Wing Ding 2004
Never having been to a Wing
Ding, I wanted to visit one and see this great spectacle for myself. Wing Ding is the nationwide GoldWing rally attended by some 12,000
to 15,000 bikes and riders to see the trade show and attend all sorts
of bike related events. Each year it is held in different locations
around the United States and this year it was to be held at Grapevine,
Texas. Grapevine is a city just north of the Dallas / Ft. Worth
metroplex so it would be a nice ride down there but not so far that
it would use up days off work just to get there.
July 5th, began very early for Sheryl and I as we got up at 5:00 a.m.
to get on the road so we could beat the heat of the day. At
5:59 we were rolling. Since July 4th was on a Sunday this year
most of the working class had the 5th off to celebrate our nations
birthday so the roads were pretty quiet. We bebopped across
town and turned south on Highway 75 toward Dallas. Our strategy
was working well as the miles clicked off and we passed from town
to town, Tulsa, Jenks, Glenpool, Okmulgee, Henryetta and on. We enjoyed a typical beautiful Oklahoma sunrise on the back of our
GoldWing. Finally after about a 2 hour stint in the saddle the
Wing was getting thirsty and Sheryl and I hungry so at Atoka, Oklahoma
we pulled in and took care of all our needs. Breakfast at McDonalds
for us and 87 octane for the Wing at Conoco.
After our short pitstop we were back on 75 going 75. By 11:00
o’clock we were entering the traffic congestion portion of our trip,
the part that concerned me the most. When riding in heavy traffic
I have developed the mindset or riding technique of “Ride like I’m
invisible”. In other words watch out for everybody because nobody
can see me. We peeled off highway 75 onto Texas Highway 121
at McKinney, Texas and headed Southwest toward our home for the evening,
the La Quinta Inn at Lewisville, Texas.
The day was heating up like a typical Texas
summer day so once we checked in to our hotel we hopped in our swimsuits
and hopped in the pool for a cool refreshing swim. The pool
is essential when Sheryl and I travel. I make sure when I book
our rooms that we always have a pool.
After
our showers and afternoon nap we thought it would be fun to hit the
Grapevine Mills Mall for a little shopping. The road to
Grapevine from Lewisville, which is only a few miles, was swarming
with GoldWings. Normally when riding its tradition for bikers
to wave to other bikers on the road but in these circumstances, even
as friendly as GoldWingers are in general, its just not practical
to wave to each one.
We arrived at the mall and
just strolled around in and out of shops, enjoyed some Dutch Ice drinks
and finally ended up doing a bit of Christmas shopping. Well,
we all know how shopping can make one hungry so we got directions
to the California Pizza Kitchen and had our dinner before riding out
to the Gaylord Texan Hotel and Convention Center to watch the GoldWing
light parade. That was pretty fun. Some people put quite
a lot of imagination, time, money and effort into their Wings to light
them up with different themes and light schemes. That would
do it for our first day at the Wing Ding.
The next morning we got up and got dressed for a day of shopping and
attending the bike events at the Wing Ding. We rode to the IHOP
nearest our hotel and was enjoying our breakfast when we noticed a
storm moving our way from the north. We began to eat a little
faster and finally expedited our waiter to get us our check so we
could pay and get over to the Gaylord Texan before the rain started. We hopped on our Wing and headed for the convention center and was
about 1 mile from it when we started feeling the rain drops on us. Now these weren’t just your ordinary garden variety rain drops. Remember we were in Texas where everything is bigger. These
raindrops were like marbles. They were still dropping kind of
sparse but were picking up the pace. Just as we pulled into
the parking lot they began to come down with a mission. Sheryl
pointed out the sign for the parking garage and we turned and headed
for it and were about 100 yards from it when the rain really cut loose. It was fun being right on the brink of total disaster by saturation
then dive into that nice dry garage. We rode around for a minute
looking for a parking spot which was reserved for and totally full
of GoldWings. We finally found a makeshift spot by a pillar
at the end of a row and parked and while Sheryl was dealing with her
Honda hairdo I grabbed a towel from my saddlebag and dryed off the
bike.
We made our way inside to the convention hall got registered and began
to roam up and down the vendor aisles looking at all their goodies
for sale. Here most things were of the motorcycle nature like
leather chaps, vests, jackets, T-shirts and hats. Then there
was all the GoldWing accessories of which you could find anything
you could think of and lots of stuff you hadn’t even thought of. You could also get massages, shoe shines, buy a trailer for the Wing,
get pin striping or a mural painted on your bike or even buy kitchenware
or insurance.
After
picking up a few things like bike cleaning products and shirts and
combing every aisle and looking at all the attractions we were ready
to grab some lunch and move on back to the hotel for a nice swim. We indulged on some Italian food at Olive Garden then rode back to
our hotel and while climbing the stairs to our room noticed that the
pool was completely drained. Now what the heck was up with that? Did I mention we like to swim at our hotel on hot days when we travel? It turns out just our luck it was time for the swimming pool cleaning.
We took our afternoon nap then decided to do a
little exploring on the bike that evening while the sun was low in
the sky. It was still very warm but for me the warmth was a
reminder of a classic summer vacation day. We rode up to a couple
different parks we spotted on the map and we checked out the marina
we could see from the Convention Center and snapped a few pictures
and just rode around and explored some before heading back to the
hotel for the night in effect ending our short stay at Wing Ding. We would use the same strategy we used for coming to Texas by leaving
early in the morning to make our way home hoping to maybe slight that
big orange summer ball in the sky.
5
o’clock came right on schedule and we were up and packed an rolling
northeast on highway 121 at 5:37 a.m. After just a few
short miles we began to see lightning in the sky directly to the north
of us. It was still too dark to see the extent of the front
and how far it extended east. We pressed on making good
time by taking advantage of the low traffic levels of the hour and
met up again with highway 75 and turned more of a northerly route. It was getting lighter and we could see the very dark ominous looking
(and still very beautiful) clouds making their way toward us from
the west. In fact our roadway was almost the exact dividing
line between the dark on the left and the light on the right. We were playing cat and mouse with this big storm as she rolled toward
us pawing at us with each turn in the road. When the road turned
left we were headed right into the beautiful black storm and when
the road turned back toward the right there was hope we could get
around the front edge of the storm and stay dry. For 2
hours we danced on the edge of the storm till finally about 12 miles
from Atoka the sky burst open. We pulled over and I pulled on
my rain jacket and Sheryl was already wearing a light windbreaker
that we soon learned was not waterproof. We pressed on through
the rain to Atoka where we were sure we could spot the local Walmart
in short order and stopped in and fitted Sheryl with her brand new
rainsuit. Boy, the lengths a girl will go to for a new outfit. We hit their McDonalds and the local Conaco for the second time in
three days and continued on through the rain toward McAlester where
we joined the turnpike and turned due north toward home. The
rain lightened up to a drizzle and we enjoyed the scenery of the storm
to our sides and behind us as we gradually rode out of the rain and
to dry roads.
Once again our brilliant plan
worked... We beat the heat. We pulled into our home at 10:45
a.m. with 645 new miles on the Wing’s odometer, and another adventurous
but memorable safe trip under our belts.