• FAVORITE RIDE? 8 day trip in June 2006 to Yellowstone National Park, Billings National HOG Rally & Glacier National Park. Fabulous scenery and an extraordinary ride with over 40 Yakima HOG Chapter friends. This was my first LONG ride on my own bike. Definitely a trip to remember & too many memories to list.

• WORST RIDE? Hands down...July 15, 2000 - Day started off great...beautiful sunny day...I had been riding my shiny new 1994 Dyna Wide Glide for 3 whole weeks and was so looking forward to a wonderful day riding even though I was the only lady rider amongst the 8 of us...we rode the winding pass to Packwood where we stopped for brunch then zigzagging our way up to Mt. Saint Helens with 5-10 mph twists & turns...Then of course more twists & turns all the way down the mountain... by now I was pretty tired of turns but onward we traveled toward the Columbia River where we kinda took a wrong turn and ended up in Battle Ground near Vancouver during what seemed like rush hour and miles out of our way!!! Not at all good for a newbie. Anyway, we re-grouped and headed east along the Columbia River on the Washington side and had just started up the Klickitat canyon, geez more curves, I guess I finally had it with all the twists and went straight into the bar ditch at around 40 mph. Seems my bike and I made a ‘not so graceful summersault' and landed pretty much on my helmet and right wrist which was now a couple inches off kilter. Needless to say my bike was darn near totaled, over $8000 damage and I didn't fair well either. The rest of our group finally noticed we weren't behind them anymore and came back to see what was going on. Ambulance from White Salmon, little dinky hospital, came and picked me up and the rest of the group followed...everyone stayed at the hospital to make sure I was basically ok, by this time it was almost 10:00pm and the group still had an almost 2 hour ride home in the dark so they left. I was just really PO'd I ruined everyone else's ride that day. I had surgery around 10:30 that night, Steve stayed by my side till my family came in the morning with our truck & bike trailer to haul Steve's bike home...he didn't want to ride home alone and my bruised and broken bike had already been hauled to Goldendale via a tow truck. Well, now I'm recouping at home and on pain meds I was feeling a little loopy but no pain...OOOPS...tripped down a couple stairs and although I didn't actually land directly on my wrist I did kind of smack it against the wall. Now, 4 days after the crash I go to the Orthopedic surgeon here in Yakima for a follow-up and ended up having a second surgery on same wrist because I apparently messed it up when I fell against the wall...all is well now.

• HUMOROUS RIDE SITUATION? I actually have 4.

1. Riding down the freeway I needed to change lanes when all of a sudden I flew what seemed to be a foot off my seat...seems I ran right over the top of a newly downed bloated goose laying in the middle of the lane...Steve who was behind me said the feathers really flew!!!
   

2. While minding my own business riding down a wooded highway near Lake Wenatchee a HUGE full grown Eagle decided to swoop down and play tag with me while traveling 50 mph...not once but TWICE...same bird within an hour!!! Second time she swooped she actually touched my hand and I could hear the woosh & a thunk sound as she flew by and grazed me...I ended up with bird blood on my bike, my leg and boots. Steve said "That thing had well over a 6' wingspan", again he was behind me and saw the whole thing.

3. This time we're in Yellowstone when several of us had to ride past a live Buffalo standing half way in our lane of the road...he just stood there like he owned it...we very cautiously being as quiet as our Harleys could be slowly went around him...any one of us could have easily reached out and tapped him on the nose at any time!!!

4. Almost a repeat of the first incident...only a skunk this time. Guess you'd say I'm an animal magnet!!!

• RIDE MOTTO? Any excuse to ride is always a good one. "Enjoy it now before you get eaten by worms and bugs." In other words "Don't wait till it's too late".

• RIDE ADVICE? Watch out for the critters while riding!!!