Chapter #80 Weiss Lake Alabama

Who is this Weiss Lake bunch anyway?...  Well we finally built a Member Photo page...  It's always good to put a face with a name!

Don't be fooled into thinkin' that this is all the rides that our chapter does! These are just the ones where Joe Friday didn't forget his camera! - Seriously folks, if you have photo's of events or rides our chapter participated in, please send them along and I'll try and git 'em posted... 

Click on the BLUE underlined links to go directly to the pictures.

08/28/2010 - Our 100th Trip to Barber Motorsports Museum!...  Well, not really, but we did have a couple of past visitors and some newbys too...  Beth, Don and Paw Paw had never been before, but Doyle and I saw to it they had plenty of time to roam around and see the sights...  I think you could go to that place every day for a week and still be finding "new stuff" with each trip!...  There is just SOOO much to see there!...  For instance, who would have ever dreamed that Harley could have coaxed 6.5 hp out of a little bitty 500 CC engine?!

Our dedicated Photo Team did a marvelous job and had the pic's in my inbox before I even got home. (Guess that was why Doyle and Don were in such a hurry to git back!)  Actually Doyle, Paw Paw and Don all took some pic's and I'll have a few more to put up later on so be sure to keep an eye on the forum for update notices... 
 Joe Friday

07/31/2010 - Our 2nd Annual Nantahala Rafting Trip, Bryson City NC - A lot of folks that had planned on going wound up having to cancel, but some made last minute plans and made it...  All totaled we had 17 folks make the trip, with 11 of us crazy enough to go git in the creek!  Cold was it?...  If you've never been in that water up there then there is no way to describe the experience to you!  We had some folks venture off to Wheels Through Time up at Maggy Valley, others headed out to the casino's in Cherokee, but we had plenty of "porch time" to set around and spin yarns and tell tales! We even had one brave soul venture off to Deals Gap and believe it or not, Teresa got to ride the Dragon!

I do believe we have come up with yet another Annual "Tradition" for Weiss Lake Chapter 80!

07/03/2010 - Pre Bug Run, Run - Doyle led the gang on a "Pre Bug Run Run" I guess that's a Bug Run where you don't git no bugs?...  As you can see by the pic's seems like a good time was had by all...

06/26/2010 - Club Luau - Well George and Brenda outdid themselves again, or I guess I should say we all outdid ourselves this year with the Club's Luau!  The food was simply delicious and there was plenty enough of it!  LINK  LINK  We had our own little beach... LINK  LINK  A private Bar of our very own...  LINK  And of course Mother Nature had to make her presence known with a little rain, LINK  But most were able to keep their monkeys dry...  LINK

05/02/2010 -  Our annual trek to Panama City Thunder Beach Rally!  What a FUN time! Weather was awesome, food was great,(when we could get it) and of course the camaraderie and fellowship was typical for Chapter 80! This bunch never meets a stranger and it seems like they could even have fun diggin' a grave... (But I guess I really shouldn't talk about that weekend) The partipicants this year were Muleman, Brenda & Linda, Rocky & Nancy, Doyle & Beth, JoJo & Shelly, Kim & Jackie, Hoyt & Rosemary, Kat, Larry,  Dee,  "T" (Teresa) and of course Ole Joe Friday... We even had a surprise visit from Mr & Mrs Acrey!  All in all we took over 1,000 pictures during the weekend and of course I didn't include 'em all in the link above.  Doyle did get some good video clips.  Here's one I uploaded to YouTube.   When are we going back?...  You'll have to ask Doyle or check his CLOCK...

03/20/2010 - Biker Shack 411 Crawfish Boil - Could it have been because it was a beautiful Blue Bird day as well as the first day of spring?...  Maybe it was suffering through the pitiful winter we have just had, even here in the Sunny South?...  What ever the reason the turnout was record breaking and Biker Shack 411 has once again outdone themselves with a fantastic event, the 7th Annual Crawfish Boil!  Proceeds from the event went to support the local Spring Creek Volunteer Fire Department who went above the call with traffic control, as well as managing the Poker Run and Bike show...  Good job Ladies and Gentlemen!  Along with great music all day by Simply Southern Band, John and company's artistry with the mudbug cookin', Tonys crew from the Steak Barn, we had Abate of Alabama present explaining their mission statement and signing up new members and of course the crew from Full Throttle  were in attendance...  It was a welcomed and needed day to renew old acquaintances and just to get out and enjoy some sunshine for a change!  Looks like Spring has finally sprung!

01/23/2010 - Great American Motorcycle Show -  A small contingent of us traveled to the Greater Atlanta area to attend the Great American Motorcycle show this weekend.  Met up with a lot of our old friends from the chapter over there, and made a few more...  Of course Donna and Jerry from "Ride Like a Pro" were up from Florida and since it was in her backyard Linda met up with us over there as well!  Maybe I'm expecting too much, but it seems like this venue is starting to suffer a little.  May just be the economy and everyone knows that's down, but it seemed like if you weren't selling cleaners, jackets or motorcycle insurance you were definitely in the minority!   (Maybe I'm just jonesing for a Thunder Beach rally!)

01/01/2010 - Polar Bear Run - How do you get 100 people to completely ignore the cold weather, televised Parades, festivities and Football games on New Years Day?  Tell 'em that Weiss Lake SCRC is having a Polar Bear Ride!  We had a total of 82 registered riders on 75 bikes that braved the weather forecast for snow on New Years Eve and turn out for an absolutely beautiful day of riding, fellowship and food...  Oh and the food!  A traditional dinner of Black-Eyed Peas, Turnip Greens, Hog Jowl, Boiled Cabbage and Cornbread topped off with Cakes, Pies, Cookies, well you name it, it was in there somewhere!
Special awards were presented to our oldest rider at 75, out youngest rider at 18 and the ones that traveled the longest distance to get here at 250 miles! Thanks folks!...  It's the hard core bikers like you that make our sport so enjoyable and our events so memorable!
A very special thanks goes out to Pam & John of Biker Shack 411 for their hospitality again this year, all the Chapter 80 members for donating the food and last but not least all the fine people that stayed behind and got everything ready for the hungry hoard to return!
See Yawl Next Year!
JF

12/13/2009 - Christmas for the Elderly - This was the 3^rd year The Weiss Lake Southern Cruisers have done a fundraiser for the local Nursing Home (CCHRC).  Seems like this should get easier to do every year, but that’s just not the case.  This year the home had been filled to capacity so we prepared gift bags for all 185 beds and visited every individual resident.   We owe a special thanks to the Gadsden arm of the Christian Motorcycle Association for their assistance with the project this year, also to our business sponsors: W.Y. Shugart & Sons, Wood Forest Bank, First Southern State Bank, Pemco Corporation, Centre Piggly Wiggly, RV Weiss Lake Park as well as the many individuals that made contributions of materials, time and money to make this event a success!   

12/12/2009 - Club Christmas Party - Some really good pic's submitted by Paw Paw and Teresa.  I hope everyone had as good a time as I did!

12/09/2009 - Divy up the Goods, Christmas for the Elderly - We got together over at Wally's to get the bags set up for Sundays trip over to the Nursing home...

!2/05/2009 - Christmas Parade - We had an excellent turnout for the Christmas Parade this year even though the weather forecast was for early morning snow!  We managed to dodge that bullet and by the time everything got underway we had about 20 bikes all lined up!  Here are some pictures from: Shelly - Dee - Brenda & Teresa  You have to click on each link...

11/15/2009 - Little River Canyon and Desoto Falls - Well it weren't exactly a HUGE turnout, but in true Chapter 80 tradition we managed a ride to eat excursion over the weekend.  Here are a couple of the participant's PIC and here are the rest of 'em PIC...  On our return trip I brought the group back down the brow on the east side of Lookout mountain.  That little county road (103) comes out on Highway 35 back in Little River Canyon.  A beautiful little 20 mile or so ride back from the restaurants and shops in Mentone.

11/11/2009 - Veterans Day Ride to the Wall, Anniston Alabama - For the 7th year in a row Weiss Lake Chapter 80 of the Southern Cruisers joined the American Legion Riders PIC for the Annual Veterans Day Ride to the Memorial Wall located in downtown Anniston. PIC  The weather cooperated with only a little rain PIC but despite of the rain the Weiss Lake Chapter had a decent turn out PIC... The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 2009 saw a very moving ceremony once again at the Anniston Memorial Wall. PIC  A very special Salute goes out to the 4 remaining Anniston area survivors from 7, December 1942 Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Oh the life story these American hero's could tell! PIC

11/08/2009 - Albertville Toy Run - A few pic's Brenda and Teresa made at the Kmart in Albertville... 

10/31/2009 - Halloween Party - A BIG Thanks to George and Brenda for hosting our Annual Halloween Party!  I think all had a good time even though the weather didn't really cooperate the way it could have...  Spooky lookin' bunch weren't we? PIC

10/24/2009 - Coleman Lake - Doyle has had this ride in the plans for about a month...  WAAAY too long to see the long range weather forecast, but cool as it was several of us got together for a fairly colorful if chilly ride...

09/12/2009 - Leesburg Day Bike Show - The Weiss Lake Southern Cruisers held our annual fundraiser event for Christmas for the Elderly on 12 September 2009, and what a great turnout for a first event in the new location!  We would like to thank Mayor Ed Mackey and the Town of Leesburg for providing us space during their Leesburg Day Celebration. The proceeds from this event always go toward Christmas gifts for the residents of the local Nursing Home, Cherokee County Health and Rehabilitation Center.

07/09/2009 - Bryson City NC Ride and Raftin' Trip... Is there any doubt that this bunch is waterproof? LINK  LINK  We weren't totally soaked all day. HERE we are at the start of the ride and everyone was completely dry! ('Course all that changed in about 2 minutes after pulling out)  Bryson City is a great place to go if you're hungry!...  Must have been 6 or 8 restaurants within walkin' distance from our rooms and ALL them were fantastic! HERE is where we stayed. Right on the main drag and our hostess was simply the best! Bryson City is only about 10 or 15 miles from Cherokee so even though it's a quiet little town it's still very close to the "tourist stuff" if that's what you want to do. Want to take a little scooter ride and don't really care where you go?...  How about a ride up the Road to Nowhere?  They really got one... HERE we were lost on it...

Hey I told you this gal was waterproof PIC  We were on our trip home traveling down the Cherohala Skyway at about 4,000 ft elevation in this photo and still in the rain.  Anything higher got us out of the rain, but inside the clouds where visibility dropped to almost zero.  I say almost zero only because I could still see my windshield, but not much further. After taking about 5 hours to travel 160 miles we were glad to leave the wet behind at least for a little while...

A GREAT time was had by all, and I've even heard some rumblings about a future trip back up there!

06/20/2009 - Ride to Russell Cave - Doyle lead us up to Bridgeport Alabama to Russell Cave...  PIC It's a National Monument ran by the U.S. Park Service with a history that goes back more than 10,000 years! (Hey that thing's older than me!) PIC We had a good turnout with 14 riders and passengers and as usual found a great little restaurant to top off the day. THIS little lizard tried to have Linda for lunch, but it wasn't near fast enough!...  Ray & Pat showed us a great little road that runs along the crest of Lookout Mountain up to Cloudland GA called of all things "Crest Road".  HERE is a link to Google maps of the area. It turns off Hwy 35 just before the entrance to Little River Canyon and runs the brow of the mountain all the way to Cloudland...  Looks like a good candidate for some serious flower sniffin', but there's not a lot of places to stop a group of bikes. Someone said we did 170 miles total, but the 100 degree temps made it seem like a looong day!  Thanks Doyle & Beth for a GREAT ride!

06/13/2009 - Club Cookout and combination Birthday Party...  WOW, what a turnout and didn't hear a single complaint from anyone about not having a GREAT time! Thanks to everyone who contributed to the success and especially our gracious hosts PIC

06/09/2009 - Tuesday Nite meeting at Doyle & Wyn's...  Some really fine grub and a GREAT turnout! These are all the pic's I have of this event...

06/06/2009 - Hang Gliding, Point Park and More - Took us a little scenic trip across the mountain to the Hang Glidin' place and on up to Point Park and the Incline...  Finished off the day at Golden Corral (Hey we gotta' maintain our Ride to Eat reputation!)

05/16/2009 - Another SCRC Chapter 80 Wedding! - "Pic" I present you Jo Jo and Shelley Morgan "Pic" (now Don's gotta' change Shelley's name on the roster) LOL   We even had our own little 4 wheel drive "Ring Bearer" (No not Paw Paw, the cute one) "Pic"  I still wanna' see 'em ride off into the sunset in that gitup "Pic"...  Run Jo Jo! "Pic"  Seriously it was a grand wedding and a grand day.  The rain held off and the turnout was tremendous!  Congratulations Jo Jo and Shelley!

05/12/2009 - Women Who Ride Conga Ride - On Tuesday Teresa, Linda and I went over to Cartersville Harley Davidson to meet up with the bunch that are riding across the country raising money for Women's Breast Cancer Research...  A lot more info can be found HERE on the Conga and HERE on the WWR forum. (Be sure to watch the video on the Conga start page)  After a little meet and greet at the Harley shop we traveled down the road a few hundred yards to Tom's Biker Bar and Grill for a nice lunch before the Ladies headed out on the next leg of their journey. There was definitely a shortage of testosterone at this meeting, with only 2 of the 20 or so of us that were male riders...  Two of the Ladies present are certified "Ride Like a Pro" instructors, and trust me, they could teach us all a thing or 2 about handling a scoot!...  When they made it to Louisville Kentucky WLKY did a nice write up and video on the riders for their viewers.

After the lunch at Toms Place Teresa and I weren't very hungry, but when we got back it was almost time for our weekly git together, this week at the Sonic...  Thanks to Dee we got a few pic's of the meeting!  LINK  And Yes, Captain Bob is back in town, and he's HUNGRY!  (we need to talk to that gal about selecting a more flattering pose)...  LOL

05/01/2009 - Thunder Beach - A small group of us traveled down to Panama City Beach for the Spring Thunder Beach Rally again this year...  Let me see, how many years is this in a row?...  A bunch anyway. (Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most)  Anyway the players were: Jo Jo & Shelly  George  Don  Kat  Dee  Larry  Linda & Rocky   Brenda & Nancy  Teresa  Joe Friday  and of course Doyle & Beth...  Now don't nobody ask me about them strange pairings...  That there is a whole 'nother story and best answered by the players themselves...  ; )  ; )  We had a couple of other members come down...  Larry Cole and Sammy Acrey made it down but we didn't git any photo proof, maybe they did...  We did all the venues, lot's of good eatin' and made our annual pilgrimage to Regan's, bunch of ridin' and plenty of sitin' on the porch...  Will we be back?...  Dang Skippy!!!

04/26/2009 - Paw Paw's Break In ride - Well Tommy made his first road trip! Rocky, Nancy Wyn, Doyle, Teresa and of course Joe Friday accompanied him through a leisurely ride down past Desoto Falls to Mentone Alabama where in true Chapter 80 tradition we incorporated a good lunch to boot! (I think Wyn must git a kickback from that restaurant, she steers us there every time we go for a ride)  On the return trip we came back through Little River Canyon and really broke him in right with our home grown twisties!  He even got to witness ole Joe Friday drop Pitty Tink in the canyon...  Don't worry, both me and the old girl are fine, she just sorta' rolled off the kickstand and go boom...  Everything else was uneventful which is the best way a ride can be...  Plenty of sun and fun and I do believe we' re gonna' wind up with another good rider as soon as we can get a few thousand miles under Tommy's belt! (He's already been eyeing a GL1800)

04/04/2009 - Patriot Guard Mission, Arnold Dewayne Prickett, 62, USA Vietnam Veteran, Gadsden, AL.  This was a "Short Notice" PGR Mission, but concerns about the turnout being low proved to be wrong.  With the additional participation from the Weiss Lake Southern Cruisers and friends and co-workers that Mr. Prickett rode with from Anniston Army Depot we had an excellent turnout!  PIC - PIC  We did however have a limited number of flags on hand, but made the best of it. PIC - PIC  The friends and family were very appreciative with our presence.

03/22/2009 - Shelly's Ride - Since Shell had to work straight through to Sunday we dedicated her a little scooter ride...  And a great turnout it was too!  I think we had 11 bikes and 13 riders...  We left out from Leesburg and toured Little River Canyon backwards (from Dogtown out to Hwy 35) We shot through Desoto Park and had a great lunch in Mentone then doubled back to Desoto Falls...  All in all a GREAT DAY!

03/21/2009 - Lunch At CiCi's - Well this bunch don't need much of a reason to take a scooter ride!  We even got 'Ole Ray back on a scoot for the first time in awhile...

03/17/2009 - Lanny's Back! - And in my humble opinion, doin' a dang fine job!  We had a bike night at Stars BBQ this evening and have to say the quality is back to what we used to get when we held our meetings there...  Thanks Larry & Diane for remembering the camera!

03/10/2009 - Bike Night at MiMi's - Dang good turnout for a Tuesday night! Thanks Brenda and George for remembering a camera!!!

03/08/2009 - Chickamauga Battlefield - I think the Ladies did a good job of plannin' us a ride, but next time George needs to stipulate that they plan and LEAD the ride!  14 Club Members ain't a bad turnout for a Sunday ride...  Of course we met up with Joe and Teresa at the Battlefield, but we sure looked impressive stormin' through the doors at Golden Corral... 

03/01/2009 - Tommie & Andrea's Wedding - Chapter 80 has it's 2nd Official Biker Wedding!  Rocky and Nancy got the ball rollin' back in April of 06 at during the Biker Shack Crawfish Boil, now Tommie and Andrea have tied the knot!  I didn't include a big pile of pictures, but here are a few of the happy couple...

02/14/2009 - Doyles Valentines Day ride - I think everyone was gitin' a little dose of PMS (Parked Motorcycle Syndrome)  I know I sure was and a little ride was all that was necessary to clear the cobwebs!...  OK, so we got a little wet.  Hey anybody can ride when the weather's pretty!...  LOL  We started out a little later than planned, but we were sorta' waitin' on the weather to brake a little. It never did so we changed plans and headed out on the backroads to Gadsden and a visit to Noccalula Falls...  From there we wound around Hokes Bluff and spent about an hour at Beans and Greens.  Well OK, maybe an hour and half...  Them folks really know their home cookin'!

01/24/2009 - Great American Motorcycle Show - I can't believe how many vendors were present.  They claim 120,000 square feet of space, and every inch of it was full! If you missed this one you missed a great show indeed...  We got to meet Donna and Jerry "Motorman" from the "Ride Like a Pro" video series as well as their latest recruit Stephanie, a little 19 year old lady that has just recently started riding a bike and is now featured in their show. HERE is a link to some of her training that was featured recently on Speed TV.  HERE is a little short video I shot of Motorman scrapin' the floorboards of his "Cop Bike" 360 degrees around Donna.  She's just standin' there like she has no fear of gitin' squished by a 850 pound scoot...  Sorry, you will need a broadband connection to view the video's.

01/01/2009 - 6th Annual Weiss Lake Southern Cruisers Polar Bear Ride - What a turnout, and what a day! We left Biker Shack 411 with 85 bikes and managed to pick up a few latecomers along the way and counted 90 at our second stop.  George had a leisurely country ride mapped out for us and the membership had supplied plenty of black eyed peas, turnip greens and corn bread to make a traditional New Years Day dinner for everyone!  Oh, and the cookies, cakes and pie's!... Yummmm...  Thanks to JD, Shirley, Winnie and of course Pam and the Biker Shack staff for staying behind to man the fires and keep everything hot and ready.

We did have 2 bikes get together and go down.  Both riders were injured.  Our thoughts and prayers for a speedy and painless recovery for these 2 gentlemen.  Even though the day was not without incident everyone pulled together and made this another memorable Polar Bear Ride...

12/14/2008 - 2nd Annual Weiss Lake Southern Cruisers Christmas for the Elderly - I thought it would be easier the second time around.  I was wrong.  Meeting the residents and seeing the appreciation in their eyes for a bunch of leather clad bikers with an armload of simple Christmas presents is an emotional event and I guess it always will be.  We had arranged presents for all 170 residents in the Cherokee County Health and Rehabilitation Center and once again Kim Hays, the Activities Director had extra help on hand to lead us into all the area's and make sure no one was overlooked...  This is truly an event we will continue as long as we are allowed.  Thanks go out to all the Chapter 80 members and participants for all their time and effort.  A special appreciation to the employees of Cherokee County Health and Rehabilitation Center, Kim Hays and John Boggs who make this possible.  And finally our contributors who supplied many of the items: Bargain Barn - Lineville, David Armstrong - Cedar Bluff, JR's Marina, Ron and Winnie Beerman, Biker Shack 411, Hoyt & Rosemary Brooks - Fort Payne, JD Brooks - Leesburg...  As well as all the private monetary contributions from individuals.  Thank you one and all!  (Due to the laws regarding patient privacy we are not allowed to publish photographs of any residents)

12/13/2008 - The 1st Annual Cherokee County Toy Run to benefit the Nettie King Brown Clearing House...  These are some of the pic's that Teresa took of the scoots both at Biker Shack 411 and again at our arrival point at the Methodist Church in Centre. I think the official count was 29 bikes at Biker Shack prior to departure.  Thanks to Domino's Pizza and The Weekly Ledger for putting this all together, and a special thanks to the ladies at the Methodist Church that prepared the Coffee, Soup and Brunswick stew!

12/12/2008 - Chapter 80 Christmas Party - Well here we are, Dirty Santa and all...  Even though it seemed for awhile that some of us may just starve to death before we managed to get seated it all worked out in the end.  Be sure to send me any photo's you may have and I'll get 'em posted...

12/05/2008 - Christmas Parade - Cherokee County and Centre are like most rustic southern communities.  We have a strong devotion to a lot of things, one being our Annual Christmas Parade! Don't let the leather coats, chaps and heavy gloves fool you, it was a balmy 28 degrees here in the "sunny south" this morning when I was out in the shed kick starting my scoot!  We had 5 die hard riders brave the weather risking frostbite and burned out clutches to ride in this years event.  Pictured HERE are Tim, Brenda and Gizmo, George (just visible behind Brenda's trike) Steve (Joe Friday) and finally John from Biker Shack...  We need to have a talk with that photographer!...  Maybe we ain't payin' her enough...   Check out the rest of the photo's too.  If you were in the parade, your smilin' face is most likely here!

11/11/2008 - Veterans Day Ride to the Wall - Every year Anniston Alabama holds a Veterans Day Ceremony that SCRC Chapter 80 has participated in ever since it's inception in 2004.  Our Host, The American Legion Riders from Post 155 Bynum, Alabama always open their doors to riders from all over that can participate in the 20 odd mile escorted ride to the beautiful Veterans Memorial Wall in downtown Anniston.  This memorial lists the names of all the Alabama Fallen Hero's from every branch of service for every conflict from WWI through the First Gulf War with locations set aside for present and future conflicts.  There are currently 27 Alabama Congressional Medal of Honor recipients listed on the wall. 
I'm always impressed with the turnout for this event, rain or shine, as well as all the support shown from local Anniston residents...  Not only does the traffic flow come to a complete stop for the riders, but many individuals exit their vehicle to wave at the procession or simply stand at attention while we pass.
Thanks to go out to Ron for remembering to bring a camera 'cause as usual, Joe Friday forgot his!...  I'll do better, I promise!...

10/25/2008 - Day trip to Mt. Cheaha - 9 of us made a little day trip over to beautiful Mt. Cheaha State Park.  Looks like we were a week or so early for the leaves to start turning, but we had a fine time anyway.  It started out as a planned camping trip and sorta' petered out to a 135 mile ride instead...  Oh well, we still got a little saddle time in and with a side trip through Anniston George managed to drop a hunnered dollars at of all places the Harley shop. (Imagine that)  Don and Teresa both picked out new scoots at the Yamaha shop and I eat WAAAAY to much at the Fried Tomato restaurant!...  I also need to have a word with that camera girl...  She sure does squeak in a bunch of pic's of that little blue scoot...  I'll bet a lot of them wind up in her sig file on the forum too...  Oh well, for what we're payin' you just can't git good help anymore!...

10/17/2008 - Several of us made the trek to Leeds Alabama to take in the Antique Motorcycle Races and Swap Meet at Barbers Motorsports - What can I say, this was their 4th annual event and we've made 'em all and watched as the participation has grown every year! Here are only a few of the literally hundreds of pictures we took over the weekend...  We saw some very unusual scoots LINK including steam powered, a one off inline 4 Indian, a ride George Jetson would be proud of as well as a hand made diesel powered 2 wheel drive scooter!  The Antique's were out in full force at the swap meet and here is only a handful of what was available LINK  -  I also have to mention the air show LINK A superb group of "Old Timers" pushing their Radial engine powered WWII trainers through some amazing maneuvers!   And the racing...  WOW! These men and women pushing their antique machines around the world class 2.38 mile race course at Barbers was breathtaking!  Here is a series of 28 photo's, all shot in a little over 60 seconds during the 500cc class race. LINK  Now keep in mind that the racing started every morning at 0800 hrs and went on all day and these were all shot on one curve in one minute!  Lots and lots of heart fluttering action...  You think maybe "Ole Joe Friday will go back next year?...  You can bet your Bippy!  (Now I've done gone and dated myself)

10/12/2008 - Biker Shack 411 Swap Meet - Well this was John and Pam's first ever Swap Meet and a fine job they did!  Even though the weather tried it's best to add an air of gloom we had a good turnout.  (I know it kept some vendors away, but we had a grand time anyway.)

10/11/2008 - Thunder Roads & Drifters HDRC Benefit for Vicki Lynn - A tremendous turnout for Great Lady!  I can hardly wait to see the final numbers for this event...

09/20/2008 - Trail of Tears Ride and Club Campout at Tim's Ford - We had been wanting to do a club camping trip all season, but it's just been to dang hot! So with the new Trail of Tears route going through Winchester Tennessee and Tim's Ford camping area being so close we decided to make a weekend of it.  We rode up on Friday afternoon, pitched the tents, fed the deer then moseyed on up the river to the Bluegill Grill for some fine seafood...  Ever see a white Carp?  I gotta' tell you about George and Brenda's tent, but that's a whole 'nother article in itself!  I'll just post the pictures and see if anyone can figure it out...  Saturday morning we rode back over to Winchester and set up alongside highway 64 and watched the ToT riders come by for what seemed like hours.  We were actually only there for about an hour and half before we packed up and headed out to Lynchburg Tennessee and the Jack Daniels Distillery.  Back to camp for some award winning vittles furnished by our very own Country Boy & company and a relaxin' evening around the campfire...  The kind of weekend that you want to just go on and on... 

Latest update on the Trail of Tears camping trip - Brenda brought the pictures she and George took on the camping trip and I have added them to the Photobucket account...  NEW PICTURE LINK

08/23/2008 - Club Party at Ray and Pats - Somehow we conned Ray and Pat into opening their house to the club for our annual summer cookout!  Turnout was GREAT, food was as usual very good, plenty of fun for all...  Birthday Boy got a year older, we discovered what Ray does for a livin', and on a serious note had to say goodbye to some very good friends who are moving away...

08/16/2008 - Fish Fry at Pam & John's Lake House - Say you didn't know Pam and John even had a Lake House?...  Well they didn't up until a few weeks ago, but HERE it is!  And try tellin' me THIS bunch wasn't having a good time, or even THIS bunch!...  We all had fun, but not near as much as this Little Lady!...  Yea, she sorta' stole the show!...

07/18/2008 - Georgia State Rally Ride in to Cherokee County - When PapaMike first contacted me back in March and we got this Canyon Tour talked up I envisioned maybe a couple dozen scooters coming over from the Georgia State SCRC Rally in Cartersville to strap on a Fibbers Feed Bag then mosey on over through the canyon with me...  Was I ever wrong!  40 some odd bikes, 60 some odd people!  Man when Mike gits up a ride, he really gits up a ride!...

Late Update! - The PA bunch, Fatboy, his wife and Tom sent these pictures along...

All in all, things went off without a hitch.  The Southern Cruisers from all the different Chapters rode together like they had been doing it for years.  Good clean lines, even stagger, no big gaps, but hey...  These folks are, after all, Southern Cruisers!  What would you expect out of them?...  LOL

We took 'em all on a whirlwind tour of Little River Canyon making only a few stops for photo's and potty breaks, but since they all had to be back in Cartersville stops were kept to a minimum.  From Dogtown Ray led a small group back down the mountain and headed 'em down 411 toward home base while Diane and I took the remainder on over to Cherokee Rock Village (Little Rock City).  Some in Ray's group were assigned cooking and serving duties at the rally and rumor has it they had 40 Boston Butt roast's that had been slowly smoking over the fire that needed some attention!...  YUMMM....  I could do that even after spending an hour at Fibbers!

I have to really thank Ray and Diane!...  This thing would have been a real nightmare if we hadn't broken it down into several smaller groups and arrived at the canyon separately.  Thanks folks, I really appreciate your help! It's people like you really make Chapter 80 shine!

07/13/2008 - Ride to Oneonta - George got us a ride up to Oneonta to visit some covered bridges and of course EAT! And a fine choice of restaurants it was too!... LOL  We visited a bridge I'd never been to, that's actually still in use today.  After walkin' across the thing I had decided I didn't trust it holding up a motorcycle then this guy comes across in a big ole 4 X 4 truck with a dang car right on his bumper!  So much for my career as a bridge engineer!

On the way back out I ran the group up by Palisades Park (LINK), no, not the one in New Jersey, the one near Oneonta Alabama...  It's a little more laid back than the one up north and we didn't need any of their stinkin' rides anyway, we brought rides of our own!...

05/26/2008 - Memorial Day in Pigeon Forge - Several different groups of us rode up on Friday...  Some at first light, some after they got off work, but we were all there by the early afternoon.  Plenty of time to have a grand supper and relax by the pool for a few hours...  The next morning we took off up to Sevierville Tennessee to look at some trikes and bikes!...  Well Linda found a GREAT lookin' trike kit and Teresa, Sandra and Robin all fell in love with this trio of those cute little Harley Sportster low models they just happened to have sittin' there all in a row...  Hmmmm...  Makes you wonder don't it?...  Did somebody call ahead and tell the folks at Pigeon Forge Harley Davidson we were on the way?  The rest of the day was spent at The Apple Barn then back down to Pigeon Forge to let the women to get this shoppin' bug outta' their system. (Yea, like THAT's gonna' happen!) Yet another GREAT meal as well as a little relaxation time...  Hey, I'm  RETIRED  Leave Me Alone!...

Next morning it's off to the mountains after a quick breakfast for a fun packed day...  We crossed the Smokey's at Newfound Gap and stopped in Cherokee NC for a spell before hitting the Blue Ridge Parkway...  Now this is sight seer's heaven!  With a beautiful overlook located every couple of miles you could literally spend all day covering only a few miles!  We did a little better than that, but when we crossed NC 215 the troop's were gittin' a little restless and a lot hungry...  It was only then that we learned that Deal's Gap has nothing on this little known road!...  Shhhh...  Don't tell anyone...  I'm goin' back and it ain't crowded at all!...  Over to Waynesville and own down to Cherokee to this little place called Granny's that Sammy claimed to have some of the best country cookin' on the planet...  Sammy was right!...  Good vittles!  Now back across the Smokey's for another relaxing time by the pool and discussing the route home...

We nominated Forrest to lead this jaunt and even though we had quite a few that were in a hurry to get back home and were gonna' take the "Big Roads" some of us elected to take the scenic route.  Forrest took us back over to Townsend and picked up the Foothills Parkway.  This dang thang looks like a straight line on the map, but it's anything but!...  Lots of overlooks on both sides of the road.  To the west you are looking back across relative flat land across the Tennessee Valley and the Cumberland Mountains in the distance and to the east lies the Great Smokey Mountains!  Awe inspiring sight either way you look!  I can't tell you how we got there, but Forrest got us on over to the head end of the Ocoee River. He used to live in these parts so he knows all the backroads... Following the path alongside the river would be a good day trip in itself, but it seems we had several of these all strung together on our return trip back to Cherokee County Alabama...  My trip meter showed 725.0 miles when I pulled back in the driveway.  Not a lot for a 4 day jaunt, but all were very enjoyable!  (Sorry about havin' 5 pages of photo's, but Teresa also shot about a gig of video that I didn't upload!)

05/18/2008 - Music Motorcycles & More - Benefit for Frankie Smith, a local musician who has been diagnosed with liver cancer.  As many as a dozen bands showed up at the Second Street Blues Club in Gadsden for this fund raiser!  A GREAT event and a fun day for a worthy cause...

05/17/2008 - Dare Bike Show - The second annual DARE Bike Show held by the Sheriff's department over in Ft Payne.  Lot's of beautiful scoots and a really good place to hand out a few fliers for our events for Liberty Day!

05/17/2008 - Horton Mill Covered Bridge - This was our second stop.  It was actually our third but we didn't git any pictures at stop #2.  One of Alabama's 11 covered bridges, and a sight to see!...  More info here  LINK

05/17/2008 - Palisades Park - No, we didn't ride all the way to New Jersey!... The final stop for the day was in Blount County at Palisades Park. Lot's of rock climbers frequent this area, but there are lot's of points of interest for us old folks too!  Really nice set up for cook-outs and such and LOTS of sightseeing! LINK to more park info...

05/11/2008 - Tigers for Tomorrow - We did a club ride over to Collinsville to visit Tigers for Tomorrow and check 'em as a possible recipient for our Liberty Day events...  You can check out our pictures by clicking on the date, but if you want to see some really good pictures shot from "inside" the cages click this LINK  If you enjoy Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my - then you really need to pay 'em a visit...  Now let me tell you about ridin' in the WIND!...

05/03/2008 - Thunder Beach Panama City Florida - From the number of forum posts it looked like we had a hundred people going down to Florida for this event but we were actually no where near this...  I didn't get an actual count, but it was closer to 20...  I don't have many photo's from there, guess some folks haven't sent 'em in yet, but here is what I have to date...  Great weather down and back, with only one little rain event on Saturday afternoon...

04/26/2008 - Biker Shack 411 Crawfish Boil - What can I say?...  Pam and John did their usual GREAT job hosting their Open House and Crawfish Boil for the 5th year in a row!...  Lots of biker games, a great bike show, plenty of vendors and we managed to raise a good deal of money for St Jude's!  Best of all, the rain held off to let it all happen! Added a link to Doyle's slide show HERE  And no, before you ask, that background music wasn't from the band that performed at the Crawfish Boil...  LOL

04/08/2008 - Tuesday Night at Bikershack - We held out little Tuesday evening get together at Biker Shack 411 this week. Turnout was great! Food was decent in spite of the cook and Doyle's "Cowboy Beans" sure makes a man regular!...  LOL  The good news is everyone "nickled up" a couple of bucks or so to pay for the grub and for some reason I wound up with enough money to do all this again!  I'll post on the forum and see where everyone wants to meet...

03/28/2008 - Ron's Break in Run - Don made a quick forum post that he and Ron were riding up from Glencoe and were plannin' on "Riding the Canyon"...  Well, that just sounded like an offer I couldn't refuse!  With the recent rains the waterflow was tremendous!  After takin' several years off Ron is one of the "old new riders", a category that a lot of us fit into...  He is slowly gittin' back into the wonderful world of motorcycling.  Not only did he get in some twisties and steep mountain roads, but also got in a little "rain ridin'" on the way home to boot!

03/22/2008 - Doyles Ride - Doyle posted a ride plan on the forum for some Alabama backroads and man was he ever right!...  I went to places I never knew existed before!...  All in all a beautiful day for a ride, good turnout and a lot of fun.  And the Country Buffet George turned us on to in Anniston weren't bad either!

03/21/2008 - Barbers Museum - One would think we liked this place, and we do!...  This is our second trip in as many months...  It's absolutely the best way a biker can spend 10 bucks and not a bad ride from the Weiss Lake area either...

03/18/2008 - Chattanooga Aquarium - A small contingent of us took a day trip to Chattanooga and paid a visit to the Aquarium.  It had literally been years since I've been there, but what a fun way to spend a day! 

03/02/2008 - Tour the Falls - Several of us got together and took advantage of the beautiful weather on Sunday and toured some of North Alabama's popular waterfalls and sights...  HERE is a link to Little River Canyon Falls, HERE is a link to DeSoto Falls, HERE is a link to Bucks Pocket and HERE is a link to High Falls...  And finally, HERE is a link to some video's shot during the day...  If you ever have an opportunity to go into Bucks pocket from the Langston area by all means do it!...  Deals Gap has nothing on that road except for maybe all the crazies and an overabundance of traffic!

02/22/2008 - Dr. Feelgoodz - A couple of our gang went down to pay a visit to this local watering hole who happened to be sponsoring a bike show for the Star series of bikes by Yamaha...  I'm gonna' hafta' go try out one of those new Raiders, but I will most likely regret it!  My stable is already big enough!...  LOL

02/02/2008 - Barbers Museum - Out of all the times I've been to Barbers Motorsports this was my first visit to the museum...  And what a place it is!  There were right at 650 motorcycles on display and there is just no way to see 'em all in one visit! Seriously, if you walked up to each one and read the info poster and spent 60 seconds looking at it it would take 11 hours to get through the place!  I did manage to take a few pictures, and the link above will take you to see about 350 of 'em...
Every model of scoot I have ever seen seemed to be in there...  I realize of course that they were not as they have several hundred more motorcycles that are used to "rotate" around in the museum from time to time.  That way each time you visit there will be something new to see!

01/01/2008 - Polar Bear Ride - This years Polar Bear Ride was a benefit for member Drew Neese who was injured in a motorcycle accident back in November.  Turnout was great and we collected enough to keep Drew's insurance paid up for several months.  Thanks to all who purchased the pins and dropped a few bucks in the bucket!  It will really help out a lot...
41 degrees. 41 bikes. 41 pounds of Black-Eyed Peas. 41 pounds of Collard Greens. Well I may have been exaggerating about the peas and greens, but not by much!  The hungry hoard of cold bikers didn't even come close to eatin' it all up!
Once again this year our hat's off to John and Pam Hunt at Biker Shack 411 for their outstanding job of hosting this year's event!  Great job folks!  Also add thanks to the members that stayed behind tending the fires keeping the food hot while we were gone.  Many thanks people!
The event was not without incident, but a couple of scoots that had to be jumped off and one that suffered from a dead battery during the ride don't really qualify as a bad thing, just a little nuisance...

Christmas for the Elderly - It all started back in the summer when we all got together and were trying to come up with something to do for our community. That's when Hal Wilson came up with the idea of maybe some of us dressing up and visiting the residents at Cherokee County Health and Rehabilitation Center for Halloween and then again at Christmas.  We could purchase some small presents and give 'em out during the visit...  Well the Halloween plans sorta' fell through, but here came Ray & Pat Gardner to get the ball rolling for the Christmas event. The first thing we knew they had collected hundred's of dollars and the club was contacting all sorts of folks and local businesses that were more than willing to donate money and gifts for the effort. All total we had raised $1,040 dollars plus enough presents for about 140 residents!  Local school children volunteered to decorate the gift bags and did a fantastic job of cutting out Santa Clauses and drawing Christmas scenes on all the bags. Did you ever try to wrap 140 Christmas gifts in one evening? Here is a link to some photo's of the task. LINK  As it turns out, if you get a 12 or 15 folks to volunteer, the job becomes easy! It became evident pretty quickly that some of us were going to have to drive a car or truck to get all this stuff delivered!

Now for the FUN part.  Kim Hays, the nursing home Activities Director agreed to have the activities crew all present on Sunday the 16th.  John Boggs the Administrator of Operations was also on hand to help with the event. A special thanks is due to these folks for all they do. Their jobs can swing from one of the most satisfying to the most heartbreaking tasks any individual could possibly do for a living...  My hat's off to these kind people!  Kim had selected 8 or 10 residents that have no local family here in Cherokee County area and our members took on the task of making these folks up a "Special" gift bag to present to them.

Kim broke us up into 3 groups, each assigned an activities employee and off we went. It only took a couple of hours to visit most every room in the center. Meet all the residents with a warm handshake or hug and be on our way. Although short it is hard to come up with words describing the appreciation evident on the faces we visited. A very heart moving experience even for this old biker! Here is a link to some of the photo's taken of the crew that participated.  LINK We were asked not to photograph the residents, but when this beautiful little 97 year old lady came out and jumped on Georges Big Dog chopper we just couldn't resist! All total we had 12 or 15 bikes and about 20 members take part in the 37 degree ride. A cold day for a bike ride, but the most satisfying ride I've ever taken...

Special thanks to the following: Southern Cruisers Weiss Lake Chapter 80, Wingmen Motorcycle Club, Danny’s Builder Supply, Centre Kmart, 10¢ & More, J & W Cycle, Dollar Store (411 Store-Employees), Midway, Cedar Bluff Piggly Wiggly, Biker Shack 411, Local schools that decorated the Christmas Bags were Cedar Bluff-1^st & 2^nd grade, Galesville-1^st grade & Library, Glencoe Middle School Library...  Walk proudly my friends, you have made Christmas special for a lot of people this year!

12/1/2007 - Annual Christmas Party - A lot of folks that had plans to attend didn't get to make it.  All I can say is you missed a really fine time!  Good food, good friends, so in typical Chapter 80 style we had another fantastic Christmas Party!  Dirty Santa treated everyone pretty well too...  Hey, anybody want an Ipod?

I've still got all the photo's taken before this date, but I had to make some room somehow! I'll be glad to make copies on CD for any of our membership...  Just drop me a note HERE

Email me photo's and other info: HERE

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