Fourth Year Kick-Off Meeting-January 26, 2013

Seven of us met to kick-off the fourth year together as a motorcycle club. After viewing a "Stuff They Didn't Tell You"...video from the Lutheran Hour's Men's Network we moved to the task of laying out a ride schedule for the coming three months, February, March and April. One downside in the discussion was learning that a landslide on the Cherohala Skyway had undercut the pavement in the vicinity of the North Carolina-Tennessee border. The road was reported to closed on the North Carolina side and open on the Tennessee side up to the Brushy Creek area.

Two months was the estimated time for repair. We discussed the possibility of using Forest Service roads to by-pass the slide area but that would require some dirt/gravel surfaces, OK for some but not others. We left scheduling a Skyway ride to a later meeting when more information would be available.

It was decided that the February ride would take place on February 9th and be targeted for 5 hours or so, leaving at 10 a.m. returning mid afternoon. The suggested route was Dawsonville, Dahlonega, Suches, Wolfpen Gap, Brasstown Bald, Helen,etc. and home.

For March we selected March 9th with the route being essentially"The Long Loop" described elsewhere.

In April we hope to avail ourselves of Dan's invitation to use his cabin as a way-point for an overnighter to Maggie Valley, pending the date being acceptable to Dan. This ride would start on Friday (4/12) late afternoon, overnight in Morganton, then on early Saturday head for Wheels Through Time in Maggie Valley.

Bob took the group through the features of an updated website for the club. Dan has incorporated a number of options that should enhance our use of the site as a communication point. Of particular interest was the ways in which member photos can be added and viewed, a great step forward from the existing site. Dan plans to replace the old with the new sometime in the next month.

The rest of the meeting was devoted to discussion about various videos depicting circumstances one could encounter riding a motorcycle.

LATE BREAKING NEWS  The NCDOT has announced a plan to single-lane the landslide area. See:

 http://grahamstar.com/articles/2013/01/24/news/doc51019dfd2280f727069323.txt