“The

Fireball”

FL

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April 2020

Gold Wing Road Riders Association

Monthly Chapter

Gathering

1st Saturday

of the month

Eat at 8am

Meeting at 9am

4705 US Hwy 98N

Lakeland, Florida

Chapter Directors

Ed & Dottie Bahrenburg

(607) 427-8777

Gwrra.ed.dottie@gmail.com

2020 Couple of the Year

Kenny & Deb Weberman

April Events

The April events have been cancelled

at this time.

2017 Florida District

Chapter of the Year

National Director National Assistant Director Florida District Directors

Jere Goldman Bob Shrader Bill & Cheryl Smith

Friends for Fun, Safety & Knowledge

Rick & Madalena Buck

Assistant District Directors

District Contact for the Fireballs

TO ALL OUR FIREBALL

FRIENDS NEAR AND

FAR BE SAFE AND BE

WELL.

WWW.lakelandfireballs.org

Be safe everyone!

Page 2

I wish I could say that all

this virus stuff is one big

April Fool’s Joke but un-

fortunately it is not and is

a very dangerous situa-

tion.

For Dottie and me, it is so

unusual to look at the cal-

endar and have it blank.

In some ways I think I

can really get use to it!

As we said at our picnic,

all activities for the Chap-

ter and Florida District are

suspended at this time.

The Florida District Rally

will be held next year at

the same spot with the

same theme. Your regis-

tration can be either held

over or refunded. I know

the District has contacted

each Fire Ball member

about their registration.

National GWRRA has sent

out a recommendation

that activities be can-

celed.

I am writing this on March

20. At this time all restau-

rants are limited to take

out only until April 8. Al-

so, it has been highly

suggested that we limit

groups of people to 10!

This means that our Gath-

ering and all GWRRA re-

lated events are presently

suspended until at least

April 8. We will update

you on this as time goes

on. The situation seems

to be changing daily.

Watch for news in the

weekly Happenings.

As of now (3/20) I have

not heard of any of our

GWRRA family members

affected by the virus. All of

us have been affected in

some way from the disrup-

tion in our lives. Our Cana-

dian friends have left to go

home and a number of our

Snowbirds have also left to

head north where they can

be close to their health

care professionals. While

there have been no sched-

uled activities, work is still

being done (slowly) on

Chapter event planning for

rides and our Rally so we

will be ready to go once

the situation improves.

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Ed & Dottie Bahrenburg

Chapter Director

So until then, Wash your

hands, practice social dis-

tancing and relax with

your family.

Ed Bahrenburg CD for the

Fire Balls

The legendary Hurt Re-port (1981) listed the pri-mary causes of motorcy-cle crashes. The present-day MSF Courses still use the Hurt Report findings to develop the riding cur-riculum used in their clas-ses today. In 1981 there were less than 5% of mo-torcycle being rear end-ed. It seems funny that back then most motorcy-cles had only one small tail light but getting hit from behind was not a major issue. Today most motorcycles are lit up like a Christmas Tree but are getting rear ended more often. A recent study by the Virginia Tech Trans-portation Institute with the Motorcycle Safety Foundation shows there has been an increase to 7% for motorcycles being struck from behind. We all know the reason for the increase in rear end collisions, motorcycle or cars, and that is the use of cell phones. Florida recently passed a law that makes texting while driving a primary offense. Which means an Officer can stop you if he sees you using your cell phone. However, the way the law is worded there are loop holes in it. Most Police Officers are not enforcing the new law. It was a "feel good" law without any teeth, so don't relax

Page 4

green and immediately put their foot on the gas, striking the stopped mo-torcycle in front of them. Technology for cars is getting better with warn-ing collision sensors that will automatically brake for the inattentive driv-er. Don't rely on that technology just yet. It will take many years be-fore every car behind you has that type of sys-tem. Unfortunately, we must be more on guard today than ever before for distracted drivers. Ride safe,

Dominick & Diane

Dominick & Diane DeSiato Rider Education

Distracted Drivers your guard at all thinking the new law is helping your safe-ty. When you are coming to a stop look behind you to make sure the car behind you is also slowing down to stop. Leave plenty of space be-tween you and the car you are stopping be-hind. Position yourself offset left or offset right so you have enough room to es-cape to either side of the car in front of you should you notice that the car approaching you from behind is not stopping. Don't be in a hurry to pop your bike into neutral as you normally would at a long red light wait-ing for the light to turn green. If the car behind you does stop don't relax yet. Wait until at least one more car stops behind the car behind you, giving you an extra buffer should a third car strike the second car. You’re not done relaxing yet. When the light turns green quickly look behind you to make sure the driver of the car isn't looking down at their phone. I know firsthand of crashes where the driver who was texting at the red light, looks up just long enough to see the light had turned

Do you like being differ-

ent, from your bike to

your other vehicles or to

some of the things you

enjoy doing? Just doing

things your way. But that

is not what this month’s

article is about. It is

about GWRRA being dif-

ferent from other motor-

cycle organizations, or

clubs. One of my pet

peeves is when people re-

fer to their GWRRA Chap-

ter as “our club”. I know

they do it out of affection

and belonging, not under-

standing the organization-

al meaning of the term

“club”. But GWRRA is

“NOT” a club. The term

“club” refers to an organi-

zational structure where

officers are elected by

popular vote; one where

motions are made; debat-

ed and voted on, where

as many as 49% of the

club members are unhap-

py 100% of the time. This

is not the GWRRA way.

Our officers are volun-

teers who are selected

based on qualifications

and desire, not “elected”

by popular vote or by

campaigning for office.

Decisions are made based

on the desires of the

Members, with input from

everyone. We don’t have

“power struggles” or

“empire building”, rather

we base what we do on the

wants and needs of “ALL

“of the members. The

GWRRA Chapter format is

more flexible and less for-

mal than a club format. It

is part of something big-

ger, international in scope,

with common purpose

throughout, where clubs

are more local and their

purpose or vision “blurry”

at best. GWRRA Members

are free to participate

where, and as much as

they like. Club members on

the other hand are often

Page 5

told where they can be-

long and frequently told

they must participate in

“X” number of events to

remain as members.

Sometimes, less informed

Chapter participants will try to lead the Chapter into the “club” format of operation. It is the re-sponsibility of GWRRA OFFICERS to work to-

gether and retain the non-political, non- club envi-ronment in the Chapter.

Yes, GWRRA “IS” different and I (for one) like it!!!!The more you know, the

better it gets!!

BEING DIFFERENT

Membership Enhancement

Jim & Alice Bontrager

I went cruising the internet

to see what ideas I could

find for an April article. I

decide it would be fun to

get some trivia about April

and April Fools Day. Who

knew there were 30 differ-

ent special theme days to

celebrate. Here goes;

April 1: April Fool’s Day

April 2: PB&J Day

April 3: National Chocolate

Mouse Day

April 4: World Rat Day

April 5: Caramel Day

April 6: Hostess Twinkie Day

April 7: National Beer Day

April 8: Draw a Picture of a

Bird Day

April 9: Cherish an Antique

Day

April 10: National Siblings Day

April 11: National Pet Day

April 12: Grilled Cheese Sand-

wich Day

April 13: Scrabble Day

April 14: National Pecan Day

April 15: Glazed Ham Day

April 16: National Eggs Bene-

dict Day

April 17: International Haiku

Poetry Day

April 18: Pet Owners Inde-

pendence Day

April 19: National Garlic Day

April 20: National Garden

Month

April 21: 60 Days Until the

First Day of Summer

April 22: Earth Day

April 23: National Picnic Day

April 24: Pigs-In-A-Blanket

Day

April 25: World Penguin Day

April 26: Pretzel Day

April 27: Independent

Bookstore Day

April 28: National Blueberry

Pie Day

April 29: Peace Rose Day

April 30: Adopt a Shelter Pet

Day

Here is a little trivia about

April Fools Day;

1) Which American city has an actual parade on April Fool's Day? The April Fool's Day Parade, founded by famous prankster Joey Skaggs in 1986, is now organized annually by the New York April Fools' Commit-tee.

2) Which American sitcom once aired an episode enti-tled "April Fool's Day" which was actually about Tax Day? Roseanne

3) Which famous publica-tion received a backlash for publishing an April Fool's article entitled "How to Beat Your Wife Without Leaving Marks"? the Romanian edition of Play-boy

Page 6

Rita Willis

Newsletter Editor’s March Message

30 Reasons to Celebrate in April

4) Which restaurant chain fooled the public on 1 April 1998 with the intro-duction of a fictional sandwich specifical-ly for left-handed people? Burger King released an ad for the fictitious "Left-Handed Whopper" on April Fool's Day of 1998, upon which reportedly thousands of customers went to their stores re-questing the sandwich.

5) On 1 April 1996, American restaurant chain Taco Bell tricked outsiders into believing it had pur-chased which histori-cal monument? On April Fool's Day 1996, Taco Bell put out a full-page advertisement in a number of leading newspapers to announce they had purchased the Liberty Bell (in name of reducing the nation's debt) and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell".

6) When was the last time Easter Sunday and April Fool's Day occurred on the same day? 1956 it won’t happen again

until 2029

Happy April Fools day Fireballs!

Greetings Fireballs from your chapter

Ride Coordinator.

There are no events planned for April

at this time.

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Ride Coordinator

Riding Adventures:

GWRRA Anniversary

Congratulations to

Frank & Debbie King 2005

Sidney & Monika Flood 2006

Sue Prentice 2011

Leo Soucy 2011

Rich Baxter 2013

Sidney Flood April 2nd

Eric Easton April 6th

Monika Flood April 14th

Leon & Kathy Rumohr April 29th

Page 8

In honor of Earth Day 2020

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There are lots more Photos on our

website www.lakelandfireballs.org.

Mike and Sue do a wonderful job as

our photographers, so take a look.

Now I wonder what they could be talking

about!

Now what am I suppose to do?

All kinds of goodies in that game bag!

The BINGO Master

Fireballs at our second annual spring picnic. We

had a great time at our last official Fireball

event until the restrictions are lifted.

Kenny & Debbie new trike!

Jim, Sandy and Susan were the big

winners at the March Gathering.

Visitors from Pennsylvania down for

the great Florida weather.

The prices for advertising in our Monthly Newsletter are as

follows:

(Yearly Rates)

$25—business card

$50—1/4 page

$100—1/2 page

$150—full page

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Ed & Dottie Bahrenburg

Chapter Directors

2448 Snowy Plover

Lakeland FL