Tae Kwon Do Tournament

Saturday was the 24th Annual American Jung Do Tae Kwon Do and Judo Championships in Sheridan Wyoming. We took eight students to the tournament. Only two are tournament veterans.

Our students did an exceptional job considering that most of them have only been taking lessons for the past five months. We have one student who has only been in class for three weeks. We took one black belt, one yellow belt and six white belts. The school as a whole came home with 12 medals, 4 golds, 3 silvers and 5 bronzes. All the students but one came home with a medal.

We had our only girl competitor freak out over the sparring competition and no way was she going to do that. She was afraid of getting hurt. In class she spars with the boys and wins so we were so shocked that she freaked out. Jennifer even tried to talk to her. No dice. Will have to work on the confidence part. Our next tournament is in March. Jennifer and I were both told by our instructor that we are competing in the next tournament too. We will be doing weapons and board breaking for sure.

Our brand new student came home with a gold medal in sparring, he is on cloud nine. He didn't get one in forms. I stressed to the kids that getting a medal in forms is hard and we kept reminding him that he has only been in three weeks, the others have been in class for months.

They will bring their medals to class on Tuesday and I will take a group photo to get in the paper. Our black belt didn't get a medal. He assumed that he would medal anyway.

In other tournaments he does win, but this time he didn't come to class for the whole month of September. He just assumed that he would medal. He was getting a bit cocky about this and he got knocked off his pedestal.

Gary, Jennifer and I were busy judging. One of our other students came to judge, he missed most of the summer in class and didn't feel ready to compete. He wanted to learn the judging side of it. I think he had a good time, at least he said he did.

Now our students will be working hard on their belt promotion test on the 15th. We have most of our school eligible to test, just a matter of them turning in their paperwork and fees. We have two students on track to get black belts in March.

I was able to take candid photos of our students before competition started. The only bad thing with us judging is that I don't have my photographer (Jennifer) to get photos of them competing. I will have to ask the mothers if I can get copies of their photos. I want to make a poster for advertising for the school.

Where Did September Go?

Wow, October 1 already. September was just a blur, we were so busy. The last info you got was our Labor Day Weekend.

The second weekend of September, Gary had a Patriot Guard Board meeting in Billings. The meeting was supposed to start at noon, but didn't get started until 1:00 because two people were late. They just made it by having a quorum. I was able to attend because I am a member, but I don't have any say or input and I can't vote. We were hoping to get out in time to be able to see Tristan's ball game, but that didn't happen. Before the meeting, we stopped at the city golf course to look at the Healing Field. They put up 1,000 flags, it was very impressive. On Sunday we rode in the 9-11 Memorial Poker Run. This is sponsored by the B.A.S.T.A.R.D.S. We met in Laurel, then rode in parade format to the Billings Court House for a short ceremony. Then we rode to Bugz in the Heights, then our last stop was at Strokers in Huntley. At Strokers we had a lunch served then they raffled off some prizes, which we didn't win. There was also a silent auction, but we didn't bid on anything. We had met some of our Harley friends in Laurel. Had a good time.

The third weekend went to Tristan's ball game. He was glad that we were there but mad because his Dad wasn't. He plays better when his dad is there. At this point his team has not won a game. There is only one kid on the team that has experience the rest are all first timers and you can tell. They do have a coach that just yells at the boys when they don't do what they are supposed to do. The coach was called about his behavior and didn't like it one bit. I've seen the playbook that they want the kids to know. At this level it is very confusing and there are too many plays for them to remember.

Last weekend we went to Billings, dropped Gary off at Tristan's game. Jennifer and I went shopping in the mall. I missed one heck of a game. Tristan's team won their first game. Gary said you would have though they won the Super Bowl! Everyone was shocked and parents were commenting on where their children were. Gary said that the boys were a whole different team. Said Tristan played extremely well, his Dad was there. Tristan's Mom did say that he plays different when his dad is there. We are going to miss his game this weekend, but will be there on the 9th for his last game of the season.

Yesterday I had a dental appointment. Mom went with me. She called me up on Wednesday to let me know that she was in Hardin and did I want to go to lunch on Thursday. I said sure, then remembered that I had the dental appointment. Did she want to go? She said yes. She sat in the dental office waiting for me while I was getting my teeth cleaned, she is such a trooper. Then she went with me on my "therapy" session. We had a good time.

In between all of this, we have been busy teaching tae kwon do and getting our students ready for the tournament tomorrow and their belt promotion test on the 15th.

Labor Day Weekend

An update on the happenings during Labor Day Weekend. We didn't have any plans of going anywhere, just sticking around home for a change.

Saturday we all went to Billings. Jennifer wanted to upgrade her phone so we shopped around and she now has a Droid with all the whistles and bells. She is having fun playing with it and finding out the features. With this phone she had to sign up the the internet package. I could have upgraded my phone too, but have to wait. Later that afternoon we went to Gary's grandson's football game. Tristan is playing in the mighty mite football league with the Outlaws. His mom's coworker is an announcer for the Outlaws and that's how he got into it. Tristan really likes it. He says that it's real football not flag at all, he gets to tackle. Tristan is in the 8-9 year olds and for most of his team this is their first year of playing organized football. It was fun to watch and Tristan made a couple good tackles, unfortunately his team lost. The team they played against had the more experienced players and you could tell. Gary took Tristan to a practice on Tuesday. Tristan sure enjoyed his time with his Grandpa Gary.

Didn't do anything on Sunday, just stayed home and got caught up on some work that needed to be done around the house. Gary also used the day to fix our trunk. The latch assembly just fell off while we were in Chico. He bought some JB Weld. The instructions said that it would work on fiberglass, will find out. Some people said it wouldn't work and some said it is the best stuff out there. Spent the whole morning removing the old glue. Mixed up the JB Weld, got it on the latch assembly. Had to get it just right or else our trunk wouldn't close. Then we used a hydralic jack to keep it in place. Wouldn't know until morning if it would work or not. Had to wait 15 hours.

Monday morning rolled around and the big test was seeing if the JB Weld worked on our latch assemble. It did, we were jumping up and down for joy. Saved us alot of money by not having to take it to the dealership to pay for labor and all that good stuff. So far it is holding up, so we are fans of JB Weld.

We went on the HOG MDA Poker Run Monday morning. Got to Billings early so we ate breakfast before making our way to the Powder Horn Bar. Paid for our poker hands and drew our first cards. The way our poker run works is that you don't know what your hand is until the end. You get a card with 52 numbers on it and at each stop you draw a chip and get your card punched. It is alot of fun. We ended up being dealers at the 3rd stop in Worden. By the time our shift was up there was no way we would make two stops, so we just went to the last stop. We were able to draw the rest of our numbers. We didn't win a thing. Gary got a pair of 3's. I had nothing.

The HOG group donated $1,500 to the MDA. Prizes were awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and for low hand. The winners for 3rd and low hand donated their winnings back, the 1st place winner donated half of his winnings. Had fun and enjoyed ourselves. Nothing beats a day when we can spend it with our good HOG friends.

Charity Ride; Patriot Guard; Chico Ride

This past week has been a busy one for us. On the 22nd Gary and I rode in the HOG Charity Ride. This ride raises money for school supplies to the Title I schools in Billings. It was a success last year and we raised $1500. This year it was not a big turn out. About 40 people in all participated. Gary and I ended up being dealers at the first stop. The cost was $20 per hand or school supplies. This year Gary and I donated 6 backpacks and 18 notebooks. Gary got the backpacks and notebooks from IGA. We actually had two cases of notebooks, but they were too heavy to load on the bike. The rest of the notebooks I gave to our tae kwon do kids. We had a good time.

Friday the 27th we had a Patriot Guard Mission in Billings. This was the first mission for Gary being the ride captain since he got elected to the Montana Patriot Guard Riders Board of Directors. He is the Eastern Montana ride captain. He has plenty of help and everything went smoothly. This was for a pilot who was killed in Viet Nam in 1971. His remains were identified and he was finally brought home after 39 years. The funeral services were at Holy Rosary church in Billings and he was buried in Laurel in the Yellowstone County Veterans Cemetary. The weather was great, not hot and not cold. It was a huge turnout for this one. There are some photos on the Billings Gazette website. There is one of us, but you have to look hard for it. Gary is wearing is Viet Nam Veteran hat. The photos are under Magers Funeral gallery.

Saturday the 28th we headed out on the Chico ride with the HOG group. This is an overnighter at Chico Hot Springs and we ride through Yellowstone Park. It was pretty cloudy when we left and rain was in the forecast. We rode through Red Lodge and over the Beartooth Pass with a stop at Vista Point. We got into rain at the top of the pass, so we are putting on our rain gear while it's raining. Not an easy thing to do. We stopped in Cooke City for lunch and the rain just poured and it was like that all day long. This year we bought a National Park pass and it sure paid for itself already. I had the pass out when we went through the gate and sure enough the ranger had to see an ID. Gary's ID was in his wallet and in order for him to get to it he would have had to taken off all his rain gear then put it back on. Since my name is on the pass she could see my ID which I had in my purse in the trunk. This was the first time we had to show an ID with our pass, so lesson learned, keep pass and ID together. As we were going up Dunraven Pass the rain was coming down pretty fast and hard. The group stopped at Canyon and it was decided to just go on to Chico. The original plan was to head down to Old Faithful and go through the new visitor center. We ran into fog at Mammoth. Was so glad to reach Chico.

While I was checking us in at the resort Gary parked the bike and was getting our overnight bag out when our trunk broke. The whole latch assembly just fell off. It was just glued on. Gary said a few happy words then he was real upset when he saw that it was just glued on. Said for the money we paid you would think things were put together better. Fortunately he had some bungee cords with him to get us home. Since our bike is a Lehman conversion he is going to call Lehman in Spearfish to find out what kind of glue to use and if they will send us a tube. He really doesn't want to take it to the dealership to fix, as it would take weeks.

Our night at Chico was alot of fun. The whole group met at the bar where we ate dinner and had drinks. Later we enjoyed the hot pools, perfect for a day in the cold. After the pools closed we went back to the bar. They had a live band there that night. It was the same band that was at the Road Dogs Christmas party and we really enjoyed them. The band is called Jamelution from Bozeman and they play the classic rock & roll from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Gary and I even learned how to play shuffleboard. Just had a very enjoyable night.

Sunday morning it was time to check out. We all rode together for breakfast in Livingston. After breakfast everyone said their goodbyes as we all left in different directions once we hit Billings. Normally this ride is held the first weekend in September, but with Labor Day this year our group couldn't get the block of rooms so it was moved up a weekend. The weather forecast for this weekend is sunny in the 80's & 90's. Figures. Gary and I are hoping that we can add this ride as an annual event. We sure enjoyed ourselves.

All of my photos are posted on my picasa site.

Nation of Patriots

Last weekend, Gary and I participated in the Nation of Patriots. This is a group that raises money for wounded soldiers. They are based in Wisconsin and they start a tour of the American Flag being escorted through the lower 48 states in a month. With such a huge undertaking, the group asked the Harley Owners Group if they would escort the flag from one leg to another. The flag has to be back in Wisconsin where it started by Sept. 4th.

Our friend Dale Butterfield headed the Billings group to escort the flag from Billings to Jackson with a stop in Cody. He picked up the flag in a ceremony in Billings on the 13th. We couldn't be at the dealership to watch this as we were working.

We told Dale that we would ride with him to Jackson. We made our reservations for Jackson. There were two other couples who went with us all the way to Jackson.

We spent the night at Dale & Kitty's. She had dinner for us along with our friends Marty & Vicky. She made homemade tacos, they were very good. All we had to bring was the beer. I took an hour off from work and we made our way to Billings. It was raining in Hardin when we left, so we had to put on our rain gear before heading out. We got out of the rain at Fly Creek. Got to Billings, picked up our beer and headed to the Butterfields.

On Saturday morning it was raining so had to put on the rain gear again. The weather didn't look promising. We met the others at the dealership and picked up two more bikes in Laurel. In all there were 8 bikes and 13 people for the ride to Cody. While we were waiting at the dealership I called up Mmom to see what the weather was like in Wyoming. It was reported that it was nicy and sunny, but had rained earlier during the night. That was great news. I told Mmom what we were doing and didn't know if they wanted to take a ride to Cody to meet us or not.

We arrived in Cody around 9:30 am. We stopped at the gas station at the edge of town to take off our rain gear and to get the flag ready for the short ride to the Cody dealership. Mmom had left me a message that they were parked in front. We all posed for a photo op as the local paper reporter was there to write a small story. After we signed the book for this leg, we all went across the street to the Irma for a coffee break. Got a good visit in with the Gma's before we had to get ready and head to Jackson.

Two bikers turned around and headed back to Billings, while the rest of us continued on through Yellowstone Park. We stopped at Fishing Bridge for a short break where one rider headed back home. When we got to the West Thumb Junction we lost another rider. Now we have four bikes and 8 people.

It was free admittance into the National Parks that weekend, but we have our annual pass anyway. Had nice weather. Once we got into Teton Park we pulled over at Colter Bay for a break and took off some more layers.

We pulled into Jackson around 4:00 pm and again we stopped to get ready for a short parade through town to the dealership. Once we got to the dealership they called the guy who was taking the flag on the next leg. We only had to wait about 15 minutes. Not too long. Went through the ceremony of passing the flag from one leg to the next. Not only was there the flag, but the banner that the dealerships sign. There was a book that went along with it that all the riders sign plus a couple plaques. One was a proclamation signed by a California congressman and the other was a certificate that the Blue Angels verified that the flag was flown over Pensacola Florida.

We all then checked into our hotel, which was across the street from the dealership. Got checked in and cleaned up then headed to the Cowboy Bar. We all had burgers here as we didn't stop to eat lunch. After the bar we walked through Jackson, stopped in the Silver Dollar Bar. This is the one that has silver dollars inlaid in the bar. Then back to the hotel. There is a liquor store right next to our hotel, so we stopped to get some beer to drink at the hotel. We all sat around and visited and started planning for next years trip. Gary was told that it was his turn to plan the trip and our friend Marty & Vicky want to go. It was the general consensus to go through the Redwoods.

On Sunday morning we had to get back home to work. Dale & Kitty then went on to Salmon Idaho for a small trip. The rest of us went on back home. Instead of going through the park, we went through Idaho to West Yellowstone to home. It was a nice ride. It added about 80 miles for us, but time wise it was a wash. It would have taken us just as long if we went through the park.

In front of the Cody Harley Dealership.

In the Cowboy Bar in Jackson (from the left: Vicky & Marty Davis; Pat & Gary Liming; Dale & Kitty Butterfield; Aletha & Jake Moran)

History Ride

Last Sunday, Gary and I went on the HOG Chapter History Ride to the Lewis & Clark Caverns. It was not a good turn out. Only 4 bikes and 8 people, but we went on the ride anyway.

Had to be at the dealership by 9:00, met up with the other riders and made our way towards Three Forks. We arrived at the caverns. None of us was interested in going through the caverns anyway. The only ones who did was the father & son. The rest of us decided to head to Virginia City for lunch.

One of the women had suggested Virginia City instead of the caverns at the dealership, but the man leading us said NO, we have to go to the caverns. We get credit for riding tickets by going to the caverns. She had suggested Virginia City because it is historical and none of us were interested in going through the caverns anyway.

Our group headed towards Virginia City, when we met up with a friend who hung out with us in Deadwood at the highway. Had a good lunch in Virginia City. The guys sat outside by the bikes, while us women went walking and looking in the tourist shops. That's when we saw the colorful local.

A storm was coming in, so the guys wanted to get going to beat the storm. While we were getting ready to go a Chinese family stopped to look at our bikes and take photos. The guy was more interested in the trikes and he was just snapping away. He kept shooing us out of his photo while we were getting ready. Finally told them that we had to go to beat the storm.

We did beat the storm. Stopped in Livingston for gas. Good thing because at Big Timber we were behind a huge storm that dumped alot of rain. The highway was very wet. At Park City we got into some strong winds. Gary and I did get caught in some rain at Billings. Not very long. From the King Ave Exit to the Lockwood Exit. Just enough to make our clothes damp.

By the time we made it to the top of Pryor Hill we were dry. We did learn a lesson from this. Don't go out drinking the night before a 600 mile ride. Gary was pretty tired when we got home.

This weekend we are going to Jackson with our friends Dale & Kitty Butterfield, Marty & Vicky Davis. A group called Patriots of America is escorting the American Flag across the 48 states in a month. The group wanted HOG members across the states to escort the flag to the various stops.

Dale will be picking up the flag on Friday and we will meet up with him to escort to Jackson on Saturday. Will be coming home on Sunday.

John Hamburg Memorial Poker Run

This past weekend Hardin had the first annual Extreme Days. Saturday morning Gary and I participated in the John Hamburg Memorial Poker Run. John Hamburg's grandson put the poker run together. He was hoping to get 100 people, but there were 14 bikes and 19 people.

It was a short run, 125 miles. The first and last hands were dealt in Hardin. Our stops were Sarpy Creek, Hysham and Custer. For $10 you got two poker hands.

Our friends from Billings came down, we met them at Spirits Casino (Corner Pocket). Breakfast of biscuits and gravy was served for free. They had us poker players stick around. We each got a ticket, originally they were going to draw for prizes, but they had enough that all the players got t-shirts. In fact Gary and I ended up the three t-shirts. Then the newly formed Hardin Police Dept escorted us out of town. It was funny because it looked like the police were escorting us trashy bikers out of town. We were paraded through town.

The final stop in Hardin was at the gates for the Extreme Days. Our friends didn't want to see the mud bogs and we were hungry so we ate lunch at La Chalupa. Our friends had to get back home to Billings so they gave us their beer tickets. There were two others who rode with us. One is a Patriot Guard Rider from Roundup and the other guy was a local who never participated in a poker run so he was sort of lost.

The Patriot Guard Rider and the local guy wanted to go back to Spirits to get their free beer, so we went with them. Home is just across the street anyway. Most of the poker players were already inside. The local who never participated in a poker run and didn't know what to do ended up winning for lowest hand. A lady won for the best hand and she bought the bikers a drink. Gary and I used our free drink chip for later in the evening.

We never did make it to the mud bogs. By the time we drank our free beer, we just went home to get some stuff done before we went out later for the street dance. The street dance was being held at Spirits anyway, so we just as well go. Wouldn't get any quiet anyway.

The casino was having a live band inside the bar, while outside was a DJ for the street dance. We stayed inside were we had a good seat and it was nice a cool. We drank our two free beers each and then ended up buying two more as friends started filling in. The band inside was Mojocatz from Bozeman. They played classic rock & roll from the 60's & 70's and some blues. They were very good. Inside they were giving away stuff and we ended up with another t-shirt; a hat; and a blinking light that you clip on your shirt.

Had a good time and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Next year we may make it to watch the mud races and truck pulls. The Extreme Days was a fund raiser for the newly formed police department. Last word we heard was there were 250 people at the mud bog races for Saturday. Our mayor, Kim Hammond, told us that the towns people didn't know that she was going to turn Hardin into a biker town when they elected her. Kim rides a Harley too.

Hardin wants to make this an annual event and to catch bikers headed to Sturgis. A few did attend the street dance, only because they were staying at the Wester Motel. The powers to be did learn alot from this and they said that next year it will be better. They now know how to advertise for this.