Welcome one and all to spring and the start of the riding season. I want to welcome our many new members and invite our many old members to come out and attend the meetings and join in the rides and events that our planning committee's have planned for us and to encourage ALL members to make this season our best ever!

This month we're going to the Hawaiian Islands for a 'FLY and Ride' and look back on the International Motorcycle and Exhibition held in Chicago this past month. Strap it on, roll it out, fire it and light it!

For two weeks in February Teresa and I headed west to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, to laze in the sun and bike in the serf. The destination--Hawaii. To be more accurate, three islands of the seven island chain, Kauai, Maui, and Oahu.

The 'Fly and Ride' Program I arranged for our fist stop was Kauai, the western most island of the chain of islands. Named the 'Garden Isle' by the state, it lived up to its name in beauty and tranquility. The lust isle is sparsely populated and remote, ideal for the many movies that have been filmed there, the most recent being 'Seven Days, Six Nights' starring Harrison Ford. Other films include the 'Thornbirds', 'South Pacific', Honeymoon in Las Vegas', and Jurassic Park'. The islands is dominated by beautiful mountains that thrust up to 5000 feet in the center and are covered with deep green vegetation, waterfalls, and clumps of multi-colored flowers everywhere. In fact, there's no where you can look and not see a spectacular view.

There are three places to rent Harleys on the island, the best being Activity Warehouse. The Warehouse has locations on all of the other islands and offers the best selections of bikes and the best prices. The bikes on Kauai were all late model Softails and rented for $180.00 for 24 hours, $69.00 for 3 hours. The bikes were clean and appeared to be well maintained. They also offered a Dodge Prowler or Hummer for $400.00 for the day.

The roads on the island were exciting and largely vacant. The best drive was from the Airport inland to the mountains. You left the 80 degrees sun on the beach and traveled on smooth, well-paved roads that carried you upwards, turning and twisting you back and forth in the mountain country. Where minutes before you were viewing coconut trees and date palms, the landscape abruptly changes to arid rocks and cactus and the temperature plunges. Before you know it, you're at 5000 feet above sea level looking into what is called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. The view and sensation of Waimea Canyon is second only to the real Grand Canyon.

Moving on to Maui, the magic isle, located in the middle of the chain, this island is the most popular place to visit. It is larger and more populated and offers a relaxed, laid back life style. In fact, it's so laid back, that most businesses are closed on weekends. This island also offers motorcycling excitement on two ends on the island. The famous 53-mile 'Road to Hanna' will take most of the day to drive. The road is so curvy, twisted, and spectacular that you don't want it to end. Even after the four or five hours it takes to drive it.

The driving experience of this road is especially nice because the weather and landscape change constantly as you drive, one minute, brilliant sunshine ocean views, the next, torrential rain and mountain canyons.

Whale watching was in season while we were there and seeing one of those big mothers coming out of the water is something you'll never forget. Take one of the half-day snorkel boats out for a Bar-B-Q and whale watch. The $60.00 a head is worth it. That includes breakfast and all drinks.

Finally, on to Oahu, the gathering place. Home of the state capitol, Honolulu. The only place the 'Fly and Ride' program is offered by Harley. This is sad because the other islands offer better riding than Oahu.

Leaving the airport terminal building, which is open to the warm, tropical weather, the only Harley dealership lays just a mile to the east. Cycle City Ltd. Is home to Harley- Davidson, Buell, Kawasaki, and Moto Guzzi. The dealership is small, and because of the expense of land, built in two stories. The downstairs holds the garage and office, the upstairs the parts and salesroom. I was met at the dealership by Barbara Short who gave me a friendly greeting and quickly delivered a shiny black 1998 Electra Glide to me. The bike was recently serviced and looked showroom, even with 11,000 miles on it. Riding westward towards Honolulu minutes later on the bike was thrilling and a high point in my vacation.

Coming into downtown Honolulu eight miles later brought me back to reality. The hotel we were staying at was located on Waikiki Beach in the heart of downtown. It seemed simple enough, a hotel located on the beach with the name, Outrigger on the Beach. How could you miss it?! Exciting and freeway into downtown I quickly was swallowed up in traffic and exposed to multi-syllable named streets that made no sense and a maze of conflicting one way streets that dead-ended suddenly. To make matters more interesting, most of the hotels downtown start with the word 'Outrigger'. After an hour of criss-crossing back and forth, I found the hotel, thanks to the kindness of a bellhop. I realized then that we were not biking in Honolulu!

Honolulu is the only city on the island and the main tourist mecca. The skyscraper hotels dominate the beachfront. Because of the scarcity of land, the hotels are crammed together tightly along the beach nearly blocking out the view of the Pacific. The hustling bustling tourists include a large number of Asians who come to shop at the many exclusive, international businesses that make up most of downtown. A one-day visit to the shops will be all you need to see downtown.

For me and Teresa, it was time to say 'Aloha' to the city and hit the road. Our first stop the next day was Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial. A short drive west on H1 in the light rain took us into and around the naval base that surrounds the harbor. We arrived forty minutes after the memorial opened and found that we already faced a forty-five minute wait. We toured the museum and exhibits, in a well-maintained building that is under the care of the National Park Service. When our number was called, we joined a group of about eighty people who were shown into a theater and given a talk by one of the survivors (one of three on duty that day). The gray-haired veteran explained to us that on that Sunday morning, as he was waiting for the liberty boat to deck of the USS Oklahoma, he was harassing his buddy a few feet away on the deck of the Arizona, minutes later, his buddy was gone. Along with more than 1500 other sailors. More were killed and entombed on the Arizona than the Titanic. After the film presentation, a Navy launch took us out to the Arizona and we visited the Chapel. To see the great ship just feet below the surface and see the oil still oozing to the surface after 58 years is a sobering sight. The majority of visitors that day were Japanese, something I found puzzling and disturbing.

Leaving Pearl Harbor on the Glide, I continued west into pounding rain and heavy wind. The roads are well paved, however the lava rock that is mixed in with the asphalt makes the surface slick. Also the rain grooves that are cut into the pavement make it difficult for traction, especially when leaning at speed. After sliding twice on the bike, I called it a day and waited for better weather.

The following day dawned a warm and humid, temperature 72 at 7:00a.m. We headed east out of Honolulu, passing Diamond Head, and turned north on the coast highway. Working our way slowly northward we passed surfers catching early morning waves before going to work, and the school kids waiting at the bus stop in their shorts and T-shirts. The rugged coastline slowly wandered its way back into the rolling hills filled with sugar cane and pineapples. We stopped at the Dole Plantation and toured their gardens and huge maze, of course I sampled the fresh pineapple ice cream cones, telling Teresa it was for research only. Then on to Schofield Barracks and the center valley region filled with banana, papaya, and mango trees. We ended our tour on the west end of the island with a great Hawaiian lunch at Taco Bell.

One of the things I enjoyed about biking in Oahu was the greeting I received from other bikers, you know, the hand wave. The surprising thing was that you could quickly tell the tourist from the island bikers by their wave. The Hawaiian bikers always waved their hand with the fist closed and the thumb and little finger extended. 'Hang loose man!'

Finally, while San Diego and Miami 'Fly and Rides' were more enjoyable, the Honolulu run will be remembered with spectacular scenery and friendly people.

I want to thank Steve and Cindy Givens for their valuable help and advise in helping me pre-plan this trip and for their friendship

Well, I see by the odometer that we don't have enough gas to get to the Chicago Exhibition trip, so we'll catch it later. In the mean time, ride until it hurts, then ride some more!

Until next time.......Hang Loose!