Saturday -6-28-08 part 2

Leavenworth, WA


Our first day's ride ended in Leavenworth. The weather was warm and folks needed a break. I managed to gather all of them up and get a group photo. No small task. Most of them were hiding under the shade trees. It was nearly 100 degrees there.




Here is a shot of our pack of Dawgs. K9 to the bone!

Jimmy D, Cheeto, McNalley, Dunna, Ornery, Iggy
Bert, Jewells, Fast Freddy

Bert with our four Grand Prize Winners! The guy in the center won a couple times.

This lucky guy had a big heart. He was a genuinely nice guy too. He won the 50-50 pot ($250) which he donated to the Chaplain. He won four rounds of Golf, which he gave away and he won dinner for two at the Blake Island Salmon Bake, which he kept. He said he just came for the food!

Jimmy D won the car detail from Gene Pankney. He was pretty tickled about that.


Our Grand prize winner was This guy. He won a weekend package at Hotel 1000 in Seattle

After all of this festive behavior, we rode to near by Wenatchee and collapsed in the Red Robbin.

From left to right is Mike Romaine (almost retired), Carol, my wife (just tired), Darrel Hughes, Jim Jensen, Ken Monner and Jim Young (all retired). The restaurant was air conditioned, which saved our lives.

Later in the day, we cooled off a bit down at the tavern in the Red Robbin. One of the guys decided to tell the waitress that it was Steve Stockinger's birthday (it wasn't). She brought him a fancy dessert and we all sang happy birthday to him. Steve is pretty much of a goof ball, so while we all sang to him, he got up and began dancing with the waitress. It's one of those things you just had to be there to see... Well, while he was playing the fool, someone tied a balloon to his rear end. He was a bit distracted so he didn't notice it right away. Guys were calling him over to talk to him... first here, then over there. Every where he went his little balloon followed. Well, after a couple beers, it was sorta funny. Did it end there? Nope. Once he found it and discovered what we were all laughing at, he decided to run around the table a couple of times with his balloon in tow. Some of the guys just about choked to death watching it. Some of us will do anything for cheap entertainment.

This pretty much brought day one of our ride to a close. With 51 bikes, no mishaps, broken bikes or injuries, we called it a success. After lunch Carol and I went to our hotel room in the Comfort Inn. Our air conditioner was broken... it was hot in there.

Day two will start tomorrowat about 0800 at chow.

Saturday -6-28-08

Ride Day!

Saturday morning arrived after what seemed like an eternity. The first thing we had to do was hit Marcia's Silver Spoon and check out the pancakes. Guys like us have to fuel not only the bike, you know.

"Many hands make light work," my mom used to say and after a bit of set up, "we had her whipped." I could sse first hand that the planning pays off at times like this. We were off and running like a Swiss watch.

Truth be told, I had a good time with this and it was fun to be a part of it.

One by one folks came by and signed up. It was good to see faces from the past. For me, it's one of the best parts. Keeping in touch is not always my strong suit. I had forgotten just how important a thing like that can be.

Our Memorial Ride for 2008 honored Jim hargrove. He passed away the day before the ride. I suppose that was part of the reason I enjoyed seeing old friends so much today. Below is a poster of our fallen officers. Its the reason we do what we do.

Only the last two were personally known to me. Good guys both of them. God willing the poster will get no longer.

Several generous businesses donated things for us to raffle off. We had a poster of the big prizes. Several other things were raffled off as well. That sort of thing makes all of us feel like school kids on the night before Christmas. What can I say? This is the part of the ride that generated a gift for the Chaplancy. I am sure they were greatfull.




Bert and Jewels with Chaplains Pat Hogan and Russ Guppy.

Chaplain Hogan rode along with us. We had 51 bikes in all. I (personally) was hoping for 40. I guess I need more faith.

One group of fellas calling them selves "The Good O'l Boys" showed up with 10 bikes. They were a nice group of folks.

Here is a shot of some of the crowd. It got to the point where they would not all fit in the camera.

Bert and Jewels gave all of us the "What for" brief before we kick started the ride. Chaplains Hogan and Guppy had a few words for us and a short prayer, then we hit the trail.

"Ornery" (Dave Henry) led the pack and I brought up the rear. That combinatioin worked well because we both had CB radios and we worked together like sheep dogs to keep the flock together. The line of bikes had a reaq impressive look to it as we headed down the freeway to our first stop. One truck driver found our channel and complimented us on our long streak of chrome. Folks were waving and it just feld good to me to be there. It's a hard thing to explain. I believe I had just discovered why it is that guys like us want to be a part of a motorcycle club. There just aint noth'n else like it.

About an hour down the road we had our first stop in North Bend. Our Road Captain (Jewels) plans things like "butt breaks." He thinks of everything. Here are a couple shots of our butt break:

The handsome guy below is yours truly having a great time.

I only have one picture of us in Cle Elum. It's one of me fooling around on a three wheeler.

After a few more miles and another world famous butt break in Cle Elum, we arrived in Leavenworth, WA. I will put that stuff in a new post. This one has gotten long.

Thursday - 06-26-08

Preparing for our upcoming Memorial Ride, we decided to hit a Taco Thursday at the local Harley dealer. For those of you who do not know about Taco Thursday's: Taco Thursday is basically a party at the Harley dealer where guys come together and enjoy the spirit of motorcycling. Tacos are just a buck and the friendships are free. Several of the Dawgs rode in and met a few friends; some old and some new. We passed out fliers and generated interest in our upcoming ride.

One has got to love bikes to stand in line in a parking lot to eat tacos....

Here is a shot of "Beak" (left), one of our retired breathern with Bert our club president. They're both goofy.

Another Old Friend was Dave Moore (left). It was good to bump into him. He has been retired for some time now. I always enjoyed working for him. McNalley is on the right. McNalley is one of the original members of our chapter.



This shot could be called "Curley, Larry and Moe" but it is really Bert, Dunna and McNalley. I think McNally might be throwing me a kiss. Maybe he just loves tacos.








Below is the service manager at the Harley dealer. His name is Chris Neeley. His dad was an icon where we work. Both of them are really nice guys and full of stories from hell to breakfast. I was pleasently surprised when Mike (Chris's dad) told me he worked at the Harley store in Fife. It's always nice to have a friendly face in the service department. When I snapped this shot, Chris was in the middle of a tall tale of some kind.


























After all of the tacos and hot air, we headed out to our meeting at Cheeto's house. We had to get ready for the ride on Saturday. The ladies got the ride paskets ready, folded shirts and figured out how to run the raffles while we watched them. It was exhausting, but Cheeto had cold beer in the refrigerator. I had two of them while I watched the girls.

Our trusty steeds were tied to the hitching post out front. We had to impress the neighbors.

The meeting went well and we figured out that we had most of the wrinkles ironed out of our plans. By golly, we were ready to ride!