Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/34516
Watch Your Trash by JIM JONES JUNE 25 • SWANKSTER BIKE RALLY at Robeson County Fairgrounds, Lumberton. Four bands, bike rodeo, wet t-shirt, DJ, burn out pit contest, puddin’ wrestling, car & bike show, vendors, Ms. Swankster pageant, sexy legs, and loudest pipes contest. $20/person. 12pm-12am. Benefits local elderly, and childrens charities. (910) 735-0500. JUNE 25 •BABY ANGEL’S FUND RUN at St. Pauls Funeral Home. Poker run $15/ rider, $20/couple, ride 1pm. Raffle, food. Benefits the Pauls Funeral Home Baby Angel’s Fund. 263-9560 for more info. JULY 16 • CHRISTMAS IN JULY TOY RUN at Victory of Faytteville. Registration 8 a.m., depart at 10 a.m. Bring an unwrapped, new toy. $15 per rider. Call 426-5082 or 261-4601 for more info. PATRIOT GUARD RIDERS The Patriot Guard Riders is a diverse group of patriots from every state that come together to honor fallen soldiers at funeral services across the country. Visit www. patriotguard.org for more info. TUESDAYS BIKE NIGHT at Chili’s Grill and Bar in Southern Pines. Happy hour, drink and food specials. All bikes welcome. 4 p.m. to close. WEDNESDAYS BIKE NIGHT at Applebee’s, Cotton Square, Fayetteville, drink and food specials beginning at 7 p.m. All bikes welcome. Independent truckers and trucking companies do their best to keep the vehicles running, safe and to keep their prices down in order to make a profit. One way they keep their op- erating prices down is to use retreaded tires. I wanted to share something with everyone that is really bothering me. Trash! It takes no time going down the interstate and you see trash on the road. All of this is gravely dangerous to motorcyclist. A few weeks ago I was speaking to a man who was riding a trike $1.00 OFF ALL DRINKS THIRSTY THURSDAY For more information call LEGENDS at 4624 BRAGG BLVD. motorcycle. He said he had just bought it a few months ago because he had a wreck on I-95. Plastic had come off the back of a truck and wrapped around his face. Blinded, he had no time to react. He tried to get off the highway but laid his bike down while trying to negotiate two lanes of high speed traffic. Before he could bring his bike to a safe stop he laid it down and broke his back. On a recent ride to Raleigh I could not count the number of dead animals, trash or busted rethread tires on the highway and on the sides of the road. I couldn’t go more than 10 miles without seeing retreads on the side of road. I love America. America’s greatness comes from our ability to manufacture goods and services. Those goods and service are moved by millions of truckers every day. I understand that those big rigs are expensive to maintain and operate. Independent truckers and trucking companies do their best to keep the vehicles running, safe and to keep their prices down in order to make a profit. One way they keep their op- erating prices down is to use retreaded tires. There are more than 450 tire manufactures in business today and they produce over a billion tires a year. Both new and rethreaded tires will fail if abused or the proper tire pressure is not maintained. With so many tires on the road makes me wonder what is going on with them. Is it the government’s budget cuts that keep road crews from pick- ing up trash? It has to be expensive. They have pay for the labor, the trucks, and the disposal of all of that junk. I really don’t know but there is something going on. Since my main reason for writing these articles is to help keep us all safer I won’t spend my time doing investigative work on why the roads are cluttered, but I will let you know they are getting more dangerous because of the clutter. As a guy that puts a lot of miles on a bike, I will tell you that any- thing can happen on the road. The only thing you can do to protect yourself on a highway is keep your space. Distance affords you the ability to anticipate disaster. Keeping space provides you the field of vision and prevents you from overdriving your bike in harm’s way. If you get to close to a vehicle you can’t see what they might be running over or dropping off their vehicle. A car or truck can usually withstand hitting a trash on the highway but if a motorcycle hits anything, it will hurt. Please watch the road and drive safe out there! JAMES JONES, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM JUNE 22-28, 2011 UCW 23 Gypsywomen Rock!