GWRRA Chapter WA-V May 2016 Washington District Newsletter
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GWRRA Chapter WA-V May 2016 Washington District Newsletter Chapter V Meets 1 Thursday 6:00pm Valley Wings News Chapter Directors: Meets 1st Thursday 6:00pm Joe & Patti Diambri Trotter’s Restaurant 253-630-8463 825 Harvey Rd, Auburn, From the Chapter Director Just Another Unusual Month Well we want to start this article out by saying THANKS! Thanks to all of you that took time out of your busy schedule to volunteer your time at the Rest Stop! Seeing as we had some good donations this time around we did rather well this time, clearing around $500.00. With that we did have a glitch or 2 with one of them being that we had a no show to take care of the booth. As most of you know this is our fund raiser to which we use these funds to pay for all sorts of items including classes and safety items, and without the rest stop funds we wouldn’t be able to pay for these things. I note this as I received a call one morning from the rest stop attendant stating that there wasn’t anyone there to open and run the coffee stop! I was at work at the time and not able to run off to the rest stop but thanks to the Harter’s we got it up and running. So with that said, I ask if you are scheduled and can’t make it please let me know so we can do our best to get someone, as we don’t want to lose our status with the DOT! Hard to believe but this is an article that I figured would not come about! I told Mr. Harter that he may not see anything from me this month as I didn’t want to type one fingered. Now some of you may ask what is he talking about? For those of you that made the April Chapter Meeting, you would have seen a sore depressed Chapter Director with his arm in a sling! As of the chapter meeting I had my arm in a sling due to what was diagnosed as a fracture below the elbow. Well that all started when I slipped off the porch one Thursday morning. The slip caused me to fall on my knee and skin the knee up. There was no sign of any damage to the arm so nothing more thought of about an injury! Well Saturday came along with some drilling to be done on my truck. Ok nothing out of the ordinary until the drill caught some tough metal and caused it to jerk! Ok again so what but as time went by it hurt more and more. Now it’s Sunday, and the pain is bad, so off to urgent care! After a few hours, some x-rays, a few bone fragments were found but didn’t see a fracture so Dr. required a CT Scan. Well the following day I received a call stating there was a fracture and that I need to see an Orthopedic Dr. Ok I schedule that appointment but can’t get in for 10 days, so again another hurry up and wait. Finally, the Orthopedic appointment arrives, I see the Dr. and he says I am sure glad you got the CT scan as I can see it really well and you have a few bone chips floating around in there but no fracture! Makes me wonder if these doctors really know what is going on, but decided that the orthopedic Dr. had the best news I had heard in a couple of weeks so decided I would take his findings and run with it, and run I did, right home and jumped on the bike for the well-deserved and needed ride! Well it is now Saturday the 16th and the day of sorrow! My bike is now scheduled to leave me for it’s trip to Salt Lake City! I really don’t think of it as sorrow but more of excitement !For those not at the last meeting my bike will no longer have 2 wheels as it is being converted to a trike! My age is telling me that it is time to ride a trike! Well actually it is not my age telling me but instead the body itself! I have decided that I will feel much safer especially with Patti or anyone else behind me riding on 3 wheels instead of 2 so will be doing just that soon! Now with all that said we move on to the Chapter Social on the 21st. Thanks go out to Ken Glasby and John Doughty for making the arrangements for a very nice social at Johnny’s at Fife! We had a great dinner and even better company! Thanks Again guy’s! Next on our agenda is our maintenance workshop at the Harter’s but due to time constraints (our editor wanting articles on time) I won’t be able to make any statements on that! Well in closing I will have to start working on my report for next month next week as unless I do it while on the road, I won’t have much time to do it! As many of you know after 38+ years with the Boeing Company I am going to be saying good bye! Last year Patti decided that in October of 2016 she was going to be calling an end to Boeing and I would be calling it sometime at the end or 2017 or early 2018. Well the company made an offer to us that allowed me to do it earlier than expected, and so I will do it on the 20th of May and Patti at the end of November! So backing up a bit about being on the road, we are going to leave for Salt Lake City on the 21 and will be picking up the trike on the 23rd. We will spend a few days in Utah before heading back home with a stop in Kennewick for the Dessert Spring Fling over the Memorial Day weekend then home just in time for our June meeting! Well enough jabbering! Time to get this sent off to our editor, and will touch base with things that I didn’t touch on next month! See you all at the May meeting! Your Chapter Directors Joe & Patti Diambri ASSISTANT CHAPTER DIRECTORS: Pick and Choose I read some posts recently on GoldwingDocs.com. This site is a Goldwing Owners forum with a ton of great information, where other Goldwing owners can share their knowledge with others who have the same issues or problems. An interesting and eye opening thread was started some time ago with asking the question “GWRRA ?”. It was an open question asking for input from others around the world on their thoughts on GWRRA. I was shocked to see all the negative comments and to hear many Goldwing owners out there do not want anything to do with GWRRA. This is not a good thing for our organization. Most of the negative comments were around Chapters not welcoming in new members with open arms, Chapter members in tight groups or cliques shunning others and not being friendly with all members in the Chapter. Some Chapters even give off the negative vibe that if you don’t have the latest and greatest GL1800, you are a nobody, 1100, 1200, 1500 owners not welcome. I can’t understand how this is happening out there. Some are down on GWRRA for being too commercial and only doing it for the money. Some don’t like how expensive it is to belong with all the dinner socials, gatherings with meals involved, and fundraisers like 50/50. Those on a tight budget can’t afford to eat out at restaurants all the time. It’s time to look within our Chapter, and make sure we are not doing anything to keep new people from feeling welcome and wanting to join our fun group. We try hard in our Chapter to have many fun activities that we can participate in. It is our choice which of these activities we can fit into our time schedules. We can pick and choose when to participate. As leaders of the Chapter we encourage you to come out and join us when we have Chapter Rides, Socials, and Gatherings. The more of us that choose to join us at these activities the more fun everyone has. We welcome all, and do not look down on or shun others with different types of bikes or vintages. Remember, GWRRA is now open to all types of bikes, we need to remember that when we talk to others about our Chapter. Happy Riding to you all. Jeff & Cindy Duffield May is Motorcycle Awareness Month From the Chapter Educator: May Newsletter – Visibility – The month of May is MOTORCYCLE AWARENESS month BECOME VISIBLE for your survival! According to Allstate Insurance Company’s latest statistics, three motorcyclists die at intersections every day. According to Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, 80% of crashes involve some form of driver inattention within three seconds before the event. Five seconds is the average time a driver’s eyes are off the road while texting and at 55 MPH the vehicle travels the length of a football field while the driver is virtually blindfolded. YIKES! Add a flashing headlight to your arsenal of weapons used to enhance your visibility. A flashing headlight is a small investment if the headlight’s flashing gets the attention of a distracted driver coming at you.