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In the ZoneSharon Stanley • Editor • editor@gwrra.orgWhen NOT to Teach anOld Dog New Tricks!Well, I hope everyone’s winter seasonhas been—and will continue to be—asafe one and also one in which you’veperhaps had a chance to brush up onsafe riding practices. Speaking of which,I’d like to share with you one of the saferiding practices I should’ve learned along time ago.It happened over last year’s ThanksgivingDay week.And it was an “adventure”—akalesson—that reminded me that sometimesone’s desire to teach an old dog (in this case,me) new tricks might be better left to rideswith which one is more familiar.What I’m referring to is a holiday road tripI took north to visit my uncle in Vermont.Andthough thankfully I learned my lesson whiletraveling on four wheels instead of two, thegist of it applies to two-wheeled travel all thesame.Before the trip, I realized several old roadtrip standbys—that of pulling out a topographicalmap, paying attention to weatherreports, and being prepared for possiblebreakdowns—should remain important, Idecided instead that my new GPS unit and“James Bond-type” cell phone would beenough. After all, I reasoned, the GPS will guideme right there and I can pull up anything off theWeb on my phone if I need to. New trickslearned on a brand-new road trip with no oldtricks as backup? Bad idea.Okay, so the background for this illequippedholiday sojourn is that it had beenmany years since I had visited the lovely stateof Vermont and ridden its byways. My first mistakewas in assuming Vermont was flatter thanit was.My second mistake was in assuming a GPSunit would serve me well there.Actually, goodGPS units are fairly accurate throughoutVermont; however, they often fail to recognizewhen a mountain pass has been shut down forthe winter—an occurrence that happens quitefrequently.Finally, I counted too much on my majorcell phone carrier’s claim that it can pick up asignal anywhere. I can always call if I need assistance,I believed. Wrong! Apparently my carrierhas yet to visit all the gorgeous, andextreme, hills and valleys that state has tooffer.The long and short of it is that the car’s fuelinjection line sprang a leak in the middle ofnowhere, there was no cell coverage and nota single auto parts store for dozens of miles,and we wound up heading up a huge mountainpass straight into an oncoming blizzard—atnight no less.Well thankfully, there’s one “old trick” Inever leave home without—my trusty oldroad atlas—and it all turned out okay. But itdid remind me that discarding all of our “oldroad trip tricks” in favor of only new ones canbe a mistake. Though it’s good to learn newtricks, it’s also good to remember when NOTto teach ourselves them—namely, on a longdistancejourney into unfamiliar territory duringunknown weather conditions.Just thought that’s one “road trip lesson”I’d like to share with you all before many ofyour riding seasons have again begun and whilemany of us are still anxiously trying to figureout how to use all those cool new Christmasgadgets we received.Oh, and one more thought—since theinvaluable Gold Book is an actual book and cantherefore be switched back and forth betweenyour Wing and any other vehicle you’re riding/driving,why not take it with you every timeyou travel? I’m sure the GWRRA Members init will be helpful, regardless of your mode oftransportation. But hopefully, unlike mine, yourcell will work when you do!●4 Wing World