Chapter #80 Weiss Lake Alabama

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.

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?

11/13/2007 - Little River Canyon - A small contingent of us rode up through Little River this morning to get maybe the last of the years really colorful photo's before the leaves all fall...  It was really breathtaking!

11/11/2007 - Veteran's Day Ride to the Wall - If you have ever participated in this ceremony and kept a dry eye throughout you weren't paying attention...  About a dozen of us made the trip, some for their second or third year in a row, a few for many more than that...  I don't know the official count for the number of bikes in the parade, but it was a lot!...  I was impressed by the number of civilians who came out to watch the procession and they virtually all stopped in the approaching traffic lane for the entire group to pass by.  Some things still make you proud to be an American!

11/10/2007 - Drifters Poker Run - The Windriders & Drifters were kind enough to invite us to participate with them in the Drifters Poker Run over the weekend...  Got to see some old friends, meet a lot of new faces and see a lot of new places as well... Thanks folks, we had a GREAT time!

11/04/2007 - Show and Swap Meet Atlanta Expo

11/03/2007 - Yep the Club went Hang Gliding!!!  (Well we went watchin' anyway)...

10/20/2007 - Barber Motorsports Vintage Races and Swap Fest

10/14/2007 - Cathedral Caverns Grant Alabama

10/13/2007 - Charity Pig Roast Gadsden

09/15/2007 - Trail of Tears Ride and Camping Trip (You have to have Quicktime installed to view the video's)

08/25/2007 - Day Trip to Cades Cove (Long Enjoyable Day!)

08/18/2007 - Road Trip to Fort Mountain Georgia

08/03/2007 - Bike Show in Gadsden (Turned out to be a Car Show)

07/23-27/2007 - Star Days Chattanooga (Not displayed as Slide Show)

07/22/2007 - Signal Mountain,  Dunlop and Suck Creek

07/21/2007 - Lookout Mountain Hang Gliding

07/14/2007 - Lawrenceburg TN Visit to Amish Country

06/30/2007 - Cedar Bluff Liberty Day & Chapter 80 Bike Show

06/23/2007 - Multi Chapter Ride to Big "D" - Arab Alabama

06/16/2007 - Guntersville Lake Camping Trip

06/10/2007 - Little ride to 29 Dreams

06/02/2007 - Thunder on the Rock - Monteagle Tennessee

05/26/2007 - Long Weekend in the Smokies

05/20/2007 - Chickamauga National Military Park Picnic

05/19/2007 - Indian Hills Motorcycle Resort

05/05/2007 - Panama City Florida Thunder Beach

03/31/2007 - Pam & John's 4th Annual Crawfish Boil, Bike Show & Poker Run

03/30/2007 - D.A.R.E. Bike Show in Ft. Payne

03/25/2007 - Lets go check out the new Southern Eagle Motorcycle Resort!

03/10/2007 - Road Captain's ride...  If you didn't make it you missed a fun day!

02/28/2007 - PGR Mission for J. R. Tucker

02/25/2007 - Trip to High Falls

01/01/2007 - January 1st Polar Bear Run

12/02/2006 - Annual Christmas Party at Top of the River

11/04/2006 - Impromptu ride to Bucks Pocket

10/29/2006 - Road Captain Ron's ride

10/14/2006 - Poker Run at Cave Springs

10/08/2006 - Flish Fli at Russ and Linda's

09/10/2006 - Our 1st Road Captains ride!

09/09/2006 - Leesburg Day & Poker Run!

07/29/2006 - Camping trip to Two Wheels Only!

07/08/2006 - July meeting and post Liberty Day party!

07/01/2006 - Cedar Bluff Liberty Day!

04/02/2006 - Bama Powersports Poker Run for The American Cancer Society

03/18/2006 -  Buffalo Wild Wings Multi-Chapter Ride In - Montgomery Alabama...

01/01/2006 -  The 2nd Annual Weiss Lake Polar Bear Run...

12/02/2005 -  The 2nd Annual Weiss Lake SCRC Christmas Party...

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

Take me over to: Weislake.com