Cindy Dietz

Harley Mom

I purchased a 2005 Harley Davidson 883 Low Sportster (Effie) in FEB 05 and I travel all over the country with it. In 2005 we travelled 25K miles to 34 states. 42K miles in 2006 (48 states, 9 Canada provinces). I was the winner of the 2006 ABC's of Touring an annual competition held by Harley Owners Group. The first person (and so far the only person) to win it solely using a Sportster. I slacked off in 2007 with only 21K miles (21 states). 2008 had more pleasure trips only 19K miles, only 14 states and 1 Canada province. The purchase of this motorcycle has changed my life. These are the stories of my travels with Effie.



Travel Blog Posts


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Harley Mom
October 15th 2011

2 weeks ago a friend of mine told me to mark this day (OCT 15, 2011) on my calendar. We were going to the BMW dealer. So today I had the pleasure of being at Engles BMW when Voni got her 1 Million Mile award from BMW. I had not met Voni in person although we both belong to the LDRider list and know each other from posting. She is a very special person. She was hugging everyone. Her smile was always present. There were 2 women that were really close to getting their 1 Million Mile awards from BMW. Voni and Ardys. Probably more people have heard of Ardys because there are not that many 76 year old grandmothers riding, and it would be safe to say she is the only one that rides this ... read more



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Harley Mom
June 18th 2011

18 JUNE 2011 -- Well my 1st trunk's time was up. When the lid broke I knew I needed a new trunk, I had been kind of looking for one because my Nolan103 helmet that I bought this year would not fit in this trunk. The trunk was too short, I needed a taller trunk. The helmet is 11 inches tall. The trunk lasted me a good 3 years and I got mor than my money from it. Anyway I searched and searched and finally settled on this trunk from ebay vendor Halfpricetrade. The trunk was $88 with $25 shipping and handling charges. Here is the text from the ebay auction: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Extra Large Motorcycle Trunk Honda yamaha harley 250 This is one of the largest motorcycle trunk in the market. The outer dimension is 24" ... read more



2009 Christmas Letter

Published: December 25th 2009North America » United States » Kansas » Kansas City
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Harley Mom
December 25th 2009

Since my previous Xmas letters are posted in the blog I thought I would post this one too. 2009 Seasons Greetings. I hope this letter finds you well. Seems like it was not that long ago that I was writing last years Xmas letter, but here I am again. I have had a pretty full year. I took advantage of being able to pay someone else to do my job at the American Legion and took 3 trips this year. Early April I was suffering from the cold weather so headed south to ride the Natchez Trace from its beginning at Natchez, LA to its end at Nashville, TN. It’s a National Parkway, 444 miles without a stoplight, stop sign or yield sign. All along the route there were great bits of preserved history. I had ... read more



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September 30th 2009

DAY 16 - WED - 30 SEPT Everyday I have been entering my gas reciepts and mileage in a spreadsheet. Its been interesting looking at my MPG throughout the trip. As I am entering yesterdays reciepts I notice that the best MPG happened yesterday as I was heading north through TX and OK. Believe it or not I got 70 MPG. My average has been around 50, so I double checked my numbers. I have a slight noise in the motor but its not using any oil and I'm getting 70 MPG, make all the noise you want. This was to be a day of heroes. I only had 260 miles to go today. I had planned to take hwy 54 to Iola then head north on hwy 59 through Garnett and then on to KC. ... read more



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Harley Mom
September 29th 2009

Day 15 - Tuesday - 29 SEPT I was up early this morning but reluctant to leave because it was cold out. Old age is getting to me. As I was packing the bike I heard a thump thump thump… it was the motel housekeeping swinging a rag at the window ledges to get the dust off them. The motel was as interesting this morning as I had found it last night. The parking lot was huge. This motel had lots of rooms. I can’t wait until I can follow route 66 for its entirety maybe next year. The first stop was Quay county NM, for my ABC’s. Most counties will mark their borders with a sign. Not Quay. I looked all over the county seat before I found something that was marked with Quay County. ... read more



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Harley Mom
September 29th 2009

On my west coast trip I stopped at Madrid NM and was told by a local that this was a must ride. He was right. Its a 14 mile road that takes you to the top of a local mountain. The only way off is to turn around and come back down. The road is a lot of tight twisties and real fun. It smelled great! In the 14 miles you climb 10K feet to an elevation of 10621 ft. 23 miles south of Madrid on Hwy 14 or 3 miles north of I-40 on Hwy 14 is the entrance to the byway. The top is at coordinates are N 35 12.632' W 106 26.958' . The pictures will tell you how beautiful it is. Nothing else for me to say. ... read more



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Harley Mom
September 28th 2009

Day 14 - Monday - 28 SEPT - Farmington to Santa Rosa After spending time last night and this morning I have changed my route home. I was planning to head across the top part of NM and then on home. Pretty much the direct route from here. But after talking to Carol I decided that I would take an extra day and see some stuff on the way home. The first thing I thought of was the town that Wild HOGs was filmed in. I couldn’t remember the name but I have copies of our HOG club newsletters on my computer so I looked it up. Terry Green the road captain at the time had taken a group from our club there on a 4 day weekend. It didn’t take long to find the article ... read more



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Harley Mom
September 27th 2009

Day 13 - Sunday - 27 SEPT - Ely to Farmington It was an awesome ride today. There isn’t a lot to write about on this leg. I didn’t stop to see anything cute along the way. I was mainly just riding to get a bunch of miles behind me. I traveled almost 600 miles. Temps in the morning was 43F, later in the afternoon it was over 100F I think the day ended with it in the 60s. I missed getting into the 4 corners monument by just a few minutes, they were locking the gates as I rode up. I would HIGHLY recommend anyone traveling I-70 East through UT stop at every scenic pullout. The one I didn’t stop at had to be the best one. By the time I saw what was going ... read more



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Harley Mom
September 26th 2009

Day 12 - Saturday.- 26 SEPT I was the first one up this morning. I packed my gear and folded up the rollaway bed. I knew I had 500-600 miles to travel today so I wanted to get going early. In the process of quietly getting my gear to the door when the dogs woke up Lena. I wasn’t going to leave before they got up, but I figured that I could pack my gear on the bike while they still slept. Karl went up to bring Effie down the hill from the shop, I had told him I had been too unsure to get it off the table last night. Karl comes back from the shop and says that there is no power to the ignition. We decide not going to mess with it until ... read more



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Harley Mom
September 25th 2009

DAY 11 - FRI - 25 SEPT Lena, Karl’s wife, had asked on Wednesday if I wanted to go on a wine tasting tour. Are You Kidding??? So we had planned to go this morning. I was up early, after all I don’t want to miss this. Karl had taken over the chore of having a cup of hot tea for me in the morning. I was one lucky person. Opa had one for me every morning and most nights when we were in Wendover. Karl, Lena and I sat on the front porch and watched the birds and cars as we sipped our tea or coffee. It was a great way to start a morning. Karl’s Mom and her dog joined us shortly. She is a spunky woman. I enjoyed talking with her. Karl is ... read more






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