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Central Route Coordinator News – February 2018

Guess what?  It’s February and we are a few days away from the 100 day mark when we lift the kickstands in the Ontario, CA staging area on May 16th.  The leadership teams are in place and ready to serve.  You can check out the various teams at this link https://rftw.us/central-route-hub/ then click on the “2018 Central Route Contact” button.

The State Coordinators for each of the states we are passing through are putting final touches on our gas and lunch stops, plus our overnight hotels and dinners.  Our State Coordinators are the backbone of making this event successful and we owe them our utmost gratitude.

We are currently working on the 2018 Itinerary and anticipating it will be published sometime in late March or early April. So far it remains pretty much like it was in 2017 except for a date change for each day.  If studying last year’s itinerary, remember we always depart Ontario, CA on Wednesday.  If you do that you will get the right date.

The RFTW Board of Directors is holding their first Face to Face meeting of the year on February 10th.  The Route Coordinators and Assistant Route Coordinators from Central, Southern, and Midway routes are invited to give respective reports and hammer out logistics for Ontario and Washington DC. Here is a great post to read that will be very helpful in the time of crisis.

I’ve been in contact with Jimmie Royce, who is our 50-50/Raffle Rouser this year.  He has been working very hard on obtaining some very, VERY nice items to auction off at our daily morning meetings.  I would advise to be within earshot of the PA system every morning.

February Safety Tip:  Passing….  One of the maneuvers that we face is to get platoon elements around slower moving traffic.  There are a couple of ways to achieve this task, however, a method that we have found which works well is the “Snake Around”.  But it has a drawback, which I’ll explain in the last sentence or two.  It works something like this.  When the platoon leader determines that the passing lane is clear, he will signal and move into the passing lane.  The riders behind will each head check the lane and when clear move over as well.  If we are passing on the left, for example, the left track rider will wait for his riding partner in the right track to get well clear of the traffic before moving back into the travel lane.  When the right track rider makes the move back, the left track rider will do the same keeping pace.  To complete the passing maneuver, it is the responsibility of each right track rider will get well clear of the truck/auto before moving back into travel lane.  DO NOT simply follow the motorcycle in front of you, that is a deadly trap that many falls into.  Do one or both of two things to be sure you have a safe distance before moving over.  You should do a head check and/or check your mirror to be sure you can see well above the top of the truck/auto.  Pulling in too early is a common mistake and it takes real concentration not to put yourself and others in danger.

My Wall is Your Wall,
Harlan “Whitebirch” Olson

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