by Fred Jewell, RCB Prez

I can’t believe it’s getting to the last few weeks of summer already, and that means we’re getting ready for our annual campout at Manchester Beach in October. In the meantime, however, we have the Gypsy Tour, happening over the holiday weekend that I know a lot of our members enjoy. It’s a well-run and interesting tour of Northern California, but it does involve camping, which leaves me out. Our club meeting is on the same holiday, Saturday, which means either Ray or Rick will lead a (much simpler) ride depending on the temperature. If it is relatively cool(er) out we’ll go to Granzella’s via the Capay Valley, or if it’s hot, we might end up in the foothills somewhere. Routes are already on the club rides section of the website, check the forum for updates.

September also means that the mileage (destination) contest is drawing to a close in a couple of weeks, so get those pictures in to my email or phone by the 15^th. This is your chance at a set of tires for your bike, installation included donated by Randy at A&S, which is nothing to sneeze at (if that’s your idea of fun). It is a raffle so the more places you go to the better your chances of winning.

As I’m moving along in my second presidency of this most excellent motorcycle club, I often think of Gary Stofer, president for many years before my first stint, and the things he helped me with in becoming president of the first club I’d ever even been a member of, let alone leading one. That being said, as much as I enjoy being president, I would really like to see someone new and energetic come take the reins of the club, I would help him or her as much as I can. Pay and benefits commensurate with experience.

Gary had many pearls of wisdom he would occasionally drop on us as he saw fit. One I recall in particular was when I was complaining about the weak horn on my 1100 RT and wanted to install a louder one, and he said bad idea, you don’t want aggravate drivers as you are extremely vulnerable in a road rage situation. The pearl he dropped on me was if you have time to think, react and hit that hard-to-reach horn button, you have time to avoid the situation and let the driver go on their way. I don’t think I’ve hit the horn but a couple of times since then, and I never replaced the stock horn on any of my bikes.

Last month’s trivia question answer is Kingfish, a side band of the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir I got to see in concert a couple of times in the mid-seventies. Here’s a non-musical one for this month: On what date did the 20^th century begin?

The weather’s great, let’s ride!