April Fool's Ride

Sunday we went on the HOG Chapter April Fool's Ride. This ride was originally scheduled for April 3, but due to the nasty weather it was rescheduled to the 10th. Had a good turn out, there were 37 people who signed in. On this ride we got a free meal.

This is a ride where we don't know where we are going or how long we will be gone. We all met at the dealership at noon. The day was nice, the sun was out but a bit on the windy side. The wind wasn't too bad when we left Hardin, but there were moments of some strong gusts.

We got to the dealership around 11:30 and met many of our friends there. Everyone was excited to just get out and ride, winter has been a long one. Normally the dealership is closed on Sunday's but the 2nd man in charge rides with us and he will open the dealership up, have coffee made for us and most importantly we get a bathroom stop before heading out.

It was time to head out, we got our instructions for the ride. All we had to do was follow the arrows that were put on sign posts, hoping the wind didn't blow them off. Then we had to watch for the man in charge at the last intersection then watch for his son waving the chapter flag at our final destination. Gary is a ride captain for the chapter this year. Since there were so many of us, we had to leave in two groups and he was the sweeper in the first group. We are the last ones in case there are problems. Had it easy all we had to do was follow the others.

It was a short ride and we were reminded to watch out for the twist. We ended up heading out on Shiloh road with all the round abouts, then out on Molt road, heading south to Laurel then back into Billings. We almost missed the very first arrow as the wind was blowing so hard that the arrow sign was bent in half, the rest of the arrow signs were taped pretty good.

We kept waiting for the "fool" part of the ride. I guess it was we ended up back on the round abouts. Everyone did make it to our final destination which was Tiny's Tavern in Billings. We were served pizza and chicken with free sodas.

Had a very enjoyable day despite the wind. There were a few times where a gust would catch me and about yank my head off. I did have to hold on to my helmet at one time. Looking forward to our next ride to Lavina on the 17th.