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Volume 11 July 2015 Issue 7

The Bear Facts! The OFFICIAL Journal of GWRRA Region F’s

Capital City Wings!

Please Join Us At Our Next Meeting—July 19, 2015

Chapter CA-C “Capital City Wings” meets the 3rd Sunday each month

Elks Lodge #6, 6446 Riverside Blvd. (@ Florin Rd.), Sacramento, CA.

Friends for Fun, Safety and Knowledge—What Else Is There?

In This Is-sue:

In This Issue:

Proper Clothing ……………….. 2 Distinguished Visitors ………. 6 The Roadrunners …………..… 3 From The Editor ………………. 7 Lessons Learned ………………. 4 On The Road …………………….. 8

And Much, Much More!!!

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Tom Whitson Assistant Chapter Director

Proper Clothing

I was watching the show called the DR’s, on their show they showed what appeared to be a Goldwing or a BMW motorcycle run a stop light and T-Bone a vehicle. The driver flew over

the handle bars and landed on the vehicle he hit. Landing on the windshield bouncing off that car, rolling into another car bouncing off that car, land-ing back on the car that he T-Boned and rolling onto the pavement. According to the ER physician, the driver of the motorcycle had no injuries other than bruising, no broken bones or dislocations. The ER doctor credit-ed this to the driver wearing his protective clothing (proper clothing). After rewinding and watching this accident sev-eral times and paying attention to the riders cloth-ing I noticed that he was wearing the following:

Full face helmet. Jacket with proper armor. Riding pants with armor. Full fingered gloves. Boots.

How many riders in the summer just wear a long sleeve shirt and a pair of pants? I have and I know all of you have seen riders in shorts, tank top and would you believe, flip flops? That is just crazy - not to mention dangerous. I guess I AM just getting older and a little more cautious. One thing I have found is the older you get, the longer it takes to heal from broken bones. If you stop and think about it there are two types of riding gear:

FOOLS GEAR COOL GEAR No helmet A DOT approved helmet Short sleeve shirt Riding jacket with armor Just pants or short pants Riding pants with armor Tennis shoes or flip flops Over the ankle boots No gloves Leather gloves

I hope this article gives you all something to think about next time you get on that Wing we all love so much. By the way, I didn’t come up with Fools Gear or Cool Gear, I got it from the MSF web site I don’t think any of us could have said it any better.

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I t is official; National has blessed and accepted all the paperwork for our 23rd chapter in California. Bakers-field is now our 23rd chapter. We would like to wel-come them to our state and look forward to having

some good times together. They have chosen their mas-cot as the “Roadrunner”, so that will make 3 Roadrun-ners in our state. The official kick off for our newest chapter will be at the Convention. Couldn’t be more ap-propriate with our state convention in their back yard! So please plan on attending the convention this year, so we can give our newest roadrunners the honor and wel-come they deserve.

Their Chapter Director, Jack Vido, has worked hard at getting this chapter going and we would like to thank him for the continued hard work that he is doing to get these roadrunners on the map. Our newest chapter will be CA-1B, and they meet on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. They meet at Denny’s, 8710 Rosedale Hwy., Bakersfield at 7 PM. If you would like more information or would like to get in touch with Jack his e-mail address is: gwrra691@gmail.com. He can also be reached at (805)235-4188. Jack has been with GWRRA for quite some time and used to be involved with the chapter from Bak-ersfield many moons ago. He then moved on to the south where he was also very involved with GWRRA. Re-locating back to Bakersfield, he believed he could get enough people to start our Bakersfield chapter back up, and that is exactly what he has done. They’re working hard in doing all the right things that GWRRA requires. We look forward to their kick-off as we all welcome then in September. June was full of rallies with a lot of fun to be had. From the Pirate ride, to our Flag day celebration with the Dogs, and then Hanging with the Frogs, California had a

lot to offer their members. We now look forward to July with Sacramento’s rally on July 18th. They also put on an awesome rally. We look forward to seeing many of you in Sacramento. Sacramento was one of the chapters that we pulled out of the hat at the officer’s conference that we would be attending. However, we have tried to make as many as we could and have shown up to quite a few with a surprise visit. As we continue to put the final touches on our own upcoming California Convention, we thank you for your continued support. Please be sure to get your registra-tions into Diana prior to August 15th, so you will be eligi-ble to win a set of tires. Remember to join us for dinner at closing ceremonies, as always we will have a great time. Last but certainly not least, we were blessed with our 7th grandchild on June 16th. Scarlett Leslie Payne was born at 7:28 pm, weighing 7.8# and measuring 21.5 inches long. Mom-my, Daddy and baby doing well adjusting to parenthood, this is their first child!

Here Come The Roadrunners—CA-1B

Until Next Month—Ride Well And Ride Often!!!

Vincent & Pam

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M any of you have heard through emails and the chapter meeting, Er-nie and I had a precarious ten days beginning on May 20, three days

after our road trip to the Dark Bark Park Inn, a bed and breakfast in the shape and coloring of a tremen-dous sized beagle in Cottonwood, Idaho, Yellow-stone National Park and Cheyenne, Wyoming. We travelled over 3,000 miles in 7 days by car. Ernie had to have an angioplasty to determine if needed to have a stent now, or later. I took Ernie in about 9AM. If you are ever in the position of having a loved one having a procedure you might want to have someone in the room during the procedure come and get you, otherwise it might be a tad bit shocking when your husband has to tell you he is not getting a stent, not coming home and instead, needs to have a quadruple bypass heart surgery in the next couple of days at Mercy General Hospital. Where? We are with Kaiser and the only symptoms he had were sometimes being out of breath for a few minutes. Just after returning home and advising Ernie's son, Shaun of the particulars, Ernie called and said he was already at Mercy and would be operated on the next day, May 20th. I immediately called Bill Palmer who was at work but talked to me for half an hour calming me down. He had been through a simi-lar situation. At Ernie's request we did not go to the hospital for the operation. The next day, just as Shaun and I were going to visit, Rodney called. He had attempted to visit Ernie, who was asleep, knew Mercy well and suggested someone drive me down. Rodney knew Ernie was in good hands but wanted to know if there was anything he could do for me. He must have known I was going crazy. We changed

plans and Shaun drove us to the maze of Mercy General Hospital. Due to the e-mail blast and follow up e-mails by Rick McCusker, Ernie received many calls, cards and even a double visit from Ken and Dianne Knox which helped both of us tremendously. Ernie was supposed to come home Saturday, but his heart rhythm was very irregular. He had to be killed and brought back to life with a defibrillator. The somewhat regular heartbeat only lasted a day and a half so again he could not come home Mon-day, so more shock and tears. As some of you know I'm not the queen of taking serious situations calm-ly, falling apart is my usual modus operandi. Shaun and I made four visits and we were finally able to bring Ernie home on May 28, ten days later and he did feel and look much better. We did find out due to Kaiser Advantage Medicare only covering so much we will owe a few thousand but it could have been much worse. Since hindsight is always 20/20 I know I should have signed Ernie up for state medical as well as dental, since I have plenty of hours which could have been allocated. I now need to explore Kaiser Advantage supplements which is not as common as Medicare supplements with a PPO. Medicare does not cover as much as you think it will and Ernie just joined. I learned we are a part of a great organization with very caring Goldwing riders that act like an ex-tended family without almost all of the bickering. We want to thank all of you who were there from the night I called Bill with the announcement, through various email blasts, including the front page of the last newsletter. Yes, Ernie's heart is much stronger.

Lessons Learned From Ernie’s Health

Extravaganza

Sharon Scoggins

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Motor Awareness Works Both Ways!

T om “Hammer” Whitson and I set up the Motor Awareness booth at Denio’s Farmer’s Market, Roseville, California on May 9th. The Denio

family has invited out chapter to return al-most anytime we want to come out. Motor Awareness is an important part of our chap-ter and the GWRRA. The success of setting up a booth and talking to interested people all day can not be measured. We will never know how namy lives we saved or accidents we prevented, if any. Regardless, we should not stop trying to make the general driving community aware that motorcycles are out there and they require a second look. Motor awareness must work both ways. We as motorcycle riders and passengers must be more aware of the oncoming haz-

ards than the general public. Your life the that of your passenger rely o you spotting the hazard ahead. It might be an inattentive driver just waiting to make a left turn or something as small as a piece of junk from the trash hauling truck ahead. Carl Blattenburg and I were on Highway 395 moving about 65 MPH at 5 AM and it was just before sunrise. As we came around a sharp curve, there were 4 deer standing in the middle of the road requiring a very hard stop. We were lucky as there was no other traffic on the road. You can add flashing headlights and tail lights and wear bright clothing to inform the drivers ahead that you are coming, but re-member, all of this means nothing to a lad-der in the middle of the road!

Ken Knox Motorist Awareness Coordinator, CA-C

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On our June 11th dinner ride to Tugboat Fish & Chips, CA-C members were joined by 2 distinguished visi-tors from the great state of Florida. Ed & Jeanette Carr, members of FL-1K , aka the Palm Coast Chapter joined us for dinner. Yes, they rode their Goldwing all the way from Florida and were visiting family and friends in Northern California. Jeanette said they always look at local chapters’ calendars and schedules and try to visit as many chapters as possible. Ed & Jeanette also serve as Assistant District Directors of Region A’s Florida District. It sure was a pleasure to meet them!

What you REALLY missed by

not being there was the

chance to see the Carr’s

custom painted Goldwing.

It was spectacular! Ed said

he had the bike disassem-

bled last winter (in Flori-

da???) and the custom

paint applied...

Dinner Ride Visitors!!!

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O ne item missing from every issue of “The Bear Facts (as far as I know of or can find) is a statement of editorial policy. Almost EVERY publication has one and this publication

needs one, too. So bear with me on this…. This publication, “The Bear Facts” is YOUR news-letter, not mine! I merely assemble what I get from YOU, the members of CA-C and other material of interest I can steal from other sources. It’s my job as your Editor to make sure I put out a quality, first rate publication. Yes, I am pretty good at this as I was the Editor of two maga-zines published in Sacramento in a former life, many moons ago. I can make this newsletter look really good, as long as it’s a cooperative effort. What I need from you: Stories! As long as it family oriented, I’ll consider putting it in the newsletter. No, I am not interested in “adult” content. This is a publication that not only goes to you, the CA-C member, it’s also distributed to other chapters, districts, regions and to GWRRA headquarters. What they see in “The Bear Facts” has is a reflection on not only me, as your Editor, but on the ENTIRE chapter. No, your story doesn’t HAVE to be motorcycle related, either. Many of us have been around for years, know each other well and are aware of the interests of other members. Format—I prefer your story to come to me in a Mi-crosoft Word format. If you have a Mac computer, I’m pretty sure you can save a document in a “Word” friend-ly format. If you want to save me a second or two, please use the “Calibri” font for your document. That’s what I use for the newsletter itself. If you don’t have Microsoft Word, just use any text program you have and I’ll con-vert it. Photographs—Either .jpg format or RAW files work for me. I used Adobe Photoshop for your .jpg photos but RAW is even better. I also use Adobe Lightroom for addi-tional processing and that program can do amazing things with a RAW formatted photo. If you are shooting

with your cell phone, be aware the photograph may come out looking like it was taken with a Kodak Brownie camera (remember those?). If all you have is your cell phone, take the shot and I’ll do what I can with the re-sults. Deadline—My goal, every month is to have this news-letter in your hot little hands no later than the 27th of month BEFORE the issue date. In other words, You will have the August issue in your hands 4 or 5 days before August. Remember when you could never tell when you would get the newsletter? I don’t like that and it won’t happen as long as I am the Editor. In order for me to have the time to assemble your soon-to-be-an-award-winning newsletter, I have established the 24th of each month as the cutoff for submissions for the next issue. If your submission arrives on the 25th or later, I will hold it for the next issue… My way or the highway—Yes, I’m good at this, but I’m always open to suggestions on how to improve OUR newsletter. However, I reserve the right to decide what goes in the newsletter and what doesn’t make the cut. Sorry if you disagree, but there can only be one Chief for this publication. My ONLY goal is to make YOU, the member shine! Yes, I can fix anything and make you eligible for a Putlizer Prize for Questionable Journalism—but you have to send it in!!! Can’t write? Not a problem! I can fix it! Can’t take a decent photograph? I can fix it! You can reach me at (916)201-9543 just about any time. My e-mail addresses are: rickmccusker2564@comcast.net (primary) rmccusker@sacsheriff.com (secondary) I In the words of the old Bartles ad James ads on TV, “I Thank You for Your Support”

From The Editor...

The Bear Facts Editorial Policy

Rick McCusker

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W e left Cameron Park in the morning and traveled to Nancy’s brother’s house out-side Madera. We all decided to visit the Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fres-

no. Forestiere Underground Gardens, located at 5021 West Shaw Avenue in Fresno, California are an unusual manmade creation built by Baldasare Forestiere, an im-

migrant from Sicily, over a period of 40 years from 1906 until his death in 1946.It is operated by members of the Forestiere family through the Forestiere Historical Cen-ter, and can be considered a spectacular and unconven-tional example of vernacular architecture. The catalyst for the construction of the underground abode was a result of the hot summers typical of the Fresno area. The inspiration lends itself to ancient Ro-man catacombs that Baldasare was infatuated with in his youth. Countless hours were spent excavating the hard-pan layer that cements much of Fresno’s soil to create his underground home. It had a summer bedroom, a winter bedroom, a bath, a functional kitchen, a fish pond, and a parlor with a fireplace. Interspersed amongst the beautiful stone walls and archways are grottoes and courtyards that allow for pockets of light. The intricate pathways were created section by section, over a span of 10 acres, without the aid of blueprints. The next day we were off to “Contact In the Desert 2015”, a four-day UFO conference at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center in Joshua Tree Ca. We booked a campsite in Twentynine Palms near the Marine Corps ground air combat station. After arriving in the late afternoon, we

On The Road…. With Spike and Nancy

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set up our campsite, then went to the Retreat Center for a tour to the Integratron and Giant Rock. The Integratron is a structure designed by ufologist and contactee George Van Tassel. Tassel claimed the In-tegratron was capable of rejuvenation, anti-gravity and time travel. He built the structure in Landers, California (near Joshua Tree), supposedly following instructions provided by visitors from the planet Venus. The Integra-tron machine was started in 1957, and the structure erected in 1959. It was financed predominantly by dona-

tions, including funds from Howard Hughes. After Van Tassel's death in 1978, the building had a series of owners (and was left in various states of disre-pair) before sisters Joanne, Nancy, and Patty Karl bought it in the early 2000s. The sisters promote the Integratron as an "acoustically perfect structure," give tours and offer "sound baths" they describe as "meditation-like sessions accompanied by tones from quartz bowls.” The Giant Rock is a large freestanding boulder in the Mojave Desert near Landers, California, that covers 5,800 square feet (540 m2) of ground and is seven stories high. Giant Rock is purported to be the largest free-standing boulder in the world. Native Americans of the Joshua Tree, California, area consider it to be sacred. In the

1950s it was a gathering point for UFO believers. It is lo-cated on land which was at that time leased by George Van Tassel, a flying-saucer contactee and organizer of UFO conventions. Van Tassel also built the nearby Inte-gratron and a small airport in the vicinity, which he oper-ated from 1947 to 1975. A single large room, which was subsequently filled in, was dug beneath the rock and re-sided in by a prospector named Frank Critzer during the 1930s and early 1940s. Critzer, a friend of Van Tassel's, perished in a self-detonated dynamite explosion in this room on July 24, 1942, while being investigated by local

police.

Shortly after the turn of the 21st century, Giant Rock fractured in two, revealing an interior of white granite. The exterior surface of the rock is partially covered in graffiti. The next four days were spent attending lectures at the conference. I attended a very interesting talk by Sto-ry Musgrave, an astronaut (check out his bio at wikipe-dia.org). He spoke about his life from farm boy to rocket man. We attended numerous other fascinating talks by

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Stanton Friedman, Patty Greer, Peter Levenda, Eric von Daniken, Georgio Tsoukalos and Jim Marrs. Nancy also attended talks by David Wilcox, Richard Dolan, Linda Moulton Howe, Nick Pope and other famous authors, too. Twentynine Palms is an interesting town, many of the buildings have murals painted on their side. Some depict military history, and others are more whimsical. We also encountered some strange creatures like this

huge caterpillar at the campsite. After the conference, we were off to Sedona AZ to meet up with friends from Tucson. While there, we took a short trip over to the Meteor Crater. Meteor Crater is a meteorite impact crater located east of Flagstaff and west of Winslow in the northern Arizona desert of the United States. The site was formerly known as the Canyon Diablo Crater and fragments of the meteorite are officially called the

Canyon Diablo Meteorite. Scientists refer to the crater as Barringer Crater in honor of Daniel Barringer, who was first to suggest that it was made by a meteorite impact.

The crater is privately owned by the Barringer family through their Barringer Crater Company, which proclaims it to be the "best preserved meteorite crater on Earth”. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in November 1967. Meteor Crater lies at an elevation of about 5,710 ft above sea level. It is about

3,900 ft. in diameter, some 570 ft.deep, and is surrounded by a rim that rises 148 ft. above the surrounding plains. The center of the crater is filled with 690–790 ft. of rubble lying above crater bedrock. In Sedona we visited many of the beautiful red rock formations, the chapel on the rocks, and did a short hike to one of the many vortexes, until Nancy encountered a rattlesnake. After a week of power relaxing and playing, we want-

ed to come home via Nevada highway 375, the “Extraterrestrial Highway”. But unfortunately, on the freeway going through Las Vegas, we, suddenly, lost (shreaded) a tire on the trailer. After AAA put on the spare, we had to have 2 new tires installed at a local shop. It is true Las Vegas is always open because this happened at 4 PM Sunday at 103 degrees out. After camping in Alamo NV, we were ready to set out across the barren land to home. We made a stop in Ra-chel, NV. When taking this road, it is a must-stop-and-see place. But it is about 100 miles between services from Alamo to Tonopah NV, and you never know what you might encounter, or if you will be abducted.

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And the “Winner” of the Wingnut is….

Wayne Bellows

Want to check and see if

Wayne has it on him? Call

(916)422-6125

July 15 — Ken King July 6 - Noland & Mel Mayo

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July 2015

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30 31

Business Mtg.

Denny’s

7900 Collegetown

Dinner 5:30

Meeting 6:00

Chapter Mtg.

Elks #6

6446 Riverside

8:30 Breakfast

9:00 MeetIng

Dinner Ride

Dinner Ride

Giovanni’s Pizza

6200 Folsom Blvd

6:30 PM

BACA Ride

Folsom H/D

115 Woodmere Rd

10 AM

Dessert Ride

Coldstone Cream-ery Laguna Blvd Elk Grove 6:30 PM

Bear Fair!

Wackford Center

9014 Bruceville Rd.

Elk Grove

8 AM

A & W Lodi

Car Show

L2

6 PM

Foothills Ride

Jackson Rancheria

L7

9 AM

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AUGUST 2015 S U N M O N T U E W E D T H U F R I S A T

1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30 31

Business Mtg.

Denny’s

7900 Collegetown

Dinner 5:30

Meeting 6:00

Chapter Mtg.

Elks #6

6446 Riverside

8:30 Breakfast

9:00 MeetIng

Dinner Ride

Dinner Ride

Dinner Ride

Ludy’s BBQ

Woodland

L4

6 PM

CA-2N Visit

Sonora

L7

& AM

Dairy Queen

3341 Arden Way

Sacramento

6:30 PM

Skills Practice

Elks #6

6446 Riverside

9 AM

Mystery Dinner

L2 6:30 PM

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Capital City Wings Departure Locations

L-1 Interstate 80 @ West El Camino Blvd.

(2738 El Centro Rd—49’r Truck Stop)

L-2 Hwy 99 @ Laguna Blvd.

(8296 Laguna Blvd.)

L-3 Folsom Blvd. @ Power Inn Rd.

(8098 Folsom Blvd.)

L-4 Interstate 80 @ Enterprise Blvd.

(4800 West Capitol Ave.)

L-5 Elk Grove Blvd & Interstate 5

(9615 West Taron Drive)

L-6 Sierra College Blvd & Interstate 80

(4211 Sierra College Blvd. North side of freeway)

L-7 Sunrise Blvd & White Rock Blvd.

(11250 White Rock Blvd.)

7343 Home Leisure Plaza

Sacramento, CA 95823

www.norcalktm.com

(916)714-1350

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GWRRA California Chapters

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