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Published: September 14th 2008
The Group Shot
We got everyone we could in the picture. TPress is going to want a lot of warm bodies involved or they aren't too interested in publishing the story. That is the problem that I have each year with the East Coast XL rally.I went on a Poker run this morning. I took the Jeep. Yep, I wussed out and took the Jeep. Yesterday we had 6.5 inches of rain. Its been raining for 3 days. It rained all night and was still raining this morning. I thought about taking the bike, but decided it was not worth the risk of going down. So I took the jeep. I had promised the shriners that I would cover the poker run for Thunder Press or I would not have gone at all. I had to go into work at 6am on Saturday so I could complete my work and still make the 8AM registration. I really didn’t think they would hold it, the whole area is in a flash flood alert. The route would be out in the country, surely there were flooded out roads. But when I drove by the Shrine temple they were putting out the signs for the bikes. I had a chance to talk to one person and he said that indeed they were still planning to hold it. Okay, at that time I had not decided to not take the bike, that came about a half hour later. I decided
Dave Winslow
Here he is with his 2 month old Firemans Edition Ultra. He already has 8K miles on the bike. No wuss here. that I would take the jeep and cover the start and finish, then interview the participants. Yep, I wussed out. I must be getting old.
The shriners were great. They kept thanking me, like I had done something. Other than giving them some places to post the ride so people would learn about it I really hadn’t done anything, but they were grateful. The Shriner group refers to themselves as HAWGs, each rides a Harley Davidson and the unit is formed as a parade unit, that is there main function is to ride in parades. They are part of the Abdallah Shrine temple, that is the big one that over looks Metcalf Ave at I-35. I had always wondered what was in there and first off the bat I got to join a little tour some the riders were going on. That was neat. I want to go to bingo there one time, but haven’t made it yet. The shriners do some great stuff, the children’s hospitals are probably the most well known shriners project. I had approached the guys when they came to the HOG group to cover the ride for Tpress. I also invited them to the
The St Joe Shrine group jacket logo
Ain't that cute?? I love that patch, what a cute idea. I wonder if they really know the ramification of using the phrase Motorcycle Club instead of association. We have already gone through all this in the ALR. ALR meeting to advertise it there. It was sad that the weather was so shitty this morning. They really deserved better. They had offered me a free ride, but I could not see taking it with the low turn out they had, so I paid my $15 and got my poker sheet to collect my hand. Throughout the day as we spoke I learned that their group was 18 months old and numbered 12, having just expanded in the last few days from 9. To put on this kind of ride, that meant that each member had to pull his own weight, even the newest member was a guide for this ride. The shrine temple offers something like 24 different groups of interest for its members. The groups involving moving wheels were this HAWG group, a ESCORT group which was made of all brands of motorcycles, a Trail 70 group made of 70CC minibikes and group of mini sprint cars and one of the little antique cars. Now this is an active temple. They were very helpful and treated me to lunch. But with the rain and weather being as it was, there were only 11 registered riders. 4 of
All Smiles
These ruggid riders were all smiles all day. these riders came from the St Joseph shrine temple to support this ride. They traveled 50 miles in this muck so they could ride the 100 miles of the poker run only to ride another 50 miles home. I really felt like a wuss. What impressed me most today was the dedication of those riders to come and ride that ride. Only 2 of the riders were members of HAWG group, these were guys that just wanted to support the HAWG group and their cause.
The ride started at the temple as I eluded to earlier and then it ended at the Hooters in the Legends. One of the shriners had a link of some type to the Hooters. Yes and from previous posts I have told you I never win anything. Remember Hee Haws song “if it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all” well that fits me. There are 11 people in the poker run, 3 prizes and I am not even close to any of them.
So I guess this is another blog that didn’t involve Effie. Bummer. Wuss.
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