08 CMW HOG hosts Joplin HOG for a Picnic

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Kansas City, Kan, July 26, 2008 - What do you get when 2 HOG groups get together? Well, a parade, fellowship and of course food. That is exactly what happened when the Joplin HOG Chapter from Joplin MO came to Olathe KS to visit us in the Central Midwest HOG Chapter. The whole thing was coordinated by the Ladies of Harley presidents of each group. We were supposed to do this last year but a week or so before the event the director of their HOG group was in a motorcycle accident that was quite severe. He ended up loosing a leg. His wife the LOH president cancelled the trip to KC. Early in 2007 we the Central Midwest HOG group had gone to Joplin and they hosted us for a short twisty ride and a picnic lunch of hotdogs and chips.. But their visit to us was delay until this Saturday when they made the 140+ mile trip to KC and joined us for a ride and lunch. I was asked to find a route for the 2 groups to ride. This is not an easy task. The Joplin group live down in southern MO, where the roads are FUN. And if those roads don’t trip their trigger then its only an hour to Arkansas where the best riding roads are. My plan after agonizing over it for 3 weeks was to just get to the park and ride the long way around the park. WY county park has the best ride in the city. The only down side is the speed limit is 20MPH. I discussed my decision with Marcia Waters and she agreed it was a good plan.

So we had a bunch of them and a bunch of us get together at the Central Harley Davidson dealer in Olathe. They had a mechanical breakdown a few short miles from the dealer. The trike that the director was riding broke down about 5 miles from the dealer. After about an hour of waiting for the remaining Joplin HOG members to join us the Joplin members that were there decided to proceed to the picnic and eat. The others could join us there. I was asked to be the ride captain and lead the ride. We headed out with 33 Harleys and jumped on I-435 to get up to Leavenworth Road and to Wyandotte county Park. The ride around the lake was great, shady, cool, and very curvy. The lake is 7.2 miles around and the road has 71 changes in direction. At 40MPH the road would have been a lot more fun, but at 20 it was very relaxing. When we arrived at the shelter (#16) I was complimented by several riders that the lake ride was really nice.

The food was great. Dallas a CMW HOG member that owns Frontier Steakhouse on State Ave in KCK donates the chicken and bread for our picnics and he once again out did himself. The food was great, did I say that already? The local LOH ladies all donated side dishes and there was quite a spread to choose from. There was this one salad with Ramón noodle, sunflower seed, sliced almond and other misc ingredients that was to die for. Heather made it and when I asked her for the recipe she informed me it would be in the new LOH cookbook. Another reason to buy the cookbook when it comes out. I should have 3 recipes in there. Now my friends are laughing, because it is well known among them that I don’t cook. My recipes are Fried Cheerios, Spinach Cookies and I can’t remember what the 3rd one is, but it was unusual too. I was very honored when they asked me to do a personal page in the cookbook. There was only going to be 2, the owner of the dealership is doing one on her father Pops. So I thought and thought about what I was going to write. I had like half a page of text and then 1 picture. It is much easier for me to write 3000 words than it is for me to write 300. I used a picture that Screw Loose Dan took for me while I was in NC on the East Coast XL rally.

Back to the picnic…. We ate and ate and then we had desert. The stragglers that had the breakdown ended up joining us as the trike was being taken care of at the dealership. After the meal there was introductions as officers from each group was introduced and the directors made thank you speeches. Marcia our LOH president was master of ceremonies, she is such a good person. A nurse by trade, it does not surprise me. She was so patient with me when I was getting the route together. I am living with my Aunt for the last couple weeks because she has a cast on her right leg from her crotch to her toe, falling off a 8ft step ladder, she managed to just break her leg. There is no internet connection for me here and so communication was harder than normal.

At the conclusion of the picnic I lead the group of 40+ Harleys through the remainder of the lake road and out of the park to the nearest gas station, where they were splitting up, some were going back to the dealership and some were heading on home. So as they each headed their own way I headed back to my Aunts.

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