I was very honored to find out I was the female winner in the MOA’s Summer Mileage Contest in such a crazy year. 2020 proved to be the year of the new––the new virus, the new normal, my new achievement of riding 200,000 BMW miles and our new GSs. My husband Tim and I both got new 2020 R 1250 GSs last August and almost have 10,000 miles on them already. Mostly, it’s just the two of us, and we don’t specifically try to ride for high miles. We just enjoy riding and love our new bikes!
We were fortunate to be able to continue working the entire time and to be able to ride pretty much close to our normal mileage with the exception of April because of the restrictions in place. We live in Pennsylvania, and I try to ride my 1990 K 75 S back and forth to work as much as possible, putting on about 50 miles on each day that I commute. My bigger mileage comes from our weekend rides on our GSs in the mountains of West Virginia and Virginia. There, some of our favorite stops include Marlinton, West Virginia, and Staunton and Floyd, Virginia. We took a few longer weekend trips to Athens and Marietta, Ohio, St. Paul, Virginia, and to one of our favorite motorcycle campgrounds, Willville, in Meadows of Dan, Virginia. We usually try to take a weeklong trip each year and have flown to California or to Europe and the Alps where we rented bikes. We’ve also ridden to New England, Nova Scotia, the western US, and to the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Great Smoky Mountains.
In 2020, our weeklong trip was to the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, and we also spent time in Kentucky, North Carolina, the mountains of Georgia, and on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was quiet in some of those places, and we even spent a few nights with the motels all to ourselves. Other nights we were able to make arrangements to meet up with friends at our destinations and enjoy the evenings together.
Thanks to my wonderful husband Tim for his late nights in the garage, always having my bikes ready to ride. I never have to worry if they are safe or if they are in need of anything. He has been a certified motorcycle mechanic by trade his entire adult life, and everything he does involves motorcycles.
I never really rode a motorcycle until meeting Tim in 1993, and for the first two years we were together I was happy. Then in 1995, something made me want to take the free Pennsylvania Riders Safety Course and I was hooked. I’m so happy I did that as riding together allows us to enjoy these wonderful adventures together.
Here’s hoping we all get to have more great riding in 2021! I’ll wave as we pass, and I don’t care what you’re riding as long as it has two wheels.
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