This past weekend Hardin had the first annual Extreme Days. Saturday morning Gary and I participated in the John Hamburg Memorial Poker Run. John Hamburg's grandson put the poker run together. He was hoping to get 100 people, but there were 14 bikes and 19 people.
It was a short run, 125 miles. The first and last hands were dealt in Hardin. Our stops were Sarpy Creek, Hysham and Custer. For $10 you got two poker hands.
Our friends from Billings came down, we met them at Spirits Casino (Corner Pocket). Breakfast of biscuits and gravy was served for free. They had us poker players stick around. We each got a ticket, originally they were going to draw for prizes, but they had enough that all the players got t-shirts. In fact Gary and I ended up the three t-shirts. Then the newly formed Hardin Police Dept escorted us out of town. It was funny because it looked like the police were escorting us trashy bikers out of town. We were paraded through town.
The final stop in Hardin was at the gates for the Extreme Days. Our friends didn't want to see the mud bogs and we were hungry so we ate lunch at La Chalupa. Our friends had to get back home to Billings so they gave us their beer tickets. There were two others who rode with us. One is a Patriot Guard Rider from Roundup and the other guy was a local who never participated in a poker run so he was sort of lost.
The Patriot Guard Rider and the local guy wanted to go back to Spirits to get their free beer, so we went with them. Home is just across the street anyway. Most of the poker players were already inside. The local who never participated in a poker run and didn't know what to do ended up winning for lowest hand. A lady won for the best hand and she bought the bikers a drink. Gary and I used our free drink chip for later in the evening.
We never did make it to the mud bogs. By the time we drank our free beer, we just went home to get some stuff done before we went out later for the street dance. The street dance was being held at Spirits anyway, so we just as well go. Wouldn't get any quiet anyway.
The casino was having a live band inside the bar, while outside was a DJ for the street dance. We stayed inside were we had a good seat and it was nice a cool. We drank our two free beers each and then ended up buying two more as friends started filling in. The band inside was Mojocatz from Bozeman. They played classic rock & roll from the 60's & 70's and some blues. They were very good. Inside they were giving away stuff and we ended up with another t-shirt; a hat; and a blinking light that you clip on your shirt.
Had a good time and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Next year we may make it to watch the mud races and truck pulls. The Extreme Days was a fund raiser for the newly formed police department. Last word we heard was there were 250 people at the mud bog races for Saturday. Our mayor, Kim Hammond, told us that the towns people didn't know that she was going to turn Hardin into a biker town when they elected her. Kim rides a Harley too.
Hardin wants to make this an annual event and to catch bikers headed to Sturgis. A few did attend the street dance, only because they were staying at the Wester Motel. The powers to be did learn alot from this and they said that next year it will be better. They now know how to advertise for this.
1 comment:
All in all it was an "Extremely" successful weekend. I would like to add info on one item in your post. We started putting this event together mid May 2010. We had flyers as far as Tennessee, California, etc... With the lack of local merchant and corporate sponsors, we did pretty darn good for our first year! We will grow this event every year. The racers from Wyoming said they'd love to see the City of Hardin put on mud drags 4 times a year. They were so impressed with us that 2 of them donated their winnings back to the cause. John Hamburg Memorial Poker Run was small, but with better advertisement and club participation that too will have a bigger turn out next year.
Ride Hard, Ride Often, Ride Free
-Kim Hammond, Mayor City of Hardin
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