July 11th 2009

Today my Motorcycle club hosted our annual Memorial Ride. Our ride goes to Wenatchee the first night where we will have dinner and a party. The club secured several raffle prizes. If I have my numbers right, we had 84 riders and passengers this year.

First off we had to his Marcia's Silver Spoon (they are one of our sponsors). After a waffle and a couple links, I was ready for anything. We chewed the fat and we sat there having a grand old time until my cell phone rang. It was Jimmy Bass wondering where we were. He was at the station doing what we were supposed to. We jumped up and headed for the bikes, and beat feet to the station. Better late than never (so I have heard).
After setting up tables, selling tickets and greeting all the folks to showed up, we "hit the trail" so to speak. We had a couple police units stop traffic for us so we could all make it through the traffic lights in "one piece."Kerry and Fog were in the lead and they had a hard time keeping their speed even. It drove me nuts I have to say. We went along like an inch worm, fast then slow, etc etc. Other than that, the ride was a lot of fun. I cranked up my country music and got "in the zone." We made our way to the first stop which was North Bend. That is roughly an hour from the beginning. I snapped a couple pictures of the bikes in the parking lot. Some of the guys I hadn't seen since last years ride. It's always nice to talk to the retired guys to see what they are up to.
After a 20 minute break we set off again. We attracted a lot of attention going over Snoqualmie Pass. People were waving and we were having a great time. the weather was gorgous. The next stop was Ele Elum. This was on the East side of the pass and it was getting warm. Somewhere in the high 80's I would guess.

Another hour or so and we landed in Wenatchee. Mike and I had been riding behind Fog most of the way. Once or twice he looked like he fell asleep or something. Maybe we need to send him back through the motor course again... (possibly he was trying to avoid deer or something that no one else could see). The weather was sunny and hot. My wife would have not had a good time here. Mike Romaine and my neighbor Kevin split off from the crowd and had lunch at the Red Robbin (with lots of ice tea to go with it). Mike had to pick up a red rose for the ceremony later in the evening so we stopped at Albertson's to get-r-done.
After a tank of gas we made it to the Red Lion where we held our party. I had a couple hours to kill before we needed to get to work on setting things up. I hit the showers to wash off the road dirt. that gave me just enough of a pick me up to want to play along at the party.
The party was a catered buffet with a DJ, social hour, memorial service for our fallen officers, and lots and lots of raffle prizes. It was a pretty fun time. Of course before we got started, the club members had to have a short get-together so we could obsess over overy last detail. I just wanted a beer.

Sgt Joseph arrived and presented out Memorial Ceremony. It was a moving thing. Sgt Joseph is one of my good buddies. The ceremony really added a nice touch to our party. It reminded us of the reason we had a party in the first place.

After the ceremony, we had our drawings . Fog and Dunna did a good job up there. They kept things entertaining.

After all of the raffle prizes had been given out, the music continued and folks danced way past my bed time. I had to go hick the rack. I had a full day.