9-11 Memorials

We participated in two 9-11 memorials. The first one we rode with the BASTARDS on their poker run. The proceeds from this go to the Laurel Hometown Troops. This groups mails care packages to Montana soldiers. We rode in this last year and had fun. We didn't participate in the poker run as we had to get to the College of Technology for the memorial there.

There were 200 bikes riding in the BASTARDS run, we made our way from Laurel to the Yellowstone County Courthouse for a short presentation. What a sight that was to see all those bikes. We were towards the back of the procession and we never did see the front. It was fun and you should have seen the motorists when bikers were stopping traffic in the city of Billings. In fact one woman motorist was on a mission to confront a biker who stopped her. We didn't stay to see how that went, not pretty I'm sure. Apparently the Billings PD wouldn't cooperate except when we got to the courthouse. In fact we were told that we violated the noise ordinance.

If it wasn't for the bikers there wouldn't have been anyone at the ceremony at the courthouse. There may have been about 10 people besides bikers there. We had to leave the group here to make our way to the college.

The ceremony at the college was for the piece of the World Trade Center that we escorted back in May. Gary was the ride captain for this event with the Patriot Guard Riders. Had a good turn out about 25 people participated.

First we set up our flag line at the entrance to the college, then we set up behind the military and emergency services personnel during the actual ceremony. We were there for 2 2/1 hours and it got pretty warm out.

Gary bought a case of bottled water for our group, it was a welcome relief. There were alot of people out for this event and they did keep things rolling. I have my photos of this on picasa.