We Love Our Wing

Authored by: Angela Ferguson

Happy 2013!

January 1 and it’s already a busy riding season!  Today marks the start of the BMR2013, Wing Washington and we have a New Years Day ride with the chapter.

The day started with the chapter ride.  It was freezing this morning but we had clear skies so riding the bike was a go.  We bundled up, including some of the new gear we got for Christmas, and headed to Hinshaw’s in Auburn.  Because of the typically iffy weather on January 1, this ride is always schedule for car or bike.  While some people found their neighborhood to icy for the bike, about a dozen of us did make it on 2-wheels.  We chatted for a bit in the parking lot during which time it was decided we would just head straight for the restaurant instead of riding around for an hour or so as we usually would.  Whether this was because of concern about road ice or because people were getting hungry, I’m not sure :-).

It was maybe 10 minutes to Station Bistro where a few other chapter members met up with the group.  In total we had 26 people, the largest dining group I think we’ve ever been part of.  Though we had given the restaurant a heads up the day before that we would be coming, there were more of us than expected but the staff took it in stride.  We took over the whole center of the restaurant, pushing together all the tables to form one long banquet table.

They did well getting drink orders, eventually just leaving pots of coffee on the table for us to serve ourselves :-).  Even though there were a ton of us, they let us order with separate checks, working their way around the table noting names and orders as they went.  And, as is our norm when we have a big group, we told them to just send out the food as it was ready rather than trying to make them serve all of us at once.  Steve had his standard, a club, while I tried their burger dip.

All the food I saw looked delicious and I heard no complaints at our end of the table.  From the empty plates I saw being taken away, it seemed everyone enjoyed their meal.  We stood around chatting in the restaurant for a few minutes before everyone headed their separate ways.

Us, we headed for SeaTac where we kicked off our BMR2013 with a photo of the SeaTac Fire Department.  Here’s our submission as seen on the website:

That big blank spot at the bottom of our placard is where we’re supposed to put our own images and such to personalize it.  We haven’t decided what all we want to include there but just couldn’t wait til it was done to get started on the event.  So, for now, we just have the paper in a sheet protector.  We’ll laminate it properly once we’re done filling in our box.

Ah, maybe I should back up a step.  The BMR – Big Money Rally – is a new event started just last year.  We were glad they decided to do it again this year as we weren’t able to finish 2012 because of our March slip.  BMR (http://bigmoneyrally.com/2013) is a nationwide winter event, January 1 through May 25, wherein you ride to assigned locations (bonuses, each worth a small amount of points), take a cell phone picture of your bike with your placard in front of said location, and immediately email the photo.  There are multiple “bonus” lists, each published at different times during the 5 months and it all ends with a banquet in Reno.  You need 144 points to be considered a finisher (216 for Bronze, 288 for Silver and 360 for Gold) and win “a high-quality rally shirt” and other swag like these awesome BMR stickers we already earned for being prompt in submitting our BMR/AMA liability waiver.  (take/use pic of stickers) Since Steve and I are both entered, I, as pillion, need to be in every picture with the placard.  The first rally pack was released on December 1st and has lots of categories. It includes:

Personal Bonus (5 pts each) – we only have two weeks to submit the 4 bonus pics in this category – Favorite Person, Favorite Motorcycle, Favorite Food, and Creative Photography (interesting pic of whatever you’d like)

Fire Stations (2 pts each) – While there are about 73,000 fire depts and/or stations across the U.S. , they’ve given us a list of 827 to choose from.  Here’s what that looks like:

We have 36 in WA and 40 in OR that we might get to along the way in our travels.

National Forests (3 pts each) – This is where it pays to live in the great Northwest!  Between WA and OR, we have 21 possible sites.  Plus 12 more next door in Idaho!

Small Towns (5 pts each) – One of these in every state.  Our is Krupp, population 60, off hwy 28 in Eastern WA. Nebraska and Wyoming have towns with population 1!

Town Population (3 pts each) – for this one you have to find towns with populations of 397 or less and take a picture with the official DOT town limit sign.  (No info on why 397 is the cutoff point)

Famous Graves (3 pts each) – We’ve got 4 options in WA: Castle Rock (Memorial Plaque for Mt. St. Helens eruption victims), Pomeroy (Herbert Farnsworth, a war hero), Renton (Jimi Hendrix) and Winthrop (Bruck Nickell, murder victim http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=564 ).  There are another 6 possible in Oregon.

Good Eats (4 pts each) – 44 restaurants made it onto this list.  The one in Washington is Freckle Face Gourmet in Republic – a food truck!

We are expecting to visit many of these locations along the way of our travels for Wing WA and the RCMC events (http://www.rose-city-mc.org/RCFrameset.html) including the Grand Tour.  We’re also planning on a chapter trip to the NorCal Spring Fling which just happens to be the weekend of May 24th – the same weekend BMR ends and has their banquet just 130 miles away!

Speaking of Wing WA, though we know the categories – Haunted Locations, Distilleries, Middle Schools, Unusual Museums, Roadhouses and ‘Lakes & Resorts’ as the bonus locations – we don’t have the actual list yet so couldn’t visit any today.  I expect it will be in our mailbox tomorrow.