2015 Gately Family X-Mas Newsletter MIA.
I looked and looked around but can not find this 2015 Christmas Newsletter page, just the 4 pages of digital pictures attached. Maybe some day I will be able to locate the 2015 original, but for now I will dictate what happened in 2015 with the “Gately’s” from memory, even thou that year I lost a 30 minute piece of it in my first ever and most expensive Motorcycle crash caused by my progressively getting worse and worse dizziness, Vertigo disease.
In April, over the kids spring break we attempted to drive our 2 Motorcycles, a Burgundy 2007 Honda VTX 1300R w/California side car and 2011 Red CanAm; over 600 miles to Robbinsville North Carolina, home of the “Tail of the Dragon”. I had issues with my Honda VTX1300R Motorcycle from the get-go. It would only do 50MPH tops, and was drinking 3 times as much gas-fuel. So we were only able to make it to Lafayette, IN. were we tried to get its carburetor fixed at a Motorcycle repair shop, which failed, so we turned back towards home. About half way back my Motorcycle started working fine again, was able to do 90MPH + on I65. But we did not want to take anymore chances, so we continued on home to try it another day. The next day we decided to scrap the Motorcycle trip idea, and take the mini van to North Carolina instead. So we repeated yesterdays trip, minus the breakdowns. Stopped at a dozen or so Cover Bridges in middle Indiana, and spent our first night in Story IN, at a HAUNTED Hotel. This did not go over well with our kids, Ann and them stayed up most of the night reading other guests scary experiences in the Hotel’s log book. We tried our Ghost finder meters and flash lights, but nothing conclusively weird or ghostly ever happened. I went to sleep around 1AM, and other than the rooms Air conditioner / heater, did not find anything, out of the ordinary. The next day we visited with my EX-MWRD full time with benefits work partner Will F. at his place in Brown County IN. From there we drove straight through Kentucky, Tennessee to Robbinsville NC., arriving a little after 1AM. We had to rent 2 Motorcycles, to run the Tail of the Dragon, since we left ours at home. Half way trough one of the runs, me and Dayton whipped out. I don’t remember any of it, I hit my helmeted head pretty good. Our entire trip and then some is all detailed on our Tail of the Dragon Website at
http://www.gatelybook.com/tailofthedragon/.
In July we repeated this same trip, this time trailering down our 3 motorcycles and staying in Vonore, Tennessee. No accidents this time, but Ann broke down on her older 1998 Honda Pacific Coast motorcycle, and spent most of the night with some Tennessee Wild Life and Bears sitting on a picnic table at a rest stop; while I went back to the hotel to form a rescue party. We also stopped in Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for the day, before returning home.
Emily started driving this year.
We went up to the Wisc Dells water parks a few times, Paul & one of Emily’s Asian friends went with us once too.
Dayton won tickets to the Illinois Train Museum in Union Il, so we all hung out there for a day.
We took our first ever Raul-less trip to Mountain Home Arkansas which included digging for Diamonds on the most Sunniest HOTEST day in July. Found a lot of interesting worth-less rocks, but no Diamonds.
Emily got out of the country again, this time way out there to Switzerland and Germany with her Riverside, “Beverly Hills Style” Girl Scout troop.
Ann is still working PT at Kensington Day care for a little above minimum wage with NO BENEFITS! ON a good year she makes about $10,000, and that’s with contributing ZERO Federal Tax deductions. That’s going to change real soon I expect.
We also did our usual Dayton Hamvention trip.
Some Geocaching.
Multiple trips to our Wisconsin Cottage…..
Paul is working some where this year, has on a blue work outfit.
Cooper is no longer a puppy.
Hopefully I will find this years original newsletter soon.
Bye for now.
