GWRRA
Appalachian Region N
Virginia District Educators
Jim was born and raised in the small Montana town of Phillipsburg. "How small was it?" you ask. The population was about 1,000 and his High School senior class was only 25 students.
Jim ended up here in Northern Virginia after he retired from the Army and was offered a job at the Pentagon with a defense contractor doing much the same thing he had done for a large portion of his military career. He is still employed by that defense contractor, CACI Inc. as a senior research analyst.
Jim has 3 lovely grown daughters, 2 of which live in Atlanta and 1 in Seattle.
Jim began riding in 1974 when he bought his first motorcycle. It was a Honda 350. Later in the early 80s Jim did take a lengthy sabbatical from motorcycle riding while raising his daughters.
In 2000 a co-worker (a member of VA-I) talked him into taking the Motorcycle Riders Course and he thought what the heck and signed up. It took him all of about a minute and a half to remember how much he loved riding. With-in a couple of months he was the proud owner of a 1989 Wine berry GL1500 and a member of GWRRA and VA-I.
Jim had decided that he wanted to be the best rider he could possibly be and he determined the best way to do that was to get as much training as he could. He already had the MRC under his belt and found out they had an Advance Motorcycle Riders course. He took one of those toward the end of the riding season. After he had completed both of these courses the next logical step was to take the instructor preparation workshop. Jim did that too and has been a Motorcycle Safety Foundation Rider Coach since 2001. In May of 2002 Jim became a Level IV Master Tour Rider.
Some of the positions Jim has held over the years include Assistant Chapter Educator, Chapter Educator, Assistant District Educator, Assistant Chapter Director, and Chapter Director.
In 2002 Renee was introduced to Jim by fellow Chapter VA-I members Lou and Patti Card and she has been Jim's co-rider ever since.
Renee is a rarity in Northern Virginia. She was actually born and raised there.
She has 2 grown children, a lovely daughter who is a school teacher and a son that is a former US Marine and Operation Iraqi Freedom Veteran. She also has a wonderful Dalmatian-Labrador mix named Angel. Her only other pet is Jim.
She works as a Human Resource Specialist (Information Systems) for the Department of Defense Education Activity. She has over 28 years with the federal government and is looking forward to retiring so that she can then shop full time.
Jim and Renee currently ride a 2006 Dark Red GL 1800 which they have named Dream. They also have a matching 2006 Escapade Elite Trailer named (you guessed it) Dream Chaser.