The Spyder: The Spyder: - Wing World Magazine Archives

Made It To Minnesota’s Mayo
After spending years with, and seeing
countless specialists and pain therapists
for, severe head and neck pain, I wanted to try
the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. I was told I
would have to go to the Mayo Walk-In Clinic
to be evaluated before I could get an appointment.
So my wife Kerry and I began planning
a road trip there in August with my brother,
Lou, and his wife Cindi. Planning to stay in
campgrounds, my brother suggested we call
someone from the Gold Book who lives in
Minnesota for recommendations.
He called the first name listed—Arnett—
and Ruth Arnett answered. She listened, then
told us she works at the Mayo Clinic! She and
her husband Lee suggested we camp in their
back yard. She also suggested we get a referral
from a doctor before leaving.
Two days later we had an actual appointment
set, but not until October. Shifting our
plans, I called Lee Arnett and he now invited
us to stay in his spare room while I went to my
appointment.
When October arrived, and unsure of the
weather, I loaded my Wing into a trailer. We
arrived on Thursday for a Friday morning
appointment. Lee & Ruth invited us into their
home like close neighbors even though they’d
never met us before!
After my initial appointment on Friday, I
had tests scheduled for Monday. This left us
with the whole weekend free, and Lee & Ruth
already had plans—we’d join them for their
Chapter’s “Friend Raiser” ride. Despite heavy
winds, we had a great, and very well-organized,
ride that day with 16 bikes from Chapter
MN-O.
On Sunday we rode with Lee & Ruth
through three states in one afternoon. We
crossed the Mississippi River about seven
times! Beautiful scenery and great company!
On Monday, after our appointment, we
headed home. We’d had such a good time with
Lee & Ruth it seemed like we were leaving old
friends, not new friends. They took us into
their home like we were family. We can’t
express how thankful we are to them.
Lee & Ruth are planning a road trip to
Michigan in the spring. Hopefully we can
show them as much hospitality as they have
shown us!
Dave Craighead
GWRRA #247260
Lawton, Michigan
Texas Trike Trailered
On Saturday, May 27, 2007, while a group
of us were making our way from
Pasadena, Texas, to Lafayette, Louisiana, I
started hearing a funny noise that sounded like
it was coming from the front wheel of my 2002
1800 (w/CSC conversion) trike. I mentioned it
to the group and we stopped several times to
try and determine what the noise was. Nobody
could see anything wrong and the trike wasn’t
driving or handling unusually, so my husband
said, “Just ride it and if something goes out, it
goes out.”
Aw, famous last words…about 10 miles
later “it” went out with a terrible racket. “It”
was the U-joint. I was no longer going anywhere
except to the side of the road.
Not to worry, I told myself, we have Honda
Rider’s Club and Rescue Plus. We’ll have this
baby towed in and fixed in no time at all. We
were about 35 miles from Lafayette.
Our first call was to our CSC dealer
(Everett Hunt – Houston Trikes & Trailers) to
find out who the closest CSC dealer to us was.
As always, he answered his phone right away
and told us Honda of Lafayette is a CSC dealer.
Wow, we told ourselves, that was easy!
We’ll just call the dealer and have them send a
trailer to pick up the trike.
But it was around 2 p.m. and Honda of
Lafayette told us they didn’t have anyone to
come get us; they also told us they closed at 4
p.m. That little bit of information shortened
our timeframe considerably.
“Okay,” we said, “we’ll get a ride from
HRCA.” Well, they told us someone could be
there around 6 p.m. Oh, my, we didn’t like that
at all, but we had another ace up our sleeve—
Rescue Plus. We dialed the number and they
told us they didn’t know when they could get
someone there—they would check and call us
back.
Okay, now what to do. Our last choice
(which we learned should have been the first)
was to break out the Gold Book and look for
someone in Jennings, Louisiana. The first person
we called was Jimmie Hardee. His
response to our problem was, “I’ll be there in
ten minutes.” WOW! When we saw him pull
up, we all stood up and cheered. To say the
least we were tired and very thirsty—everyone
had run out of water. Jimmie arrived with a
trailer large enough for a trike and tie downs,
and it was only a matter of minutes before my
husband and he were on their way to Honda of
Lafayette.
I drove my husband’s trike with the rest of
the group and we arrived at the dealership
about 10 or 15 minutes after the trike did.
When all was said and done, my husband tried
to give Jimmie some money, but he wouldn’t
take a penny. We said, “Well, at least take some
money for your gas!” Nope, he was stubborn
as a mule and wouldn’t take one penny!
Jimmie really bailed us out of a tight spot,
and everyone in our group wants to send a big
thank-you to him for all the help. You can bet
we’ll return the favor anytime we are called
upon.
Jimmie proved it—the Gold Book ROCKS!
Gene & Carolyn Tice
GWRRA #167190
La Porte, Texas
Don’t Leave It Home:
Your GWRRA Gold Book
If I had not been able to get in touch with
Mike, my buddy back in Michigan, to give
me a couple of telephone numbers in the
GWRRA Gold Book, I would not have met
Bob, a most remarkable man. Read my
incredible story.
My wife and I were traveling from Florida
through Alabama on our way to visit friends in
Memphis, Tennessee, on March 1, 2007, at
about 3:30 in the afternoon. Behind my fifth
wheel trailer, I was hauling a 10-foot enclosed
trailer with my GL1800 trike inside. That’s
right, tandem trailers! Just south of
Birmingham, Alabama, I checked my rearview
mirrors. And what did I see Sparks! Lots of
sparks, shooting in every direction from
between the two trailers. I quickly pulled the
rig over to the side of the highway and rushed
back to check out the situation. What I saw
dropped my heart into the pit of my stomach.
The weld on the hitch on the back of the fifth
wheel trailer had broken loose and was dragging
on the road. The only things holding it,
marginally, to the fifth wheel were a couple of
small bolts on the far end of the hitch.
Fortunately I had not lost the motorcycle trailer.
As if this situation wasn’t bad enough,
while standing there alongside the highway in
the rain, trying to slow down my racing heart
and figure out what to do, a highway trooper
pulled over behind the rig. His next words
were not comforting. He emphatically stated
we needed to get out of there. Several funnel
clouds had been sighted in the area, and 30
miles directly west of us, a tornado had
touched down and was headed in our direction.
As he was getting back into his cruiser, he
restated his assessment that we needed to leave
the area as quickly as possible and take cover.
While this was happening, my wife was in
the truck trying to get our RV insurance contact
person to understand that we needed a
wrecker truck with a ball hitch to pull the
14 Wing World