Reflections of Alaska, Reuniting At The AMA Conference

This coming Tuesday I will be jet setting off to Keystone CO to the 5Th AMA Women & Motorcycling International Conference. It holds great meaning for me on two levels: One, it will be my first experience in attending an all women's conference exclusively in motorcycling. And two, I will be reuniting with 4 of the 13 women, who shared in a life altering, more than 1200 mile Alaskan trek, solely on motorcycles.

Cathy is was born and raised in Michigan. A chaplain at a privately owned small hospital , who, in her spare time, rides with an all women's motorcycle group called the Free Spirit Chapter out of Southeast Michigan, on her Honda Nighthawk 750.
She and I were friendly on our Alaskan pilgrimage up in the Great White North, but became close friends after my former husband had been hospitalized. I came to understand the importance of Cathy's work, when the my local chaplain had been so comforting to me in my time of need. I expressed my feelings of compassion for her work and told her how much I appreciated what she did. We communicated via email for over a year and a half and bonded our friendship even further when she came out for a week long stay with me in CA. We had a blast together!

Jane is from Connecticut and will be flying out with me to Colorado. She will be visiting here in California prior to the conference, so our reunion will be at the Oakland airport at 5:30 AM! That should inspire us to wake up!
Ellen and Laura are both from Texas. They will be riding up along with Ellen's husband, John, his friend, Jon and their neighbor, Ted. Ellen stated in an email, "We will have 3 Harley's and 2 Honda's, we need at least 2 dependable bikes on the trip!"

The Texas clan will be departing on Saturday August 15Th and staying in Amarillo, Texas as the first over nighter. Sunday, they will be taking an over night break in Walsenburg Colorado. And on Monday, staying in Gunnison Colorado and then on to Keystone.


After our rendezvous at the Denver airport, Jane will pick up her Harley Davidson Heritage Softtail at Eagleriders on one side of Denver. While Cathy and I go to the other side of town, where I will mount up on a Honda Interceptor and Cathy on a BMW F800GS, from Tour Riders.
The three of us will once again reunite on HWY 70 near Golden, CO and continue on our 1 1/2 hour journey up HWY 70 into the Rockies, where we should simultaneously meet the Texas 5 at a 5 Bdrm, 5 Ba house that Ellen found on the internet.

On August 17, Tuesday at approximately 2:00PM central time, in a large brown house entangled amongst the Aspens of Keystone Colorado, is where the 5 unsuspecting girls from the summer of '07, inquisitively deciding to embark on a historian, 1st all women's , 7 day, 1200 mile journey, will continue to build on friendships that will last a life time.

Side Note:
The Alaska ride was also instrumental in the development of the Style Saver Scarves. This was the forum I chose to test my newly invented prototype.
I fervidly had sewn 23 polyester satin scarves in preparation for a great opportunity to test out my concept of creating a bandanna styled "silky" scarf, in an effort to combat "helmet hair."
Something I struggled with as hair stylist, riding a motorcycle!

The girls were great about trying out the new "doo" saving scarves and as a result, I discovered the necessary changes that needed to be made in order to successfully introduce them into the market.

Reflecting back today, if it wasn't for the willingness of the women, on the Alaska Riders Tour, Style Saver Scarves might still be in it's infancy!




Thank you girls, for all your support!

Cindi