CHAPTER R NEWS Monthly Newsletter

Transcription

1 GOLD WING ROAD RIDERS ASSOCIATION MINNESOTA DISTRICT REGION E AMERICA S HEARTLAND CHAPTER R NEWS Monthly Newsletter May 2016 Chapter R Team Directors Robin Pettit & Fred Rennpferd Robin Fred robin.pettit01@gmail.com Assistant Director Vicki Holst turncrest@kmtel.com Rider Education Dean Plank cdplank@yahoo.com Membership Enchancement Wade & Carolyn Nelson kc0aku@msn.com Treasurer Al Horejsi achorejsi@live.com Sunshine Barb Beeman bbbeeman@charter.net Historian Brian Denny boobood@outlook.com Editor Ann Hanna annhanna123@gmail.com Socials are held at the Pizza Ranch in Austin, MN, on the third Saturday of the month beginning at 6:00 pm for the months of January-July, September & October. August BS Session New Richland City Hall, New Richland, MN 11:00 am November Chili Dump/Calendar Planning Kluender home 3:00 pm December Christmas Party at Events by Saker, Kasson, MN 12:00 pm From your Chapter R Directors Robin Pettit & Fred Rennpferd Hello Friends! May has arrived! Hopefully those April showers (and snow) bring us May flowers and more importantly, warmer weather for riding. Except for riding to the mall show and getting an oil change done, we only rode once the month of April. That ride was to Iowa Chapter D s mall show. Other than some wind, it was a beautiful day and it was fun going to support our fellow Chapter members. Friday, May 6 Doug s Ride to Susie s Roadhouse in Ostrander. Leave Kasson Kwik Trip at 6:00 pm or meet at Susie s at 7:00. Please RSVP to Doug at by Friday noon. Saturday, May 7 Trimble s Cycle Center open house in Austin, 10:00 am 2:00 pm. Trimble s is very good at supporting our Chapter and we give back to them by helping with their open house and bringing desserts such as bars or cookies. Please try to have your dessert there by 11:00 am. - Continued on page 2

2 - Continued from page 1 Thursday, May 12 Dick s Supper Ride to George s of Geneva. Leave Albert Lea Hy-Vee at 6:00 or meet at George s at 6:30. Please RSVP to Dick or Barb at or by 3:00 pm the day of the ride. Saturday, May 14 Dean Plank s Apple Blossom Ride. Leave Rochester Community College at 10:00 am. This is an all-day ride with lunch scheduled at Bonnie Rae s Café in Rollingstone. This is a great ride and Dean puts a lot of pre-planning into preparing for it. Here are the written directions. Sunday, May 15 Chapter Q Round Up at Hanover City Hall, 11:00 am Social, 12:00 lunch. Their flyer is below. Watch your Chapter R Weekly Update for more information. Saturday, May 21 Chapter R Social at the Pizza Ranch in Austin, 6:00 pm. Wednesday, May 25 Roy s Supper Ride to R&R Roadhouse in Walters. Leave Albert Lea Hy-Vee at 6:00 or meet in Walters at 6:30. Saturday, May 28 Garage Day at Brad & Gayle Harig s home. Their address is th Ave, Emmons, MN. If you need some bike/trailer work done, please contact Brad at This is an allday event with a potluck at 5:00 pm. Watch your Chapter R Weekly Update for more information. Monday, May 30 Memorial Day Ride to the High Ground Veterans Memorial Park. The flyer is below. Wednesday, June 1 Roy s Supper Ride to Ruby Tuesday in Mason City. Leave Albert Lea Hy-Vee at 6:00 or meet there at 7:00. Please RSVP to Roy or Carol at or by 3:00 pm the day of the ride. Thank you everyone for all you do and for making Chapter R the best. Chapter R ROCKS! Robin & Fred Chapter Directors Dick Ochs 80th birthday party at George s of Geneva. Yes, we did surprise him! Carol Smith attempting to eat her dinner at Chapter N s Crazy Dinner.

3 GWRRA Directors Ray & Sandy Garris Region E Directors Bob & Nicki Fowkes From your Chapter R Educator Dean Plank DISTRACTED DRIVING I know that the month of April has past. My MN District Directors question is how many of you knew that April Joe & Jan Marek is Distracted Driving month for the National Highway Safety Administration. Everybody thinks this only pertains to motorist that drive cars or even the big rigs but we as motorcycle riders can also be considered a distracted driver. According to the National Transportation Highway Safety Administration distracted driving is any activity that could divert a person s attention away from the primary task of driving. It s not just texting or making calls on a cell phone; any activity that diverts a driver s attention puts that driver, and their passengers, and everyone else sharing the road at serious risk. In this article I am going to concentrate on Texting while driving but will bring up some other facts. A partial list of what is considered distracted driving are things such as using cell phone or smart phone, texting, eating or drinking, smoking, attending to or disciplining children passengers, grooming, reading, using a navigation system (which a lot of us have on our bikes) adjusting the radio, CD player, MP3 player, CB radio, or even temperature controls. There are 3 types of distracted driving: manual, visual, and cognitive. Manual distractions are those where you move your hands from the steering wheel or handle bar of your bike to reach for a drink from the carrier next to you in your car or from your handle bars. A visual distraction is where you take your eyes away from looking at the road an example could be looking at your GPS screen. Finally a cognitive distraction is when your mind wonders away from the task of driving and you are thinking about work or the discussion you had with your spouse. This is why texting has such a bad reputation. It involves all three types of distractions at once. Let s look at the facts of distracted driving. The minimum time your attention is taken away from the road to text and driving is 5 second. Driving at 55 MPH this would equal driving the length of a football field. Some of the activities to texting that increase your risk of a crash are: Reaching for the device that you are going to use to either dial or text increases your risk by 1.4 times. Dialing a phone number on your cell phone increases your risk by 2.8 times. Talking or listening on the phone or even a Bluetooth increases your risk by 1.3 times. NOW here is the kicker. You are 23 times more likely to have an accident in the time it takes to type and read a text message versus if you are not texting. - Continued on Page 4

4 - Continued from Page 3 Here are some things to think about when you re driving or riding your motorcycle: 34 percent of drivers say that they have texted while driving. 52 percent of drivers say they have talked on their cell phone while driving. (I can say I am guilty of that). Now that I have a car with hands free I guess you could say that I am not giving 100% to driving. 77 percent of young adult drivers are somewhat to very confident that they can safely text while driving. 55 percent of your adult drivers claim it s easy to text while they drive. But it is a problem because teens who text spend approximately 10 percent of their driving time outside of their lane. Here are some facts that I found when I Google Distracted Driving about texting while driving for the entire United States: Texting while driving is SIX times more likely to cause an accident than driving while intoxicated and is the same as driving after having 4 beers National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. Texting while driving is the number one distractions for teen drivers National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. At any one time 800,000 drivers are texting while driving- National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. Texting while driving slows your reaction time to brake by 18%- Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Texting while driving leads to 400% increase to eyes off the road time. Now for really scary facts, texting while driving causes: 1.6 million accidents a year National Safety Council. 330,000 injuries per year- Harvard Center for Risk Analysis Study. 11 teen deaths EVERY DAY or if you think about 4,015 deaths per year- Institute of Highway Safety Fatality Facts. Nearly 25% of ALL accidents are caused by someone texting while driving. 13 Percent of drivers involved in a car accident admitted to texting or talking on their mobile device at the time of the crash. In short, when we are out riding this summer, remember more drivers you meet on the road are distracted drivers. So if you think they are looking out for you, it is hard to believe, when they don t even have their eyes on the road. Once again ride safe and look out for the other drivers because they aren t looking out for you. May GWRRA Anniversaries May 13 Deb Thorson May 01 May 11 Brad & Gayle Harig Brian & Carol Denny Dean Kittelson May 01, 2001 Dick Ochs May 01, 2001 Ricky Johnson May 11, 2010 Bonnie Johnson May 11, 2010

5 Upcoming Chapter R Events May 6 Doug s Supper Ride to Susie s Roadhouse - Ostrander, MN - Meet 7:00 pm May 7 Trimble s Open House - Austin, MN - bring bars 10-2 pm May 8 Mother s Day May 12 Dick s Supper to George s, Geneva, MN. Leave Albert Lea 6:00 pm May 14 Dean Plank s Apple Blossom Ride. Leave Rochester Community 10:00 am May 15 Chapter Q Roundup - Hanover City Hall 11:00 am - 2:00 pm May 21 Chapter Social - Pizza Ranch, Austin, 6:00 pm May 25 Roy s Ride to R&R Roadhouse, Walters, MN. Leave Albert Lea 6:00 pm May 28 Garage Harig s farm. 5:00 pm May 30 Memorial Day High Ground Ride June 1 Roy s Ruby Tuesday s Ride, Mason City. Leave Albert Lea 6:00 pm June 2-4 Missouri District Rally, Branson, MO June 10 Dean s Down Under Ride, Stewartville, MN - meet there at 7:00 pm June 11 Chapter O s Bug Run - Dr. Mudspringers, Spring Lake Park June 16 Rich s Famous Dave s Ride, Owatonna, MN. Leave Albert Lea 6:00 pm June 18 Austin Pizza Ranch Bike Show - 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm June 18 Chapter Social - Pizza Ranch, Austin, 6:00 pm June 19 Chapter C Fund Raiser, New Ulm, MN June 19 Father s Day June 21 Roy s Uncle Albert s Ride, Eagle Lake, MN

6 2006 GL 1800 Honda with a Champion Trike kit. Black with blue pin stripe. Miles: Also a Time Out Cargo Trailer black with blue pin stripe. Sell both for $ 25,000. Contact: Martin Jensen Cell # Call after 9:00 A.M. or after 5:00 P.M.

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