Tuesday, September 17, 2013

9-11 Remembrance Ride

Sunday Gary and I rode in the 9-11 Remembrance Ride sponsored by the BASTARDS Motorcycle Club from Laurel.  This was their 8th year for this ride.  It is a short poker run and all the proceeds go to the Laurel Home Town Group.  This group sends out care packages to Montana service men and women serving in the wars.

Robert had received care packages from them so Gary and I do our part to help out.  It is always fun and a lot of bikers show up.  We start in Laurel and ride to the Courthouse in Billings for a short ceremony.  This year they had all the veterans and active military step up to the front.  There were only 3 women in the group.  Most were veterans and some came forward to give a short talk on what 9-11 meant to them.  Most were younger, veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Gary said I should have stepped forward with my history.  Daughter of a WWII vet, wife of a Viet Nam vet, mother of an Iraq War vet and being a vet myself.  Not to mention that when 9-11 struck I was working as a 9-1-1 Operator for the Sheriff's Office and was in Kalispell attending 9-1-1 school at the time.  Food for thought.

After the ceremony it was on to the next poker stop at BugZ's bar in the Heights, then we went to the final destination at Tiny's Tavern.  There were only 3 stops on this poker run, so two cards were drawn in Laurel.  I had a good hand going until the last stop.  I had a pair of 4's and Queens.  Just needed one more of either one at the last stop.  I drew a 3.  Figures.

Tiny's Tavern put on a good feed for us, we had burgers and hot dogs with baked beans, chili, cole slaw and potato salad.  It was announced that Tiny's didn't charge the BASTARDS for the food, it was their donation. We met in the outside patio at Tiny's, very nice.  We estimated that there were about 500 people that started on the poker run, not everyone ended up at Tiny's, must have been about 200 there.

We are going to have to make a point of going to Tiny's again.  We have heard that they do have good dinners.

This ride was also on the same day as our HOG Chapter Mystery Ride and meeting.  Gary refuses to go on any more mystery rides since the fiasco two years ago. 

All in all we had a fun day, spent with our good friends.  We can honestly say that we went the whole riding season without getting wet.  That's right, no riding in rain storms this year.

1 comment:

Mmom said...

Does that mean you are done riding for the season. We seem to be having quite a bit of showers lately. Good thing I was in Hdn Monday. Today had several lightning and thunder storms. No need to water.1832