Nelly had hoped to join us for the run but his bike wasn't cooperating. He still took the time to swing by my house and drop off his toy for the kids. Which of course, I strapped to the back of my bike for the ride over.
I got a few looks from people on my way over to the Post, but that's nothing new.
Doolo, Matt and Artie were there when I arrived. Unfortunately, Artie's bike is also giving him some troubles, so he was out for the day, but he also had toys to hand off for us to donate for him.
Dale arrived soon after, and we were off. We headed to the ending location first to drop off our toys and to register for the feed that would happen later. There were already a few toys lined up but we knew the stash would certainly grow in size before the day was over.
When we pulled in, there were already quite a few bikes lined up, which was great to see. Damn the temps, this is for the kids!!
Ed and Susan live close to the 49'ers club so they just met us here. We'd beaten them by a few minutes, so by the time the got inside, the rest of us already had a beer...er...a soda in our hands. Despite our protestations, Ed was determined that we each get a new one. He's good like that.
We had to pound those pretty quickly because the run was taking off in a few minutes. Thankfully we're seasoned pros and it wasn't an issue.
The run itself was good; only about 30 miles, but scenic, relatively straight, and the traffic we tied up seemed to understand what was going on.
When we pulled in to the Commercial Club (ending spot), the lot filled up quickly and folks headed inside to get in line for libations and food.
Doolo had to head back to the Post for the meat raffle, so we bade him well and then headed inside ourselves. The food line was already almost out the door, but we took our places and moved up until we finally held bowls of sustenance in our hands (all you can eat chowder, chili and beef stew!)
All the tables inside were jammed up so we headed outside to the picnic tables. Things were much calmer here and we got to kick back and enjoy our feed without being jostled about by the crowd.
When we'd finished eating and had kicked back for a bit, we decided to head back to the Post and catch the end of the meat raffle, and the first half of the Pats game.
I stopped to snap a pic of the toy collection - pretty impressive, once again!
On the way through the parking lot, there was on bike...er; trike that caught my eye. Why a trike? Because of the mill that was running it. Love me some Shovelhead!
It was an uneventful ride back to the Post, and that was just fine with us. We headed in, found a spot to stand (and eventually sit), and I even managed to win a bundle of meat, which wasn't shabby at all.
At half time, we broke off into our own directions and headed for home to catch the 2nd half...and to just about have full-on heart attacks before they managed to finally seal the with in the final seconds.
Good friends, lots of laughs, and lots of toys and cash were raised for some kids that really need the love at this time of year.
It was a great day.
Ride Hard, Take Chances
No comments:
Post a Comment