A Great Sendoff for a Great Cause

Thanks to my sponsor, Motorcycles of Charlote, and the friends and supporters who attended, we raised over $1000 for breast cancer causes at Kickstands Up by auctioning decorated bras, which riders promptly strapped to their windshields or themselves. 

About 20 pinked-up/blinged-out bikes hit the road for the NC mountains. Among the riders were a city councilman, two radio personalities, members of the BMW Owners Club of Charlotte, and friends. We turned plenty of heads as we blew down the highways and crept through Main Streets from Chesnee, SC to Cherokee, NC festooned in pink. 

The cable news channel carried a lovely story on my intentions for the trip and the Kickstands UP launch. South Charlotte Weekly ran a feature article, too.

The next day I headed off through Tennessee via the Cherohala Skyway with a few other bikers and into Chattanooga, ending the day in Florence, Alabama. While in Florence, I celebrated Baha'i feast with the local community.

Birthplace of The King

My friend K Henderson, who traveled with me from Charlotte to Arkansas, mapped out an itinerary past Indian burial mounds via the Natches Trace Parkway to the birthplace of Elvis Presley in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Along the way we met a couple of other bikers headed to Tupelo, and the four of us arrived at The Elvis Presley Memorial Chapel ready for air conditioning. The King's gospel music played in the background while we compared notes about our bikes and travel plans and marshaled the strength to hit the road again at the summer solstice. One of the bikers was taking a six-month journey that would eventually end in a Ph.D program in Brazil, while another was headed for a new job in San Diego.

I love meeting fellow travelers as much as I love seeing the sights. One of the bikers we met, "Squirrel Man" earned his moniker after raising a newborn baby chipmunk whose mother had been killed. He claimed he "fed the damn thing with an eye dropper ten times a day." The general public doesn't seem to believe that some burly bikers are true softies at heart.

Conga Riders to the Rescue

Summer storms determined when I hit the road and stopped. I learned on The Weather Channel's Lightning Awareness Month that you can be struck by lightning with clear skies overhead since it travels 15+ miles.

By the time I was close to Shreveport, LA, a lightning storm in the distance convinced me to pull over. I found a great campground for $10 a night including showers, laundry and wifi. The only hitch is that I didn't have a rain fly for the tent. Fortunately, Miram, who had ridden in the Women Who Ride Conga three years ago, woke me up at 515 saying she was right outside my tent in her car because the forecast called for 40-50 mile winds and more rain. My tent was sitting on about an inch of water and some of the rain had come through from the top. She took me to her place where we dried everything and hit the road for Texas.

Miram is just one "Conga Angel" of many.

Pulling into Irving, Texas, a Dallas suburb, my friend Jenni (Conga Angel II) had staged a fundraiser at a church that caters to the spiritual needs of bikers. The local TV news carried the story in advance, which brought out enthusiasts from across the city. One young couple had lost their daughter to cancer the year before.

Jenni's husband, Tom (Conga Angel III), showed me how to re-pack my bike so that it wasn't soooo top heavy. By the time I reached Texas it had already tipped over twice. One of those falls snapped off my windshield, which brought out  the duct tape and bungee cords (and a little bit of bad language).  My sponsor, Motorcycles of Charlotte, arranged for me to pick up a replacement in Los Angeles this week.

I finished my week in an Albuquerque suburb with Dusty (Conga Angel IV). Most of Saturday I was zonked out on her couch with one of her cats, recuperating from the 100+ degree temperatures and 40mph winds of the past two days as I traveled through Texas and New Mexico.

Looking Ahead to San Francisco

I’ll be in the Golden Gate City on Thursday, 6/30 for a meeting at the San Francisco Motorcycle Club.  This history-making club was the first in the United States to admit women and I'm honored that they've given me some time to talk about my forthcoming book and to introduce cancer survivors Dusty and Karen, who will be riding into town with me.

Monday morning 7/4 please join our posse at the Marina’s Espresso Roma Cafe around 8am. We'll put the kickstands up at 9:00am and head north toward the Redwoods and Oregon via the coast. Turn around whenever it suits you or ride with us through Calgary and down to the Conga rally in Shell, WY.