Road Captain USA

Only two more days left in 2009. This year will be etched in my mind forever. It was marked by numerous accomplishments and one horrific loss.

I began the year by taking on a leadership role that was a daunting but welcome challenge. The Director of my HOG Chapter resigned to start a new MC. It was agreat opportunity for her, unfortunately for me she took several of our key officers with her. I had been the Assistant Director for only a few months when I was asked to step up to Director. Not only was I a fairly new member taking the healm of a twenty year old HOG Chapter, but I had to put together a leadership team to pick up the pieces and keep moving forward. Luckily an enthusiastic Ed and Karen Fortner came to my side and joined forces in the task. Ed became the Assistant Director and Karen was already the Activities Officer. Together with my wife Diana we spent many January and February weekend nights discussing how to increase particaption in our chapter and planning a spring trip to Outer Banks North Carolina.

The four of us went to North Carolina on Valentines Day weekend to nail down the details of the trip. We got along in a way that I can’t explain very well. I guess it is hard  enough to find a guy friend you see eye to eye with, but to find a couple that have the same likes and dislikes as you and your spouse… well that’s probably twice as hard to find and twice as valuable. We had a blast that weekend and over the next couple months we got to be closer and closer as friends.

Springtime came and we hit the ground running. The new leadership team created a fun atmasphere that made eveyone feel welcome at our HOG chapter events. We focused on the HOG mantra to Ride and Have Fun. Particpation shot up immediately in March and we ran straight into April. We had record turnouts for our first dinner rides and poker runs taking home the most particpation awards at the first two regional poker runs we attended. Then the four of us went to HOG Primary Officer Training with our Secretary and Head Road Captain. The six of us had a great time and got a glimpse of how impressive the HOG organization is. We got home from POT just in time to host our one big fundraiser of the year: our annual First State HOG Spring Poker Run. It was a huge success thanks to all the officers and volunteers… and the weather was pretty good to us.

We gathered on April 24th for the spring trip that Karen and Ed had planned so well. It was a beautiful day! Ed took the lead Road Captain Position with his proud wife and Activites Officer riding wing. Their son Justin and two of his friends followed directly behind them. Diana and I were at the rear, me in the Sweep position wearing a flouresecent safety vest.

We were riding about twenty bikes strong with smiles pasted on our faces as we headed to North Carolina. Four hours into the trip we found ourselves in Cheriton, VA approaching the Chespaeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. In a flash lives changed forever! A deranged women in a Ford Taurus sped out from a driveway and plowed through our pack of motorcycles killing our dear beloved friend Karen! It was a horrible thing and there hasn’t been a day since then that I haven’t thought about it.

The motorcycle community gathered around the Fortner family and offered their support as best they could. Our HOG Chapter became closer. We didn’t want to let Karen down, so we valiently continued on through the year succeeding at everything we set out to do. We won 10 awards and doubled chapter participation over the previous year!

Becoming Director and succeeding has been one of the best experiences of my life. It is a huge accomplishment and an honor to have people follow me voluntarily. It’s nothing like my job where my staff do what I ask them to because I’m their Supervisor. Being Director of First State will probably be the closest thing to fatherhood that I will experience. When our chapter succeeds at putting on an event or wins an award I feel like a proud parent. Our chapter has flourished this year and for that I am proud. My blog and online store have also done extremely well. My mail order business is a success, we have exceeded 6,000 hits per month and I am seeing some advertising income. I even started getting paid to write for other online publications. Diana and I have been recognized by Harley-Davidson and received a special invitation to come test ride their motorcycles in NYC and write about it on RC USA. The accomplishments have been many!

The numerous victories of the year however are overshadowed by the loss of a dear friend. The vivid memories of the carnage on Route 13 will be with me forever. April 24th, 2009 was the worst day of my life. If Karen were still here to relish in what we accomplished… then perhaps it would have been one of the greatest years of my life. But she is not here, the accident really did happen and it is difficult to savor the victories without her.

2009 was a bitter sweet year.

Tags: Deep Biker Thoughts, HOG® by Jay Green
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Here in Delaware and Maryland the HOG Chapters are pretty tight. I know most of the Directors and many of the officers from the other chapters. Diana and I were in Cheriton, VA a little over a week ago with two other members from First State and we met a HOG member from All American of Hughsville, MD. The member didn’t know his Director by name but told me it was Smurf. Below is a picture of Steve Keene, aka Smurf, presenting First State with the plaque for furthest traveled at their chapter’s Brain Freeze Poker Run back on June 27th. He’s the guy handing me the plaque. I’m the goofy bald guy with an orange t-shirt and camo pants. That was our 5th award this year. We now have 10.

I was checking out the Rider Stories on the Harley-Davidson You Tube channel and came across this video. I was thinking “I think I know this guy. He seems very familiar. Oh my gosh, it’s Smurf from All American!”

Tags: Cool Video & Pics, HOG® by Jay Green
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Those of you familiar with the inner workings of HOG know that Norscott is the only company licensed to make and sell HOG merchandise using the Harley Owners Group logo’s and trademarks. Norscott has 19 different Chapter Officer Patches. These are the black felt arch shaped patches that say “DIRECTOR” or “ROAd CAPTAIN” in gold thread. Norscott will not make custom made officer patches. So what do you do if your chapter has an officer position that is unique to your chapter that Norscott doesn’t make? You go out and find somone to make it since these patches don’t use any regristered trademarks or logo’s. I saw some bad knock offs at POT. Either the shape was not right, or the gold thread looked off, or the black felt just wasn’t a match. But the officers from the Cut N Shoot Chapter in Texas had some really good ones with their nicknames on them. They turned me onto their supplier Corporate Logos Inc. which is one of their members. You can e-mail Rex at look@corporatelogos.org or call him at 1-800-926-9130.

Rex will make custom HOG Officer Patches at $7.00 each plus shipping. I ordered a QUARTERMASTER patch and three AMBASSADOR patches and they came out great.

Tags: HOG® by Jay Green
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On May 31st, 2009 my alarm went off and I rolled over to discover that Jay was already up and about.  Jay doesn’t generally function before noon, so 6:30 AM is a real shocker!  I stumbled out of bed and opened the blinds, only to see that he had already pulled both of our bikes out.  They were lined up by the curb, ready to go!  Then the aroma of fresh brewing coffee pervaded my senses.  I staggered to the kitchen to find my bagel, pre-sliced, laid out on the counter in front of the toaster oven, waiting for me to be ready to toast it.  Cream cheese, a knife, my vitamins, and a class of OJ were set out on the kitchen table.  And he made himself coffee too!  Good grief, how long has Jay been up???  He was rearing to go that morning, and after a few minutes I was too.

The plan was to meet at the Odessa Sunoco, wheels rolling at 8:00 AM.  Steve (one of our veteran Road Captains in First State HOG) was to lead us along a scenic tour of southern Delaware to the Eastern Shore HOG Summer Splash Poker Run in Ocean City, Maryland.  The forecast was for a bright sunny afternoon, but as I got geared up it became quickly apparent that there was still some lingering rain in the air leftover from last night’s storm.  It began to drizzle, so we decided it best to don the rain gear so as not to start out the day wet and miserable.

Who would’ve thought that after nearly 4 years/thousands of miles of riding - day trips, overnighters, 3-5 day trips - I had never actually ridden in the rain?  OK, I had ridden passenger in the rain, but never on my own bike…until that day.

We knew that it was going to clear up, so we mounted up, headed out, and hoped for the best.  As we rode to the meet-up spot, the rain grew steadier.  I just used the same philosophy I do when driving my car in the snow: no sudden moves, keep it smooth & consistent, gradual breaking & acceleration, and stay a little slower than usual.  By the time we pulled in to the Odessa Sunoco, I had pretty much decided that riding in the rain wasn’t really all that bad.  Apparently there weren’t many people willing to agree with me, because all totalled only 7 people on 5 bikes showed up.

We all stood around in our rain gear laughing our butts off, and hoping that the rain would let up just a little.  Around 8:30 or so our little group did eventually head off into the pouring rain.  It came down steady for maybe another 30-40 minutes, then we rode in so much road spray it was hard to tell the difference for another half hour or so.  By the time we made our first stop near Seaford, DE, I had puddles in both of my boots.

Paula took break time to clean her bike.  I sat down to pull off my boots and wring out my socks.  Jay usually carries a roll of little plastic bags in his pack that we wrap around our feet when our socks get wet, but we must have used them all up.  Being desperate, I stuck a pair of latex gloves over my feet!  Folded over the “fingers” and put my soaking wet socks back on.  We had seen the last of the rain for the day, but it would still be a long battle to get dried out!

We picked up another couple near their beach house, and then another down at Ocean City Harley-Davidson.  We arrived as the last group was heading out to do the poker run, so we decided not to do the run.  We drew our cards and hung around relaxing for awhile - enjoying hot dogs, music, and sunshine. 

It felt so good to let my feet dry as I enjoyed the company of good friends.  I laid my boots and wet socks out in the sun to dry out as much as they could.  The only pair of socks they had in the dealership were little girls fuzzy slipper socks.  I have small feet, so I decided these will have to do! 

It couldn’t be a trip daown-e-oshun without stopping for a Nic-o-boli at Nicola Pizza in Rehoboth Beach…so off we went for fabulous food and a brief walk along the boardwalk.

Altogether it was a great day, and I had gotten my feet wet riding in the rain (literally).  I wish I could say that all was good once the rain had passed, but the rain actually didn’t pass.  We had the coolest month of June recorded in over 20 years, and compiled 50% more rainfall for the month than normal.  At one point I believe that it had rained on 19 of the past 21 days!

The cool wet weather didn’t stop us from getting out and riding though.  Sure we got dumped on a few times, but for the most part we did a lot of RIDING & HAVING FUN!!!  And hey, in just a few short weeks I went from being a virgin to a veteran in wet weather riding.

Tags: HOG®, Mrs Road Captain by Diana Green
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I got lei’d three times and Diana got two. Daryl must have gotten very lucky, he got four. In total eight First Staters got lei’d yesterday at the Old Glory Chapter’s “Get Lei’d” Hawaiian theme poker run in Laurel, Maryland. See picture above of us posing with Phil Kraft, proud Director of Old Glory. He is the one in the grass skirt. We left with 6 First State members, met up with two more at the Old Glory dealership and rode home with 8 (no passengers). Diana took the lead most of the day and lead us on a fantastic back road tour of central Maryland through horse farms and past Cal Ripkens house. I’m hoping we won furthest traveled which would bring our total up to eight awards earned so far this year.

I’m extra glad we had such a great day yesterday because today was a washout. I had committed to leading a ride leaving at 10:30am to the Rally For RAACE preregistration party in Darlington, MD. The weather report read 85% chance of rain and possibility of severe storms. We put our rain jackets on and went to the pick up spot at 10:00am. Only one member showed up. I said there are many rides that start out sunny and you hope the weather report is wrong and you ride anyway; most of the time the weather report is right and we get a little wet but have a good time. This was not one of those days. It was already starting to rain at 10:20am and was gonna get worse and there is no chance of having a nice ride. We were close to home and decided to stay dry and call it a day. We put the bikes away at 10:40am and went to the study to write this post and no sooner did I start tap tap tapping on the keyboard and the rain storm from hell broke loose with about twenty minutes of torential downpour, strong winds, thunder and lightning. The power flickered and went out for a few seconds so I had to start the post over again.

Today may be a washout but at least a bunch of us got lei’d and had a great ride yesterday.

Tags: HOG®, The way I roll: Stories by Jay Green
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When Karen became the Activities Officer for First State HOG last fall, she had several goals.  The one she voiced most frequently was for our chapter to win a “Best Represented Chapter” award at a local poker run.  She had noticed that our chapter wall at Mike’s Famous Harley-Davidson was lacking awards.  We have got to do something about that!  Besides the plaque, Karen wanted to increase participation in our chapter rides and events.  She loved to plan picnics, dinner rides, and other events…and the bigger the better!  I don’t think there was anything she loved more than to be a part of a huge group of riders in formation, heading out to have some fun.

Back in March, without thinking much about it, our chapter quietly took the award for most participation in the Motorcycle Accident Victims Foundation Saint Patrick’s Day Poker Run.  Then only a couple of weeks later we took nearly 40 people to the Delmarva HOG Poker Run in Seaford, Delaware.  Karen’s husband Ed was the road captain for this trip, and Karen was so tickled every time another bike pulled into the lot that morning at our pickup spot.  She jumped up and down like a school girl when they announced that our chapter had taken the prize.

Karen got her wish - not once, but twice!  And the riding season had barely begun!  Unfortunately Karen’s season was about to come to an end, permanently.  She was killed on April 24th while riding on a chapter trip. First State HOG members were devastated by the incident, but we have come back even stronger.  We will not let Karen’s dream die.

On Saturday, June 13th, we took a group of riders down into Maryland for the Baltimore Metro HOG Chapter “Panty Poker Run.”  This trip was great fun, and somehow we managed to win “Best Represented” again.  Our neighbors in Baltimore had been very supportive after the accident.  Several of them rode the hour-long trip in the pouring rain for Karen’s viewing and funeral.  When they learned that we were dedicating our award to Karen, they decided to get it engraved “In Memory of Karen” and will make the trip up to our next general meeting to make the presentation.  We got caught in some rain on the ride back that day, a rainbow appeared as we got closer to home… we knew it was Karen smiling down on us.

On Sunday, June 21st, we took a group of riders up into Pennsylvania for Tri-State HOG’s Father’s Day Poker Run…and AGAIN won the award for best represented chapter.  FOUR awards to hang on our wall at the dealership!  They’re going to have to get us a bigger wall soon!

But wait, there’s more!

On Saturday, June 27th, several of us headed to the All-American HOG chapter’s “Brain Freeze” Poker Run.  Given our chapter’s propensity to ride for ice cream, we figured a poker run with ice cream joints at every stop was just the ticket!  With 20 on 14 we did not have enough people to beat out some of the more local chapters.  But given that we rode 125 miles to get there, we did ride away with the plaque for “Longest Distance Traveled”! Chalk up award number FIVE!

Karen’s spirit is alive and well in First State HOG.  We love you and miss you girl!

Tags: HOG®, Mrs Road Captain by Diana Green
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