Sunday, May 19: 1st Day of Riding

Last night we had the Meet and Greet to get to know everyone and go over the basics of how things will go.  Here is a quick rundown on the people on the ride with me.

Todd is from the Portland area and his father Jose is from Arizona.  Todd is riding; his father is just along for a vacation time with his son.  Todd does computer work.  This is Todd’s second trip with Edelweiss.  His first trip was a different ride in the Alps last year.

• Todd currently does IT support for the company that provides the lap timing information for major car and motorcycle races.

Gerald and his wife Robin are friends with Todd and they often ride together.  They live in Washington state, just across the river from Portland Oregon.  Gerald was at EDS (a consulting company) and took early retirement.  He also started and then sold 3 separate companies.   He now works for Accenture which is another consulting company working with states on the Public Health and implementation of “Obama Care”.  This is also Gerald’s second ride with Edelweiss; he did the same ride that Todd did previously

• Todd worked for Gerald for some time at the software firm that Gerald started– that is how they became friends.
• After being CEO, Gerald did some free consulting help young entrepreneur CEOs

Jim and Kathy are from North Carolina.  Jim is retired from the paper industry.  They have ridden all over the world on motorcycles.  Jim has also done a lot of racing of vintage motorcycles.  I asked him how many motorcycles were in his stable and he looked at Kathy and she said currently 13.  They both joked there may be some other ones in a warehouse somewhere that she doesn’t really know about. (Jim is the one on the left in the photo)

 

Tom and Sue are from Ontario.  Tom is veterinarian and helps farmers set up very large milking operations.  It sounds like they have also traveled the world both for vacations and with moving cattle from country to country.  He told a story about how they had a airplane loaded with cattle that they brought from the US to Europe and had plane issues and had to deal with keeping the cattle cool on the plane and issues about the European government almost taking the animals and slaughtering them because they has been in transit too long.  It sounded like a pretty complex situation.  Tom and Sue know Jim and Kathy from previous trips and from other motorcycling events they have done together.

• Tom, Sue, Jim, and Kathy are going to southern Italy after the ride is complete to watch the MotoGP motorcycle race there.

Mohammed and his wide Zahra are from Qatar.  I am not sure yet exactly what they do.

Marc is from Quebec.  He arrived after the Meet and Greet so I haven’t had a chance yet to learn much about him.

• Marc works at the same paper company that Jim did for a while but they did not know each other then.  Jim had been with a paper company in the Carolinas’, they merged with the paper company in Quebec that Marc worked at.  Jim and Cathy moved to Quebec for a few years during this time.  Small world sometimes.
• Marc is a Technical Manager so he is responsible for the maintenance of the equipment at the factory where he works.  He is also responsible for purchasing.  The company he works for does all kinds of different things with lumber which is what Marc’s degree is in.  The factory he works at makes laminated products.

Gianni is from Italy.  It sounds like he did this trip previously just last year. 

• During the trip, I learned that Gianni is 72 years young.  I can only hope to be able to ride as good as he can at that age!
• This is the 3^rd Domolites Touring Center ride Gianni has done with Manny.  He keeps coming back every year.
• From Manny, it sounds like Gianni is or was into all kinds businesses, buying and selling several large companies etc.

Maneul (Manny) is our tour guide.  He is 28 (if I remember correctly) and has done tours around the globe both for Edelweiss and also BMW.  I believe his father was also a tour guide for Edelweiss.  It sounds like a dream job!  He did tell one story when he really had to improvise.  They were doing a tour in the Alps.  They stopped for the night and he said it had gotten a little cool but no problem.  When he got up in the morning to get his boots he had set on the deck; he couldn't find them.  They were covered in snow!  They had around 25 people plus motorcycles on top of the mountain with no way to ride them down.  He arranged a van to trailer all the bikes along with a passenger bus to take the people down the mountain so they could continue their tour.

• In addition to tour guide, during the winter he does stunt riding at the BMW factory/museum twice a day as part of the BMW experience.

Sunday started, as most days will, with breakfast at the hotel at 7:30.  At 8:30 is the day’s pre-ride meeting so by then you need to have eaten and be in riding gear.  There is room in the reception area where the Meet and Greet was held that is also the daily ride meeting room.  We had our maps highlighted with the route and some other basic information.  The weather forecast for today is for rain.  Today’s route is being altered to head south with hopes of getting out of the rain.  We will see how it goes.

We left the hotel at 9:00 and rode until 1:00.  The route was cut short as it rained the whole morning.  No sunshine (or even lack of rain) to be found.  At times there was limited visibility making everyone ride extra careful.  We all returned safely; some with dryer cloths than others.  It was definitely a good day to test the waterproofness of one’s equipment.  I had new waterproof boots and waterproof gloves I bought specifically for the trip and they did their jobs well.  I was glad the bike I have, a Suzuki V-Strom 650), came with heated grips!  A nice touch.

Zahra, who rides with Mohammed, was the only passenger that was brave enough to ride in the rain.  She is a real trooper and a bit of rebel I learned as well.  In her country, Qatar, motorcycling is seen as something strictly for males.  She said that one of her friends told her that she had seen Mohammed with a female passenger and Zahra said multiple times that is must have been one Mahammed’s male friends.  The friend insisted the passenger was a female; inside Zahra was chuckling knowing that it was her that was out for a ride!  She is hoping someday soon to even get her own motorcycle license.

We are having lunch at the hotel and seeing what the weather does.  If it breaks, we may head out for another ride yet this afternoon.  If not, the day will be spent by some enjoying the pool and other hotel amenities.