Ride Program Archive
2006 Rides Program
Warmer weather is just around the corner, and those going to Florida are determined to get a jump on the riding season. We have a fun and exciting rides program set up for this year. As announced last month, the premier ride will be the BMWBMW Great Tour. The letters B-M-W-B-M-W-G-T each are a category topic. The topics are Rivers, Parks, Mountains, Counties, Post Offices, States, Animals n Birds and finally, BMWBMW members and you.
When you spell out the tour's name you have BAYERISCHE MOTOREN WERKE BIKERS OF METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON GREAT TOUR. Find 10 rivers that start with the letters that make up the spelling of BAYERISCHE and you will get 10 points for each river and a 100 point bonus for getting all 10 rivers. The requirements are listed on the ID number placard that you will need to join in the fun. There are a total of 61 letters to fill in but I don't know if anyone will get them all.
So e-mail or phone me to get your number. Or better yet, I will have them at the club meetings starting with March meeting at Morton's. E-mail me at: rides@BMWBMW.org
We will again have unique awards distributed at the Holiday Party for the winners of the rides program. So get your number and join us for some fun riding time. Don't forget, we do have a passenger (two up) award.
2005 Rides Program Wrap-Up
The highlight of the 2005 contests was the Scavenger Hunt. There were 125 items to collect, most of which could be done locally. Things like an airplane, sailboat, mermaid and church steeple to name a few. But then to make things more difficult there were about 30 items that would challenge you to ride long distances, like Key West, Florida, the 4 Corners Monument, Cadillac Ranch in Texas and Create Lake, Oregon to name a few.
So there was plenty of riding and fun gathering the Scavenger Hunt items. I didn't expect members to get over 100 items, so I was pleasantly surprised when I received results from the five participants who had over 100.
Our Grand Champion was Bob Higdon who had 117 items. Even though he spends a lot of time in Florida, he chose going to the Pacific North West for Crater Lake instead of Key West for the end of the Route 1 mile marker. I have found that when Bob gets hooked on a challenge, he is not going to cut anyone any slack. He knocks out 50,000 miles a year with ease so he is a tough competitor and earned the Grand Champion award.
Close behind Bob at 106 items was Elsie Smith and John Douglas. Since we had both a Women's class and a Men class, they were the winners of their respective classes. I knew Elsie was making a big effort at gathering items without doing a major trip, her method being to keep picking up items everywhere she went.
Continuing in the Women's class in 2nd place breathing down Elsie's back was Jody Douglas with 104 items. She and John traveled together a lot and assisted each other in gathering so many scavenger hunt items.
Third place Women's went to Maria Vandergutch with 85 items and 4th place was Chris Zink with 70. Chris had the most different motorcycles in her pictures from a 550 Suzuki, an 1150 RT, her new 1200 RT and a loaner 1200 RT. But then Pam Fisher also had a few different bikes in her 61 pictures to earn 5th place.
In the Men's class, John Douglas traveled around the country a little more than Jody, to net 2 additional items over his wife. His 106 items was only 3 more than Greg Davis with 103. Greg and Don Catterton (with 95), who was 3rd both got to see a lot of the country as they traveled around picking up some of the more distant items. Brian Horias even got booked enough to earn 4th place with 86 items.
I had stopped long enough in my travels to net 75 items for 5th place, while Chaz Fisher and Carroll Ensor had 39 to round out the results.
We had a 2 up class, and George Flacon and his passenger Lona Soule, worked hard and rode a lot to net 91 items. They make a great 2-up couple on the mighty K1200LT.
George and Lona also won our other ride, the Trans America Great States Tour. While some other riders may have traveled in more states, you have to stop and document the states with a picture and that is what George and Lona did. They documented seven states in their travels which was good to win the first place plaque.
Our remaining ride report was the Poker Run series. We had poker runs in both Maryland and Virginia, and the joint BMWBW-Concours Owners Group Camaraderie Ride. I kept track of each of the 3 rides, who drew the best poker hands and rode the Camaraderie ride and was able to name the winners by accumulated points. The top 3 riders were 1st Chaz Fisher, 2nd goes to George Van Mater and 3rd place to Jim Bade.
We had good turnouts for the Poker Runs, and the Camaraderie Ride had close to 20 members show up to enjoy the event. The 2006 joint ride is already in the work so watch the calendar!
The Scavenger Hunt was a lot of fun. Looking at the pictures that were turned in was really enjoyable. I had to chuckle at many of them and Barb would ask what I was doing. I would tell her "look at these pictures and see what I have got these riders doing to gather scavenger hunt items". I felt good (kind of diabolical) as I verified the pictures.
I received good feed back on the contests and the fun you had collecting stuff. There were about 45 members that took numbers for the contests and a little less than half turned in pictures. So for 2006, plan to join in again and keep at it during the whole riding season and we will have fun at the Holiday Party again.