Ten hearty souls made it to our first meeting of our eighth year as a riding club. Here's hoping for another good year!

The meeting didn't get off to a smooth start as the projector had a mind of its own and wouldn't take input from a PC (the cable is suspect). The group retreated to the Fellowship Hall and after some familiarization got up and running on the built-in equipment (always good to have a back-up)

First on the agenda was setting a date and route for a February ride. February 11th is the date and the route to/from New Echota is shown at  https://www.plotaroute.com/route/346958

A ride for March was discussed with most favoring a route in the north eastern direction. A recommended route for a March 11th ride will be published before the February 28th meeting.

Dan had planned to show the group what he had done and tell us what he learned on his trip to the Isle of Man late last year but a family situation caused him to defer to a later meeting, hopefully February 28th.

It was good to see Mark among the group again. He's hoping to get back on two wheels again pending purchase of a V-Rod he has his eyes on.

Larry brought up the possibility of the group sponsoring a Lenten supper, similar to what was done for one of the Advent Wednesdays. He's testing the waters early to see if there would be enough volunteers to pull it off. You'll hear more on this from Larry in the coming weeks.

In spit of the delays and relocation the meeting was adjourned at the advertised 11 am (more or less)

Our next monthly meeting will be on Saturday February 25th

Eight of us met Saturday to discuss plans for the November Meeting/Ride and to review the photos and unedited video clips from Camp-n-Ride-n-Fly of the previous weekend.

The plan for November is to meet on November 19th for a short meeting at Timothy at 8 am and get on the road by 9 am or so. The route for the ride will include roads in in surrounding counties. Anticipated mileage will be held to around 150 miles with a planned end in mid afternoon long before sunset. The route details will be available as the ride date approaches.

Many photos and lots of unedited video footage came out of the October 21-22 activities.The group, almost all having participated, added important perspectives as various scenes were shown. Photos will be added to the ride report (now available w/o photos), as will a link to an edited compilation of the videos.

The group took a look at a potential ride destination in Towns County, the recently paved Bell Mountain. Prior to this Summer the road up the mountain was primarily a jeep and dirt bike trail but now  could present an interesting, albeit narrow and steep, ride. We'll see.

The remainder of the meeting had the group viewing various motorcycle videos and and a professionally produced video of McAskil's latest mountain bike adventure.

There will be no end-of-the-month meeting in November or December but rather mid-month meeting/rides on November 19th and December 10th. 

Seven of us rode in this Saturday morning to talk over ride plans for October and November. First on the agenda was the camp-n-ride scheduled for Friday-Saturday October 21-22. The group settled on a start time on Friday of 2:30 pm, meeting at the Chevron at exit 27 of I-575 in Ball Ground. Larry will lead. One highlight that weekend will be seeing the fly-in at Suches

A second group will leave Saturday morning, from the Shell station at the intersection of East Cherokee Road and Ga 140, meeting at 8am ready to go. This group will ride to Suches and join the folks who camped Friday night. After observing the fly-in the group plans to ride east on Ga 180 to Ga 17 head south for lunch then ride north on the Richard Russell, and then down Us 19 to Dahlonega and points south.

More details will be forthcoming as the ride date approaches.

In an effort to avoid conflicts with family plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas  the group decided to combine meetings and rides on November 19th and December 10th. On these dates we will meet at Timothy at 8 am for a short meeting, no more than an hour, then ride as a group on routes yet to be determined.

The remainder of the meeting included a discussion about non-riding folks at Timothy that have expressed an interest in getting started in motorcycling. We'll follow up as appropriate with them to help them get started correctly.

On the other side of the ledger the group was informed that John has sold his bike and has decided, after 43 years of riding, to hang up his helmet and go with four wheels. We'll miss you John.

One short video we watched is worth a second look, as I brings a new meaning to "he's a lucky dog".

Our next meeting will be October 29th

Nine of us met this Saturday morning to lay out plans for the coming months and to travel vicariously to Alpine passes via Richards recounting of his recent trip through the Alps in (not on) a BMW M3.

Richard had a packet of maps, souvenirs and video/photos from the trip to share with us. A commercial video of one of the passes allowed Richard to highlight some of the areas he went through on the week long trip that touched a number of countries  that share the high country. Here's the video 

Thanks for the trip Richard.

We discussed a ride plan for September. What we settled on was a ride on September 10th that heads north to Tennessee to travel beside the Ocoee and Hiawassee river and takes in the Chilhowee area and perhaps Buck Bald. The ride will start at 8:30 from the Chevron station at exit 27 of I-575. More details later as the date approaches.

We also discussed an overnight ride/camp Friday afternoon and Saturday (October 21-22) with camping at TWO Friday night. Set the dates aside, it should be a great time to be in the mountains. More details at our September meeting that will be on September 24th.