2023 – KromeKitty

Tutu Cute! – May 21, 2023

Posted on May 24, 2023May 24, 2023 by kkadmin

All the Kitties were TUTU excited for our ride today! 19 Kitties arrived at the QT looking their fanciest and ready for a beautiful day of riding.

Tina immediately hopped off her bike upon arrival with her notepad and pen taking attendance! She took her job very seriously, Queenie!

Christine huddled us up to go over the ride, weather, and of course, lead us in our riding prayer. She introduced herself to our newcome, Cina, as “Bossy Pants.” She kind of lived up to it today, but in a GREAT way! Thank you, Glitter, for always keeping us safe and informed.

Kim took her maiden voyage as lead rider today. She led eight Kitties safely to our destination, with Frogger (Donna) as her sweep. I know for a fact she couldn’t get lost because I mapped the directions on Google maps and sent them to her while I was at her house last night. Then I gave her a sedative and told her it will all be ok! You did great, Lol Pibble!!

We got word that Deborah was in route after having trouble with her bike. I may or may not have frowned a little. having studied the map and knowing it better than the back of my hand. Deborah made it just in the knick of time and fell in the back of the line quickly. Deborah, you made my day!! I’m sorry you had so many troubles with your bike, but we’re so glad you made the ride! So, with me (on my maiden voyage as lead rider as well) leading the second group, we rode off. We did get a little off course since Stephanie got a little antsy with the gas stop. I’m sorry, Steph, I had to. LOL! We arrived at the ASSIGNED gas stop right as the first group was leaving, so I guess we still made great time. Tina ran sweep for the second group.

Kathryn and Danielle, along with her father, met us when we all arrived at Dave’s Pizza Oven in Coldwater, KS. They were super quick getting our orders and getting them out to us. I think we were all impressed at how quick it went. Great choice Excursion Officers! Christine and Melaina had to leave early so Christine could make it to a graduation, so we decided to take our group pic before our food got to the table. I had to wrangle Tina from passing out Kitty loot to the patrons. You’ll see in the pics that we literally just landed where we could in the group photo.

The Northern Kitties scampered off and the rest of us all took off shortly after. Some of us decided to take another route home and ran into a bridge that was out. We took a short detour and made our way back on course.

We missed our Queenie. Janice, you would be proud of your litter for being on top of their jobs you assigned them!

Stephanie, thank you as always for capturing the best pictures and making us look MEOWvelous!

Submitted by Jennifer (Nightingale)

KKMC Member

June Road Trip – Council Grove with Dinner in Newton

The June Road Trip begins with a ride to Council Grove and will end with a dinner.

Meeting location: The QuikTrip at 12825 E. 21st St.

Meeting time: 12:30 pm with kickstands up at 1:00 pm.

Distance: 87 miles one way from the departure location. There will be a gas stop in Council Grove.

Dinner: Genova Italian Restaurant

What you need to bring: Cash for the 50/50 drawing (six tickets for $5.00.)

Lead Riders: Nellie Taylor and Sheryl Pennington

Sweep Riders: Donna Crays. I need a second volunteer please!

RSVP: Please indicate if you are Going or Not Going by no later than end of day Thursday, June 8th.

MEOW!

International Female Ride Day – May 6, 2023

Posted on May 10, 2023May 10, 2023 by kkadmin

We could not have ordered up a better day to celebrate International Female Ride Day! Abundant sunshine, super warm temperatures with a little wind, but not too bad. After lots of chatting time, even more pictures taken at the QuikTrip and everyone “buttoned up” with Krome Kitty custom made IFRS buttons, we biked up and took the scenic route to El Dorado.

Stephanie made her debut Lead Ride and she did GREAT leading the first group right to the door of True Lies Ranch Hand and Steakhouse, with Donna serving as Sweep. Kari led the second group, with Tina providing Sweep. We all poured into the restaurant and kept the sole waitress, who did an awesome job, hopping with drink and food orders. For the return trip home, it was agreed that Kari and Stephanie would lead one group the “fun” way home and I would lead a group the “fast” way home.

Everything went textbook perfect today….with two mishaps. Pat’s bike battery decided today was the day to take its last gasp and left her stranded at the QuikTrip at Ridge Rd. and 21st St. She called her Tom Kat, Larry, who picked her up on his trike and they dropped by to see us off on the way to Twister City to get a new battery. What we didn’t know until much later is this ended up being an all day battery installation. In their “let’s make this as difficult as possible” wisdom, Harley Davidson decided to change the location for the battery with lots of bits and parts to have to remove and more than a few cuss words!

The second mishap required some creativity and a lot of duct tape! Brenda lost the solitary screw that held her entire dash onto her bike. With the assistance of a LOT of bright red duct tape, the dash was held securely in place to get Brenda through the ride. Now to get that screw replaced.

THANK YOU to the Leads and Sweeps for getting us to El Dorado and back safe and sound!

THANK YOU to Pat and Larry for mapping out the scenic route for us!

THANK YOU to our Club Photographer, Stephanie, and secondary Club Photographer, Kim, for taking oodles of great shots! These posts would be very boring without your pictures!

THANK YOU to all the Kitties who took time out of your day to celebrate International Female Ride Day! You all make being a female and a rider so much fun!

May Meow Mixer and International Female Ride Day

May 6th is International Female Ride Day so LET’S RIDE!

Meeting location: The QuikTrip at 61st St. and 135 in Park City – 928 E. 61st St. S.

Meeting time: 10:00 am with kickstands up at 10:30 am.

Lunch: True Lies Ranch Hand Cafe and Steakhouse. We will take be taking the back roads and will not be on highway 254.

What to bring: Cash for the 50/50 drawing ($5.00 for six tickets.) Also, several years ago, I passed out KKMC International Female Ride Day buttons. If you still have yours, be sure to wear it. For those who are new or those who can’t find your button, I’ll bring a supply. I’m including a picture as a reminder of what you’re looking for.

Ride or Drive: Meow Mixers are always a ride or drive event. I understand people may be coming from something else or have to go somewhere after, so don’t let being in a car stop you from attending.

Lead Riders: Stephanie Cole and Lily Nordyke.

Sweep Riders: I need two volunteers please!

I will post the route directions a day or two before the ride. Stephanie and Lily, I’ll get the route to you asap.

RSVP: Please RSVP by by Thursday, May 4th.

MEOW!

❤️👑

Kar Kitties – April 22, 2023

Posted on April 23, 2023April 23, 2023 by kkadmin

Whenever we have to switch gears and go by car, I ALWAYS am second guessing myself the morning of. This morning was no different. As soon as I woke up, I looked outside and the sun was starting to shine and the second guessing began. “Could we have ridden today?” “Is it really that cold out?” It only took about 60 seconds of standing in the QuikTrip parking lot for all my second guessing to be put to rest. It was flipping cold and windy! So cold and windy, in fact, that the small group I was chatting with and I collectively decided to high tail it into the store, where all of the Kitties stayed until it was departure time. I wish we could have been on motorcycles, but if we made the decision to not ride, then it darn well better have been for a good reason and it definitely was.

We all, with the exception of Dawn, Angel and Donna who drove directly to the restaurant and Sherri and Stella, who stayed in their car, gathered around near the door of the QuikTrip. We occasionally allowed customers to enter and exit and get drinks from the fountain area. There were several police officers who threaded their way through our large group and I held my breath each time, hoping they weren’t going to shoo us outside with a stern warning to stop loitering inside the store. They didn’t. Whew!

Jennifer sold 50/50 tickets and devised a new and improved way of handling the tickets and money at the same time. That’s what you call being smart and creative Nightingale!

With everyone present and accounted for and everyone previously grouped in vehicles, we “carred up” and headed to Durham, KS. The one advantage of being in cages, other than being toasty warm, was getting the opportunity to have lots of chatting time. I thoroughly enjoyed the company of the ladies in my carpool and I’m sure the other Kitty Karloads felt the same.

We all arrived safely at Main Street Cafe and were united with Dawn, Angel and Donna. Christine had brought the safety items we had made for the Cars and Coffee events and it was like a feeding frenzy of Kitties grabbing items to pass out at work and other opportunities to share the “Watch for Motorcycles” message. At the time we were doing this, there were only two gentlemen in the restaurant so I grabbed two koozies and two eyeglass cleaning cloths and interrupted their meal with my spiel of we are a female motorcycle club and we would love for them to help spread our message. They gladly accepted the gifts and one of the gentlemen even asked for a yard sign and said he would proudly display it in his yard. The other one said he would, but he lived in the middle of nowhere and no one would ever see it. That’s fair.

We ordered food, we ordered more food, we ate, some ate pie before their meal (brilliant move!), we chatted, we made the wait staff earn every single penny of their tips and we enjoyed each other’s company, as always.

Dawn had previously told me that we were only a few miles from the Maxwell Wildlife Refuge, so I announced to the group for anyone who wanted to make a stop to possibly spot bison or elk on their way home, this was a great opportunity.

Jennifer was ready to pull the winning ticket and there was such a hullabaloo about no fair if Janice wins, I think it’s rigged if Janice wins, I refuse to buy tickets again if Janice wins that I promised if my ticket was drawn, we would have a redraw. I didn’t say I PINKY promised, so would I have really?? 😂 Well, we’ll never know because my ticket was not drawn. Pat was the lucky winner of $63.00!

We all gathered outside for the group picture and just as Stephanie was getting ready to rig up a remote control camera on the hood of Dawn’s car, a very nice, very tall gentlemen intercepted and said how about I take the picture? Yeah, how about you do that? He even told us to say Here Kitty Kitty! I loved that he saw our shirts and said that!

THANK YOU to all those who joined us on a Kitty Ride that turned into a Kitty Drive! I was concerned we would lose a bunch of people when we switched to cars, but only three Kitties had to cancel for other reasons. ❤️

THANK YOU to all those who raised their hands and offered to be a driver! We all appreciate you using your car, your gas to do that for us! ❤️

And of course, THANK YOU to our Club Photographer, Stephanie, for once again, making sure she got all of us in a picture. You’re the best BadA$$! ❤️

Those on board for the “Kar Kitties” drive were Janice, Brenda, Lily, Nellie, Kristi, Stella, Melaina, Pat, Tina, Alice, Bobbie, Stephanie, Kari, Kim, Christine, Julie, Donna, Jennifer P., Sherri, Diane, Dawn, Angel and Cindy.

Janice

Founder – KKMC

Bike Blessing – April 2, 2023

Posted on April 6, 2023April 6, 2023 by kkadmin

What. A. Perfect. Day!! I commented at lunch that we always manage to have a good weather day for the Bike Blessing (for the record, I did knock on wood when I said it), but today was the warmest of them all! It was super windy when we first arrived at the meeting location, but it did seem to die down even before we left for the church.

Shortly after Greg and I arrived, we had a man approach our gathering group on a bicycle and at first, I thought he was coming to admire the bikes. It didn’t take long to realize he was not admiring the bikes, but rather went into attack mode and started shouting accusations at us for being the root cause of all the problems in the world. He wrongly assumed that since we had motorcycles, we were all “rich M….F….ers” and went all cra cra on us. Greg immediately tried to tell him to move on and blocked him from getting any closer to our group, which were all ladies at the time. I tried to tell him he didn’t want a piece of what was about to show up (meaning Jennifer’s Tom Kat Justin and all the Fire and Iron riders), but he was on such a roll about murders we were responsible for etc. etc. etc., that I don’t think he heard me. He eventually wandered off, but decided for his next cry for attention, he would throw his bicycle right into the middle of West St. Well, he got lots of attention alright…from the PoPo as that’s when Greg called the police. Now that he was in the capable hands of the Wichita Police Department, we could get back to more pleasant business. Like looking cute for parking lot pictures, selling 50/50 tickets and exchanging lots of hugs.

I gathered everyone together for some brief instructions and with Kathryn blocking traffic in her car, our huge line of bikes poured out of the parking lot headed to the church.

Hold up! We have a problem Houston. Brenda’s bike wouldn’t start so Melaina offered to stay and see if she could get it running and would try to meet us at the church. Turns out that bike wasn’t good anywhere soon, so Brenda’s husband was called, but by the time that all happened, it was too late to join the blessings. Thank you, Wrench, for staying with your Kitty Sister!

The first little surprise we had when church services let out was a dadgum bagpipe player! Try saying THAT five times!

He entertained us for a few minutes before Pastor Clayton and Pastor Bob came out of the church. Pastor Clayton welcomed everyone and said a prayer for the group. We were then treated to another bagpipe song and then the individual bike blessings began. Photographer Gary scurried around like the Energizer Bunny getting pictures of blessings and candid shots.

After all the blessings were completed, we gathered for the Kitty group picture and then the ALL group picture. Gary said, “Hold up! I gotta switch to the wide angle lens!” What are you trying to say Photographer Gary??

Then it was time to draw the 50/50 ticket and Jennifer gave Pastor Clayton the honors. I said, “Be good to your Mom boy!” Was he? He sure was! I went away $63.00 richer!

And then there was this! Jennifer and Justin made the most amazing momento for all the Kitties who had signed up for the Bike Blessing! Jennifer had asked permission to use the Kitty logo and asked that I trust her. “I promise you will love it!” When she got them finished, she asked if I wanted to see them and I said no, I DO trust you and I want to be surprised. Man, we ALL were surprised! Check out the picture to see what we got. THANK YOU, Jennifer and Justin, for the time and patience you put into making these wonderful keepsakes and for praying over them before they were given to us. This was far more than I imagined and I love it! Oh yeah, big ole biker dude Justin was the one who thought of this idea. I think he just earned himself the title of King Tom Kat!

The Kitties then rode to Spears for lunch and the rest of the bikers went their own way. After filling our bellies full of every kind of diet cheat food imaginable, we waddled out to our bikes to make our way home.

Another Bike Blessing, one of my favorite events of the year, was over. Thank you to Pastor Clayton and Pastor Bob for doing this for us every year. We always feel a lot safer after the blessings! Also, thank you to Gary for always always saying Yes when I ask him to take pictures! He manages to be everywhere at once; has a smile on his face the entire time; never gets flustered with shouts of “Gary, take a picture of this!” and spends HOURS going through hundreds of photographs to edit and make sure we have the best shots. I’m so glad Gary is in my family so I can abuse his good nature and photography skills!

With the Safety Meeting reminders and our bodies and bikes blessed, we are prepared for a fun and SAFE riding season!!

Those on board for the Bike Blessing were Janice, Brenda, Kathryn, Stella, Melaina, Pat, Tina, Alice, Bobbie, Stephanie, Kari, Kim, Susan, Maureen, Christine, Donna, Jennifer, Cindy, Angel, Lily, Linda, lots of Tom Kats and Fire and Iron Motorcycle Club members.

Janice – Founder