The Ride to Dawes

Was fun! After the early thunderstorm swept through--it delayed our departure--the air was humid, but pleasant while we were moving. 

Once we got to the Arboretum, however, the air was still and hot. Dru's bike braved the sun, but the rest of them huddled in the shade, along with their owners (and Dru herself). Happily, we discovered there is a driving path through to the lake & tower, so we were moving again.

Up on the tower, Susan tries to get the view of the hedge straight on her camera.

This is how it comes out, otherwise. ;) The arbors below spell out "Dawes Arboretum," and I'll bet the view from a plane is impressive. The lake and surrounding lanscaping are very pretty, too.

We ate at the Jack Town Pub--fun on the shaded deck, great staff--and spied a potential ice cream location en route. Maybe the meeting after next.

Some of you are busy packing or thinking about packing for your WOW Ohio weekend . . . enjoy! And tell the rest of us about it at the Ice Cream Run on Tuesday!

--Margaret

Calendars/Events

This week on WOW:
Margaret finally posts about her trip to Mid-West WOW (see below.)
The calendar is chock-full of riding opportunities this week. (Does anybody know how full a "chock" is?)

• Ride to Work Day is today. It's not too late to go back and get your bike at lunchtime!
• 10:00 AM tomorrow: meet at Motohio for the BSLR trip to Dawes Arboretum. KICKSTANDS UP--as in we leave at 10. (Hint: be there before 10, and be ready to leave at 10. Gas stations are nearby.)
• Motohio Dinner Ride this Wednesday leaves from Motohio only, and goes to Peggy Sue's. Where they have pie. (Need I say more?)
• Throttlin' Thursdays is at the Pub in Gahanna. Many, many bikes to gawk at.  (This week's band is Soul Annex.)
• The Ohio WOW weekend is this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It's in Lake Hope, and sounds like a beautiful location. A bunch of you signed up, and I'm a little jealous. I'm planning to ride out there on Friday, although I can't stay for the weekend. Who all is going, and can we meet and ride out together?

Cheers, and hope to see you out there this week!

--Margaret

Mid-West WOW Conference

Well, here's the true confession:  when Northwind Riders says "conference," they mean "social get-together." They were a lot of fun, and very friendly and welcoming. They were so pleased that someone from Ohio made the trip, but now I am challenged to meet the same goal as WOW president Cris Baldwin: to double the attendance from our chapter next year! Cris rode from St. Louis, MO to attend, and together, we were the state of MO-hio, population: 2. 

But they never let us feel like outsiders! Here is the pre-ride group photo. That's Josey on the back of the bike:

We went to beautiful Nauvoo, IL, founded by Joseph Smith and overlooking the Mississippi River. The river is in the background of this photo:

  Below, you can see the Catholic church spire, far left, and the re-built Mormon Temple on the right. 

The ride consisted of 30 bikes: many Honda VTX 1300s, some Goldwings, and a variety of Harley full dressers. Along with my li'l 650 and two 250cc scooters! All were welcome, and all kept up just fine.

I relearned Mexican-train dominoes, and met a bunch of truly cool women. They've been having this get-together for about 20 years--it used to be a camping trip. Moved the venue to the Stoney Creek Inn a couple of years ago and voila! attendance doubled!

Big Changes to General Meeting!!

In a stroke of what I personally consider to be brilliance, your intrepid officers hit upon a new idea for conducting the BSLR meetings for the summer . Whatever business needs to be conducted will be done so briefly, in the parking lot, on our bikes (to keep it brief, y’see.) Then we ride to . . . to . . . (here is the most brilliant part, get ready) . . . ice cream! You like? We like a lot!

At the ice cream destination, we can then mingle and chat, choosing whichever topic interests you most.  Share ride stories, ideas, favorite gadgets, bring out pics of your dog, whatever.  Of course, this also means that more of the every day information will have to be gathered and shared online. I think we will try emailing out a notice to everyone when there is an update on the blog site, so you can see it there.

So, for our first jaunt, we will meet at the Panera restaurant parking lot--there is some shade in the back, look for motorcycles.  Our first ride will be to Knight’s Ice Cream in Westerville, so latecomers are welcome to meet us out there. We can then start entertaining ideas for our next ice cream place--all areas are welcome. I think it would be especially cool to go to different areas of the city--perhaps your neighborhood? 

Let us know what you think!

:) Margaret