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Backroads With Betsy
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Live Fast, Die Young, Stay Pretty
The woman who taught Betsy to ride
7/24/2009: "Live fast, die young, stay pretty." That was the motto of my life-long best friend, Mary Tomczak. It was a line in a Blondie song. Mary loved Blondie back in the 80s. We were even backstage at one of Blondie's concerts, and as strung out as she was, on stage Blondie was larger than life. And larger than life is the best way I can remember Mary, who one week ago today, decided to take her own life.
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Girls Just Want To Have Fun!
Good times at the Laughlin River Run
6/6/2009: I know, I know, I've bagged on how bad the Laughlin River Run in Laughlin, Nevada, has gotten in the past few years. And even when it was at the peak of its hey day, a gambling town in the middle of the desert is at the bottom of my bucket list for someplace to be. But the rally does fall in the spring after we've been cooped up all winter just chomping at the bit to get out of here and ride.
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Hobnobbing with Celebrity Riders
Spring has sprung for Betsy and her friends
5/1/2009: Spring has sprung. Love is in the air. And finally, bikes are everywhere! The economy may be suffering. The motorcycle industry may be feeling the effects, but the simple pleasure of riding a motorcycle has always been an economical mode of travel and entertainment. And when the stress of the world piles up along with the unpaid bills, what better therapy, or break from the madness is there than riding on sunny, spring days in the local hills?
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Revamping Ruts
Betsy gets her spark and shares tips with you
3/13/2009: One of the greatest challenges I have experience with as I mature is learning how to keep the many different aspects of my life fresh and exciting. I am a person who constantly hungers for new ideas and experiences. Yet I am such a creature of habit, that unless I make a conscious effort to re-energize certain areas of my existence, I often find an area of my life getting stagnant, or stuck in a rut.
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The Impermanence of Things
How bikers can make a difference
1/23/2009: Wow. The holidays come, and the holidays go. The Lord gives, and he takes away. It's a seemingly chaotic blur going on around us through the holidays. Busy people with too much to do, with too little time and too little resources are all angrily fighting for parking spaces. The days are cold and short on sunshine. Cold and flu season sets in while everyone eats, drinks, parties, and shops their way through the madness.
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California Bike Week & Love Ride 25
Why I like to participate year after year
11/21/2008: Well, if bigger is better, than the Love Ride keeps getting better and better. And if there is one thing most women worldwide can agree on, it is that bigger usually IS better. Like with closet space and stuff. When the Love Ride began 25 years ago, it was a small event raising much needed charity funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
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Pot of Gold
Sturgis 2008 & my summer adventures
9/17/2008: With the country's economy and political status full of uncertainty, a majority of the population is cutting back. They are cutting back on all spending, but in particular, anything that involves gasoline. This doesn't work for me since many of my favorite toys are powered by gasoline. It is most certainly logical to cut back on that which seems to be a luxury, but I have always considered travel to be more of a necessity than a luxury.
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S&S Cycle and the Continual Search for Warriorship
Reflections on midlife and the motorcycle industry
8/8/2008: Warriorship is a continual journey. To be a warrior is to learn to be genuine in every moment of your life. Nearing my midlife crisis, I feel like I have spent the first half of my existence trying to be a warrior on the exterior. It is my intention to spend the second half of my existence working to become a warrior where it matters most, on the interior.
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Run Wild, Run Free
Samantha Morgan, queen of the Motordome, passes
6/18/2008: My little brother, a deputy sheriff in Lander, Wyoming, took me way back into the deserted mountains of Wyoming to look for wild horses. After many hours of searching we found just two. There is beauty in the element of freedom that is unequalled. Wild and free is not something you see, it's something you feel. That is what it was like to watch Samantha Morgan in action.
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The Pleasure of Simplicity
Reflecting back on the good ole days
5/11/2008: In my lifetime, I have experienced the pleasure of simplicity many times, and I have appreciated it many times. But have I really learned it, as a way of life? Apparently not, because it seems I have to keep relearning it.
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It Takes Your Breath Away
The effect of one motorcycle ride
4/8/2008: Yesterday while watering my yard, I found a baby bird that had fallen from his nest, struggling for his life. I live on more than an acre of land, and there are at least a dozen bird nests hiding in the corners of my Spanish tile rooftop. Every spring there are several casualties.
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Backroads With Best Friends
What makes them so special
2/29/2008: Last year I dedicated a column to my relationships with the best friends with whom I have been fortunate enough to share the years of my life. I was on the plane en route to Katmandu to attempt to climb Mount Everest and was feeling particularly grateful for the people who had been with me through the thick and thin that life inevitably challenges us all with.
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Jesus Would Have Been A Biker
Betsy stumps for a friend's ride
2/6/2008: If religion is for people afraid of going to hell, and spirituality is for people who have already been there, then I have a distinct need for both. Most people who ride a motorcycle are extremists on some level. I have a hunch that most riders have seen a little of their own personal hell in one facet or another.
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Motivation from the Garage
What's up with these all-women events anyway?
1/4/2008: When my best buddy Genevieve Schmitt told me she was coming to L.A. to conduct a women's only "Garage Party," I was curious. Certainly if you took the boys away from Sturgis, or any other motorcycle event, I'm not sure it would hold the same allure. Motorcycles and boys sort of go together nicely. I have to admit, a motorcycle event without them almost seemed like an oxymoron to me
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