14-01-2006, Henks.

January 8th: In the past 2 weeks I've been mailing a lot with Ronald, one of the forum-members. He would love to have his own website and we've menaged to do so. It is only in Dutch, but here is the link to Ronald his website.
January 14: Today I went to "score" some fish, with Henks of the Dutch bikerforum, in the harber of Lauwersoog. We made a nice tour of about 80 kilometres. January 15: Because of the sun being out and the sky being so blue, I made a tour to the pier. OK, it was cold, but you don't feel that, until you're home.
On January 22, I went for a ride around the Burgumer Lake. In Sumar I stopped to have some pictures made of trucks for a friend in the UK.
February 4: I've composed a new page in the website of the neighbourhood, because they have finally started building the shopping-mall.

February 17th: I've been visiting the bikeshow in Utrecht. I drove there by bike, over 220 miles, but is was a rainy day. February 18: William B. from England made a few banners for me, to be used, for linking my website. The 21st of February, Zeenz.nl opens a new Weblog. They kicked-off with my story. Here's a Link if you want to have a look.

February 26: At lunchtime the sun was shining so beautyfully and the sky had my favourite colour of blue, so I decided to go for a ride. I drove to the pier. All the way, I could only greet 1 biker. It was only 2 degrees. Tonight there is some snow on the roads. On March 9, I've been sticking adresses on info-booklets for the Elfstedentocht organised by the FMC. On March 10 I drive on my bike to Oosterwolde to meet Henks. Together we drive to his brothers house,in Assen, because he celebrates his birthday. On March 11, I have my 20,000th visitor on my website.

26 Maart, FMC.

On March 12, I am busy all afternoon with receiving pictures and minimising them for a dutch page for Rudy. Rudy has traveled in 1984 with 131 Citroën Traction Avants from Paris to Moscow and back. Recently he wrote the story and I turned it into a website. Here is the link. On March 23, I have a nuice ride on my Shadow. Only 50 miles, but it was good. Cold though, 2 degrees Celsius. On March 26 I drive the first afternoontour with the FMC. I think there were about 50 bikes. It was beautiful, very windy, but 11 degrees. Further, my counter went over 31,000 kilometres.

Annie and me.

March 31: the first truckerstory was translated into English and put online. April 7: Tonight Annie opened her new Bikerstore in Coevorden and I was invited. Of course I was present. We know each other from the bikerforum. I hope she turns her bikeshop into a succes. I know it will work out. Sunday, April 9: Today we drove the MIOS-tour. This morning at 08.00 it was only 2 degrees Celsius. We had to cross the Afsluitdijk to get to Anna Palowna. No tulips yet, it is stiull too cold. Everything was still covered with fleece. But we drove a wonderful tour. All together I drove 390 km, a bit less than 250 miles. On April 14, I drive with Roelof all the way to Heerenveen by B-roads. On the way back we take the highway to Leeuwarden. There we visit the Honda-dealer to purchase some filters. One of these days I'm supposed to change oil and filters from all the 3 bikes, while Roelof will keep an eye on things.

Griso 1100

On April 15, I have a look on the pier. It is quiet and cold, so I decide to drive to the bikshop, where I bought my Shadow a couple of years ago, for the Eastershow. They had a beautiful bike standing there. I asked permission to take a picture of the Moto Guzzi Griso 1100. On my way back, I visited the 11-cities bridge, to make some pictures. What an artwork, to have tiles with faces of the participants, together representing the image of skaters.

Griso 1100

Elfstedenbrug

Detail.

April 17: This morning I drove to Coevorden and spent all day in the bikeshop of Annie. When she was busy with ehr customers, I had a good time with other bikers in the coffee-corner. I had a wonderful day.
April 23: Today I drove with my husband and many members of the Frisian Motorcycleclub to Wieringerwerf. We drove the Tuliptour. My husband had to lead the group today. It was a beautiful tour, but we haven't seen many tulips in bloom. It has been too cold in March.
On April 28, Roelof finally could pick up his Corbin at Rob. On the 30th we drove to Assen, for a forum-member-day. The evening before two bikers crashed here. We had a wonderful day. On this day I had a short ride on "Libby". The 2nd of may I had a nice ride on my won and the 3rd of May as well. Together over 500 kilometres. My counter has past the 33.000 kilometres. May 5: Today I have changed the oil and filter of my Deauville myself, for the first time. On May 7, I drive with the FMC (12 bikes) the Meitoertocht starting in Nieuwleusen.

That is another 400 kms, so my total for the past week is over 1000 kms. On may 10, I read in the forum, that Etaman has passed away. He was only 51 years old. Ten days prior I talked to him on the forum-meeting. This moves me very deeply. On May 15, I am present on the Cremation-ceremony of Etaman, together with a few other biker-forum-members.
From the 18th until the 21st of May, we have a biker-forum-weekend in the province of Limburg. We have tours in the area. Some pictures are to be seen in this link.
On May 24 my counter gets past the 35.000 kilometres. On May 27 I drive to Annie in Coevorden, to meet Jelle. Together with Jelle I drive a tour that he composed for the next Forum-day. That is another 360 kilometres on the counter.
On May 30 I met Alex from New Castle again. He was on a bike-vacation in Germany and France and spend his last night here with 2 biker-mates. Together we visited the Woodshoe-museum and after that I took them to the ferry in IJmuiden on my bike.

On june 5, there is the annual Elfstedentocht. The pictures on the page about the 11-cities tour are new. On june 10 there is a Honda-day on the paddock of the TT-track in Assen. Serveral clinics can be done. I drove a CBF 600 with ABS during the clinic of using the brakes with ABS. That really kicks in. Cool! On the 11th of June, the temperatures are tropical and I ride my bike all afternoon. Nevertheless I menage to finally put the pictures of the Horsepowerrun online.

On the 19 of June, I leave for two nights in Germany. I stayed in Detern. I visited the bikermotel in Holtgast and the Cultural café "Alte Zollstation" in Stickhausen. Frans has an exhibition about Calligraphy. For the rest I've been riding around in the area on the bike. On June 24 I have a tour with 5 other Forum-members, that are not interested in the TT-races. On June 30 there is an eveningtour with the FMC, very nice tour. The first weekend of July I spent on the websites of Jan and Rudy.

I did however drive to the pier on the sundayevening and had a chat with 2 bikers. On July 9th: I drove the Elfstedentour with Biker-forum-members. We are with 4 all together. I was leading and after a tropical week, it was nice and cool. Great day to ride the bike. The tour alone was over 250 kms.
On July 15 I visit with my club MCV the bikerclub "de Wâlden", as they have a party. On the 16th I drive to meet a friend halfway and we have a short ride together.

With this lovely summerweather, I drive almost every night to the pier.
On the 26th of July I drive off to Detern, to see my husband, who is still working there. The next morning I have a coffee at the Biker-motel in Holtgast. On the way back I menage to get 190 km/h on the counter of my bike until Leer. After that there are restrictions. August 21: we're back from our vacation in the UK. I'm busy selecting pictures and making a report for the website. On August 31 I leave in the car for a long weekend in Waxweiler (Germany) with the local bikerclub MCV.

Then on the 9th of September I drive with 3 other forum-members to St. Willebrord, where "Schaduwman" has composed a tour for us. In the evening a barbeque at his house and we can sleep over. The next morning we drive home again. I'm still busy with the translation in German of the vacation-report. The Dutch, English and Frensch version are online already. Then I have to do the Frisian as well. I'm busy with it for a month now.

On september 15 I finally have the German translation of my vacation-report online. It is good fun to live it all again and to read about it over and over again. But with the lovely weather I'd rather go and have a bikerun than work on my Frisian translation, but I'm getting there. September 18: I have finally menaged to get all 5 languages of the vacation-report online. On the 24th of september, I've driven the last afternoontour of the season. On October 1st Roel is leading the Pancake-tour for the FMC and some forum-members. Pictures are already online on the page with forum-meetings. On my way there, my counter passes the 45.000 km-mark. All together 414 km this day.

From the 5th to the 9th of October Alex and June stay here with the kids. They have flown in and rented a car. We have a lovely weekend together. I take them to the "Afsluitdijk" with the bike on the 9th of October. There we say our goodbyes and our roads part. I'm invited for X-mas to come to Newcastle upon Tyne with my grandson Mischa.

On October 15 I drive to the pier. It is very quiet, so I follow the seadike all the way to Zwarte Haan. On October 22 I changed the brakepads of the Deauville by myself, under supervision of Roel. That afternoon we drove the last sunday-afternoon-tour with MCV. The next day I've put the 6th bikerstory online. On october 25 I drive to Annie in Coevorden, to have a close look at the Triumph Thruxton that has been restaured by the Conimexman. On october 28 I ride with my bike to a reunion of origami-teachers.

In the past week JanBMW came back from his vacation in Turkey and he sent me a bikerstory. On the 3rd of November I put the English transaltion online. On the 18th of November I have a ride to the pier. It is quite windy, but the sun is out. There are more bikers on the way and they all greet me. On november 26 the sun finally comes through the clouds. We have had a lot of rain lately and so I get my bike out. I drive south, so that the sun won't bother me too much in the late afternoon. On December 10 Hendrik celebrates his 23rd birthday. In the afternoon I leave the guests and take the bike for a ride, just for one hour. On December 19 Mischa and I fly to the UK, to celebrate X-mas and the New Year. We will be back on January 4.