This past week has been a busy one for us. On the 22nd Gary and I rode in the HOG Charity Ride. This ride raises money for school supplies to the Title I schools in Billings. It was a success last year and we raised $1500. This year it was not a big turn out. About 40 people in all participated. Gary and I ended up being dealers at the first stop. The cost was $20 per hand or school supplies. This year Gary and I donated 6 backpacks and 18 notebooks. Gary got the backpacks and notebooks from IGA. We actually had two cases of notebooks, but they were too heavy to load on the bike. The rest of the notebooks I gave to our tae kwon do kids. We had a good time.
Friday the 27th we had a Patriot Guard Mission in Billings. This was the first mission for Gary being the ride captain since he got elected to the Montana Patriot Guard Riders Board of Directors. He is the Eastern Montana ride captain. He has plenty of help and everything went smoothly. This was for a pilot who was killed in Viet Nam in 1971. His remains were identified and he was finally brought home after 39 years. The funeral services were at Holy Rosary church in Billings and he was buried in Laurel in the Yellowstone County Veterans Cemetary. The weather was great, not hot and not cold. It was a huge turnout for this one. There are some photos on the Billings Gazette website. There is one of us, but you have to look hard for it. Gary is wearing is Viet Nam Veteran hat. The photos are under Magers Funeral gallery.
Saturday the 28th we headed out on the Chico ride with the HOG group. This is an overnighter at Chico Hot Springs and we ride through Yellowstone Park. It was pretty cloudy when we left and rain was in the forecast. We rode through Red Lodge and over the Beartooth Pass with a stop at Vista Point. We got into rain at the top of the pass, so we are putting on our rain gear while it's raining. Not an easy thing to do. We stopped in Cooke City for lunch and the rain just poured and it was like that all day long. This year we bought a National Park pass and it sure paid for itself already. I had the pass out when we went through the gate and sure enough the ranger had to see an ID. Gary's ID was in his wallet and in order for him to get to it he would have had to taken off all his rain gear then put it back on. Since my name is on the pass she could see my ID which I had in my purse in the trunk. This was the first time we had to show an ID with our pass, so lesson learned, keep pass and ID together. As we were going up Dunraven Pass the rain was coming down pretty fast and hard. The group stopped at Canyon and it was decided to just go on to Chico. The original plan was to head down to Old Faithful and go through the new visitor center. We ran into fog at Mammoth. Was so glad to reach Chico.
While I was checking us in at the resort Gary parked the bike and was getting our overnight bag out when our trunk broke. The whole latch assembly just fell off. It was just glued on. Gary said a few happy words then he was real upset when he saw that it was just glued on. Said for the money we paid you would think things were put together better. Fortunately he had some bungee cords with him to get us home. Since our bike is a Lehman conversion he is going to call Lehman in Spearfish to find out what kind of glue to use and if they will send us a tube. He really doesn't want to take it to the dealership to fix, as it would take weeks.
Our night at Chico was alot of fun. The whole group met at the bar where we ate dinner and had drinks. Later we enjoyed the hot pools, perfect for a day in the cold. After the pools closed we went back to the bar. They had a live band there that night. It was the same band that was at the Road Dogs Christmas party and we really enjoyed them. The band is called Jamelution from Bozeman and they play the classic rock & roll from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Gary and I even learned how to play shuffleboard. Just had a very enjoyable night.
Sunday morning it was time to check out. We all rode together for breakfast in Livingston. After breakfast everyone said their goodbyes as we all left in different directions once we hit Billings. Normally this ride is held the first weekend in September, but with Labor Day this year our group couldn't get the block of rooms so it was moved up a weekend. The weather forecast for this weekend is sunny in the 80's & 90's. Figures. Gary and I are hoping that we can add this ride as an annual event. We sure enjoyed ourselves.
All of my photos are posted on my picasa site.
1 comment:
Glad you had fun in spite of everything. This was a really rainy weekend. Weather was cloudy and cool for the Regulators and didn't rain until Sat night when they were inside for their dinner.
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