutes away from the rally site in either direction – Clarion orBrookville – can be found along with their phone numbers on our Rally Info page:http://www.4windsbmw.org/four-winds-rally-info/rally-information
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SYRIA SHRINE POKER RUN
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!! Limited time only !!
Pre-Orders of
Four Winds 2014 Rally Shirts
Deadline August 1st --- Must be pre-paid ---(Shipping available $6)
While I sat in the reception area of my doctor’s office, a woman rolled an elderly man in awheelchair into the room. As she went to the receptionist’s desk, the man sat there, alone and
silent. Just as I was thinking I should make small talk with him, a little boy slipped off hismother’s lap and walked over to the wheelchair. Placing his hand on the man’s, he said, “I know
how you feel. My Mom makes me ride in the stroller too.”
*****As I was nursing my baby, my cousin’s six-year-old daughter, Krissy, came into the room. Never
having seen anyone breast feed before, she was intrigued and full of all kinds of questionsabout what I was doing. After mulling over my answers, she remarked, ‘My mom has some of
those, but I don’t think she knows how to use them..’
*****Out bicycling one day with my eight-year-old Granddaughter, Carolyn, I got a little wistful. ‘Inten years,’ I said, ‘you’ll want to be with your friends and you won’t go walking, biking, and
swimming with me like you do now. Carolyn shrugged. ‘In ten years you’ll be too old to do allthose things anyway.’
*****Working as a pediatric nurse, I had the difficult assignment of giving immunization shots to
children.....One day, I entered the examining room to give four-year-old Lizzie her needle. ‘No,no, no!’ she screamed. ‘Lizzie,’ scolded her mother, ‘that’s not polite behavior.’ With that, the
girl yelled even louder, ‘No, thank you! No, thank you!’
******On the way back from a Cub Scout meeting, my grandson innocently said to my son, ‘Dad, I
know babies come from mommies’ tummies, but how do they get there in the first place?’ Aftermy son hemmed and hawed awhile, my grandson finally spoke up in disgust, ‘You don’t have to
make up something, Dad. It’s okay if you don’t know the answer.’
*****Just before I was deployed to Iraq , I sat my eight-year-old son down and broke the news to
him. ‘I’m going to be away for a long time,’ I told him ‘I’m going to Iraq.’ ‘Why?’ he asked. ‘Don’tyou know there’s a war going on over there?’
*****Paul Newman founded the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for children stricken with cancer, AIDS,
and blood diseases. One afternoon, he and his wife, Joanne Woodward, stopped by to havelunch with the kids. A counselor at a nearby table, suspecting the young patients wouldn’t
know Newman was a famous movie star, explained, that’s the man who made this camppossible. Maybe you’ve seen his picture on his salad dressing bottle?’ Blank stares. ‘Well,
you’ve probably seen his face on his lemonade carton.’ An eight-year-old girl perked up. ‘Howlong was he missing?’
*****....aaaand ....God’s problem now: His wife’s graveside service was just barely finished, whenthe sky became overcast, there was a massive clap of thunder, followed by a tremendous boltof lightning, accompanied by even more thunder rumbling in the distance. The little, old man
looked at the pastor and calmly said, “Well, she’s there.”
IT’S TO LAUGH...Funny Stories...
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On the Net...Have you found a neat location on the Internet? Send the URL in with a brief description of what
it’s about to the editor and we’ll post it here for the benefit of your fellow riders...Note: copy or type the underlined link into your browser’s URL textbox and hit ‘Go’ or ‘Enter’ to go there.
Our Four Winds Site, what else??? http://www.4windsbmw.org . And always remember never to forget, you can get this andpast color copies of the Newsletter in PDF format there! Check it out if you haven’t already done so.Senior Moments from Ron Latkovic: This would be hilarious if it weren’t so darn true! http://www.rtbot.net/
play.php?id=Xv1tMioGgXI
NORTH BREAKFAST RIDE
6/1/2014by Ralph Meyer
Well. Finally. Sunshine! Nice temps! (not that motorcyclists don’tride in other kinds of weather, but still, it’s nice to have the nice stufffor a change). In any event, this day’s great weather resulted in aterrific bunch of the usual and not-so-usual suspects to fill King’sFamily Restaurant’s VIP Drive front room with delightful conversa-tion, verbal tire kicking, and ever good motorcycling camaraderie.Partaking of and participating this morning’s 2 wheel revelry cuisinechomping party were riders: Frank Beatrous, Larry Berner, JackBramkamp, Don, Kim, and Staci Chembars, Tom Furey, Walt Halaja,Bob Hall, Ron Latkovic, Dave McLaughlin, Bill Wegener, and me.Larry brought his friend Bill Wegener, and Don and Kim broughttheir daughter Staci to be welcomed to our fine proceedings. It wasnice to see these new folks, and we hope to see them again!
While we were enjoying King’s fine comestibles and conversa-tions ReddyK (AKA Ron Latkovic) had his camera out and gettingthe nice pictures of the bunch you see here. Once our indoor tirekicking was completed and we all had adjourned outside to the bikes,scooters, and other transportational paraphernalia, Walt unlimberedhis camera and tripod in turn and got the shot of the whole bunchgathered about Don’s dirt bike.
The morning continued, of course, with more discussions andexaminations of bikes and motorcycling information, whence vari-ous groups peeled off and headed out.
Walt, the Firehouse King (so far) asked me if I knew where thenew Valencia house was, and I was sure I knew as I’d found it on a
back street via the address given on the Pennsylvania State List offire stations, so I told him yes, and tried to describe how to get to it.He said he was heading to his son, Wayne’s, (who lives about a halfmile from me in Bakerstown) so I told him I’d be happy to take himto the station. Come to find out, when we got to the Firehouse, hesaid that was the old station, and that he’d already gotten that oneand sent me the picture. I had no idea where another Valencia sta-tion was, so we were stymied at that point. Feeling a bit disap-pointed that I hadn’t helped on that one, I asked Walt if he’d gottenthe Mars station. He didn’t think so. —The Mars station is butaround a corner or two or three from where were and maybe a miledistant, so that’s where we went. That was indeed one Walt hadn’tcadged yet, so having loaned me his camera, I got a shot or two ofhim and ‘Traveler’ in front of the station doors. With at least onesuccess in our pockets, we headed off therefrom, me for home, andWalt to Waynes, whence we wished each other “a fine ride.”
As usual it turned out to be a fun morning.Incidentally, at the table in King’s we were discussing the other
Breakfast rides, both the West and the East sometimes yet with rid-ers, but the South kind of always up the spout. Someone mentionedthat he’d gone there (the Eagle’s Nest restaurant at Rostraver Air-port), had breakfast, and didn’t think the food was too great. LarryBerner then suggested possibly changing the venue on that mori-bund Ride to maybe some place more or less central to the wholeBurgh, Like Pamela’s Restaurant at 21st Street and Smallman in thestrip district. Something to think about, huh?
RALPH
PICTURE BY “CAP’N” WALT
HALAJA
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FOR SALEPlease note: If you sell your item, please notify the newsletter editor so it can be removed from this list.Stuff for F800ST: 25” tall Cee-Bailey Windshield, 26” tall Parabellum Windshield, Touratech crash bar set, Bar Back,
BMW Tank Bag. Windshields are clear and already have Velcro strips for attaching EZPass Transponder. Rick Mayerheated Pilot Seat for 2006 K1200GT. Asking half new price (or less). Make an offer on any or all items. Contact:[email protected] .
Big Al Vangura’s Kymco for sale: W:e are selling Big Al’s Kymco Scooter. If you are interested or know anyone that wouldwant to purchase this scooter, please contact us or pass this message on. This is a 2009 Kymco 250 Ri Scooter. We are asking$3,500 or best offer - It has on it 19,940 miles, and includes an extra long wind shield, Special brake light, cover, and Toptrunk. If interested, please call: 724-736-2884 or 724-557-0802. Dee Vangura. Please see the pictures of it and its accesso-ries on page 16 of the March 2013 newsletter.
4 WINDS SCOOTER SQUAD
MEETS PGH SCOOTER CLUBby Ron “ReddyK” Latkovic
Hi guys! Sorry some of you with scooters had to miss our get-to-gether ride of the scooter clubs today. Jack Bramkamp and I arrivedat the Bob Evans resturant a ‘lil early but soon about 16 members ofthe Pittsburgh Scooter Club showed up and accepted us with openarms. Dave “Two spark” McLaughlin introduced us around and aftera hardy and talkative breakfast, it was off to Lutz’s Leather on Rte65 for their annual customer appriciation day that they have everyyear at this time. Seven bikes in all rode over, led by Dan Rudert.
We Had a great ride and a beautiful day. I ended up at Lee’s to checkon things for Diane and the Four Winds. Here are some pictures ofour get-together. The gentleman who owned the Scooter-trike is BobBowman, nice guy. I think the nick name for the Scooter Club is“Rudert’s Scooters.” The pictured red Harley with the side car isowned by Gary Morris and his wife Karen. They came up from EastLiverpool, Ohio—another couple of very nice people. I’m going toinvite their group, to join us for the next North Breakfast as I trustthat’s ok with our group.
REDDYK
PICTURES BY RON “REDDYK” LATKOVIC: MORE PICTURES OF THE SCOOTERS, RIDERS, AND MEET, NEXT
PAGE...
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Wouldja believe? You can getScooter-Trikes too!
Pictures of Scooter Squad--Pgh Scooter Club meet continued...
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THE WAY WE WERE BACK WHEN...Prepared by Walt Halaja
Pictures of Scooter Squad--Pgh Scooter Club meet continued...
Continued on next page...
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The Way We Were, continued...
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The Way We Were, continued...
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SCOOTER SQUAD RIDE TO BROWN’S5/29/2014
By Ralph Meyer, Photos by Ron “ReddyK” LatkovicGot a neat e-mail from ReddyK on Tuesday, 5/27, wondering if I’dbe interested in a ride to Portersville for lunch at Brown’s CountryKitchen. My response: Yeah!!! —Can’t beat Brown’s: great foodand the price is always RIGHT! And can’t beat a ride with membersof the growing 4 Winds Scooter Squad (yep, this bunch keeps gettingbigger and bigger as we find out how much fun these little and not-so-little guys are to ride). Anyway, I e-mailed ReddyK back to letme know when and where to meet up to start the ride (though Isuspected I already knew the “Where” as Jack “The Blue Knight”Bramkamp and ReddyK’s favorite start-out place (and a good onetoo!) is the Coffee Buddha on Perry Hwy. Sure enough, the planturned out to be a gourmet coffee at 10:30 at the Buddha andkickstands up around 11. And so it went: nicely fortified with adelicious Latte (Thanks, Ron!) we were off and scootin’ at around11, with Jack doing the honors on the lead scooter—Vespa, natu-rally, with me in the middle as either the oldest futz, or with theheaviest scoot (C650GT), and Ron keeping an eye on me from thePiaggio as ‘sweep’ bringing up the rear. Some other riders had beeninvited too—Ron posted the ride on the web site—however no onebut the three of us showed at the Buddha.
The weather didn’t look too promising, what with the mavensclaiming ‘Few Thundershowers’ with the usual cover-their-bum ‘pos-sibility’ of 30%. ...I’d also checked Portersville earlier in the morn-
ing on my neat little Weather-Watcher program on the Intellibox (com-puter—it’s often smarter than me) and there it had anywhere from30-40% chance of thundershowers all the way to around 4:00 PM.
They were WRONG! All we got when we were somewhere onGrubbs Rd just before hitting McKinney, was some continuous lightmist—not enough even to have to keep wiping off one’s face shield.Yeah, Grubbs Rd! Jack had got us nicely off 19 and onto continuousback roads as soon as practicable and at the dampish point we wereon Grubbs Rd headed via a few North aimed twisties to FranklinRoad—you know: ...Franklin Rd? Washington’s Trail? —that neatpath laid out by Native Americans well fortified before their jour-neys with some good old hot-diggety-dog gen-you-wine 2 week agedWestern Penn’s Woods British-Brewed fire-water? ...Great motor-cycle road...well, that is if you don’t wind up behind a bunch ofcages led by a half-asleep goombah drawling sleepily on a cell phoneand driving WELL within the speed limit—VERY Well within thespeed limit. Hmmmm. That speed was not guaranteed to providethe nth degree of enjoyment for riding, and without further ado, Jack’sVespa with the neat ‘BEEEP’ license plate was indicating “We’regonna get out from behind these dozing bozos at the turn comingup”. Which we did. After a roundabout tour of nice roads situatedbetween Franklin Rd and the Evans City-Mars Rd at a decently en-
j o y a b l erate ofknots, wecame upon a StopSign (Ihad noi d e awhere wew e r eo t h e rthan thatmore orless gen-eral loca-
tion between the 2 main N-S roads) and lo and behold, the GPS onmy dash said we were back at Franklin Road! With not a car in sightahead of us! Nice! We were again off on Franklin Road’s merrydance up, down, and all around finally winding up in Evans City,whence, of course, the next bit of pre-lunch riding desert was, ...youguessed it:...Rte 528North toP r o s p e c t .From Pros-pect it wasbut a hop,skip, andjump toPortersvillea n dB r o w n ’ sC o u n t r yK i t c h e n ,where we enjoyed a nice liesurely lunch for but a few pesos.
While enjoying my latté at the Buddha I’d mentioned that therewas a Fire House next door to Brown’s that we could get while there,so after lunch, when I got to the scooters from a used-coffee pit stop,Jack told me there wasn’t just one Fire House, there were two: theone I knew of that we’d passed before turning into Brown’s and one
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just the other side of Brown’s that I’d never noticed. Ohhhhkay!!!...So, wez i p p e dnext doorto thefirst, gotsome pic-t u r e s ,then rodep a s tBrowns,and gotthe sec-ond. Twoas easy asBrown’spie!
Following the Firehouse photos, Jack again took the lead, and Ipicked up sweep behind ReddyK’s Piaggio, and we were off, but notquite retracing our steps. After doing 528 in reverse—South—Whynot? Jack headed left when we hit Evans City, went a ways towardButler then hung a right onto country roads eventually winding us upon Valencia Road so as to cross 228 to and through Valencia—at
which point Isplit towardsBakers town,and Jack andReddyK wentWest towardtheir homes. Igot in around2:30 or so PMwith 87 milesracked up onthe scoot’s ‘A’odometer formiles ridden
that day (another neat BMW whoseywhatsit in the scoot’s computer).Neat comrades. Nice ride. Nice day. Nice Cuisine. And the rain?Ha! The possible 60-70% non-thundershowers turned out to be 100%coupled, after lunch, with blue skies no less. Like they say, “It don’tget no better’n that!!!”
RALPH
THE SIXTH ANNUAL
MOA LEADERSHIP SUMMIT
WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 2014AT THE
BMW MOA INTERNATIONAL RALLY
ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA
AN EVENT FOR THE LEADERSHIP OF THE CHARTERED
CLUBSThe Chartered Club Leadership Summit is designed to offer clubsthe support and encouragement to help them develop positive, cre-ative and safety-oriented leadership and to promote the charteredclub as a vital and integral component of the BMW MOA. Clubofficers and key volunteers will receive information to help thembuild a better charter club experience for all their membership.
So who can attend the Leadership Summit? The event is open toany chartered club officer or key volunteer and there is no limit onthe number of people who can attend from a given club. The summitis a great opportunity for existing officers to expand their skills, fornew officers to gain insight and ideas and to expose future leadersand key volunteers to information they can use to improve the club-bing experience. We leave it up to the individual clubs to determinewho may attend. Preregistration is required. No “walk in” registra-tions accepted.
Past Summits have covered issues such as; volunteers, from howto recruit them to how to keep them; improving community aware-ness; best practices of successful clubs and group riding. A maintopic of discussion at this year’s event will be local rallies and willinclude a presentation by rally masters from two of the most success-ful Midwest rallies. In addition MOA Executive Director BobAldridge will give a presentation on the state of the MOA and plansfor the chartered clubs. As in past years, the Summit will concludewith an opportunity for attendees to meet members of the MOA Boardof Directors and discuss issues relevant to chartered clubs.
The Summit takes place on Wednesday, July 23th, that’s the daybefore the rally officially opens, on the rally grounds. It’s an all-dayaffair and lunch will be provided.
Registration for the Leadership Summit is currently open. Atten-dance is by reservation only. To register send an email to the Char-tered Club Liaison that includes your club name, the names and emailaddresses of all attendees and any special dietary requirements.
Four Winds BMW Ridersc/o Ralph Meyer, Editor6056 Meadow LaneBakerstown, PA 15007-9720
DIRECTIONS TO THE JULY MEETING:The July 19th, 2014 meeting will be held from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM** atOhiopyle State Park, meeting and parking at the Ohiopyle State Park MainStreet Parking Lot in Ohiopyle to walk to the meeting location in the park.Plan to eat at your choice of one of the several restaurants nearby after themeeting in the park.. A list of available restaurants and locations will beprovided to everyone at the meeting.From Pittsburgh: Go East on the PA turnpike, I-76 E, and take exit 91
(Donegal) to the right onto Pa-31 towards Pa-711/Donegal/Ligonier/Uniontown. Coming out of the exit, turn Left onto State Hwy 31, goabout 2 miles and Turn Right onto State Hwy 711 (Indian Creek ValleyRd) and travel South. SR 711 will dead end onto where SpringfieldPike becomes Mill Run Rd (SR 381). Turn left onto Mill Run Rd andcontinue to drive south. Mill Run Road will become Ohiopyle’s MainSt.. Continue on Main St. into Ohiopyle. The park parking lot will beon your right between Main St. and theYoghiogheny River. Park in thelot with everyone else in the club to walk to where the meeting will beheld on the grass in the park.
Ride to the Meeting: Adrian Marini will lead a ride to the meeting leavingat 4:00 PM from the GetGo on Rte 51 just South of the Rte 51/I-70interchange.
Latitude-Longitude Coordinates of the Ohiopyle State Park Parking Lotfor GPS: N39.86892 W79.49411.
**The board will meet after the meeting.
HOW DO I JOIN
FOUR WINDS BMWRIDERS?
To join, come to a meeting and introduceyourself. Meetings are listed here in theNewsletter and in the schedule of eventson the Web Site, www.4windsbmw.org.
Membership dues are $20 per year for pri-mary membership, and $10 per year forassociate members residing in the samehousehold as a primary member.
