I’ve been faithfully going to my mailbox everyday for the last 21 days hoping to see the familiar folded copy of the club newsletter. I’ve finally realized that it’s time to accept reality, shed a tear, and park myself at the computer.

On behalf of the entire club, I want to thank Wendy for her dedication, consistency, and sense of humor in producing the Club news letter for the past few years.  She has set the bar at an unreasonable level, so with this first electronic issue, I need to set accurate expectations:

The club newsletter will now be an unexpected surprise rather than an accurate time-measuring device that ancient civilations would have envied.

I hope that Club members will continue to contribute to the newsletter in its new electronic format.  Please email pictures and articles to ride@rrbmwmc.org.

                                                                      --- Lisa

 The Wave

by Bob Bongberg

One thing I have noticed on my motorcycle travels, is "the wave".  Motorcycle people in general are very friendly, and there is a certain camaraderie that exists.  It’s like an unspoken code that one learns from being on the road.  The Wave, is kind of like the "high five".  There is the "high five", up high, and there is the "high five" down low.  That is the same with "the wave".  I have noticed that some wave, up high, with the elbow at a 90 degree angle.  Some prefer the 180 degree, with the arm straight out.  Most of the Harley guys go for the down low, the arm extended more at a 120 degree (or maybe that is a 45 degree), down low.

My personal favorite, is the arm straight out.  I especially like to wave for example, like on Highway 50 in Nevada, when you can see from one horizon to the next.  Then off in the distance, I see a speck, and I am hoping its a bike coming, so I can wave.  The speck keeps getting bigger and bigger, and then.......darn, it’s not a bike, but a mini-cooper.  I wave anyway.  After an hour or so, of no traffic, on The Loneliest Highway in America, I see another speck coming in the distance.  I realize it’s a bike coming, and I am getting excited.  I love this kind of wave.  The high speed wave.  I stick my arm straight out, and the wind catches my hand, and it takes 30 minutes to get my arm back in out of the draft.  That is my favorite wave.  My least favorite wave, is when I wave, the person coming, doesn't wave back.  I hate waving first, then not getting a return wave.  It doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does, rest assured, it’s a guy on a Harley.  I just hate this when they don't wave back.  So I tell myself, I will teach this guy.  The next bike I see coming, I am not waving first.  I refuse to wave first.  I am thinking, oh good, this next bike coming is a Harley, so I won't wave.  Then he waves first, and by the time I wave, he has passed, and he’s probably thinking, those darn BMW riders, they never wave.

I have put a lot of thought into this waving business.  If I could line up, all the riders, who I have waved to, and line all those people up in a long line, I might have a couple thousand people standing in this line.  I would love to walk this line so to speak, and see just who I have been waving too.  I imagine, I will have some pretty interesting folks all lined up here.  Probably several doctors and lawyers in the group, and probably some Hell's Angels types too.  I would like to see all the woman riders I have waved too.  There might be some pretty good looking woman in my line.  I think I am on to something here.  If I could just line up all the women, I could start my own dating pool.  I may know a woman from each state now, so that when I traveled, I would have a woman to call on in each state.

Oh, I don't know.  How the mind wanders, when one is traveling these long straight roads across America.  I wouldn't trade this form of travel for anything.  Motorcycling creates a feeling like no other.  You are more in-tune with the environment.  You see more as you scan the road ahead.  You certainly smell more.  You can smell the wildflowers and the ocean, and yes on occasion, the...yuck...the road kill on the side of the road.

So folks, when you are out on the road, don't forget to wave.