PAWS & CLAWS RIDE - 8-27-11

 

 

This was a fun ride to do this summer.  I am an avid animal lover and partial to our four legged fur-kids.  This was a great fundraiser for the Humane Society of Boone County to help raise funds for a new shelter.  Boone County doesn't have a shelter and this was our way of helping to raise funds towards a new building for all the fur-kids that don't have homes.  Humane Society of Boone County solely relies on volunteers, donations, foster homes and the kindness of others willing to put time and effort into saving the dogs & cats of this county.  All the sponsors paid for everything on this fundraiser that included Awesome Goody Bags, T-Shirts, Food and much more!

I have a great respect for these State wide shelters.  I have always gotten my animals from a Humane Society because I know that without homes many of them would be put to sleep or die from lack care.  This ride touched my heart in so many ways and it was just days after the one year anniversary that my beloved Missy girl who passed away on 8-21-10.  She was 16 1/2 yrs old and I got her from a local county Humane Society.  I could not have done this ride last year as it would have been to painful after loosing my precious Missy girl.

Missy Ann - RIP 8-21-10

We arrived at the HD of Indianapolis to get in line for the wonderful day ahead.  There were actually two rides scheduled for that day and we had already donated to the other cause.  As the crowd arrived i took some pictures of course and once we were almost ready to go the a selected few from the Humane Society of Boone County Volunteers spoke about their cause and what the HSBC was wall about.  A short prayer was said and a blessing of the bikes completed.  We mounted up on our motorcycles and started out for the days journey.

 

 

Susan Austin - Director of Fundraising

The Blessing

The ride was off and we were rolling, we went 96th street west to US31 and headed north, we wound around some nice scenic routes with some nice roads and beautiful skies.  When we stopped at traffic lights I would turn around and take a look at all the motorcycles behind us and I can't explain the rush of excitement I get every time I see bikes lined up for a ride or great cause.  It gives you a great feeling and since of pride to be an American Biker even if you are just a passenger. 

 

 

 

As you can see from the pictures above it is neat to be able to capture the joy that I feel when riding.  As we rode along the route I kept thinking to myself how wonderful it was that so many bikers came together for our four legged Fur-Kids.  Without fundraisers like this the animals in need would not be able to receive the love and care that they so deserve.  Our first stop was at Spykes Harley Davidson Dealership in Frankfort where they provided a much needed lunch of hot dogs, chips and soft drinks.  Below are a few pictures of this stop for food and rest before we headed back out.

 

 

 

 

 

After getting a much needed rest and bellies bull, we all mounted up and headed out for our final destination for a dinner and a silent auction and door prizes at the LA Cafe located in Whitestown.  This place opened their business for this fundraiser and provided all the food and drinks to us riders.  We all had a great time socializing with one another.

 

 

I love riding for charities of all kinds, but this one was close to my heart as I am an avid animal lover, but I am partial to dogs.  I remember growing up my dad found a collie puppy and we took him in and named him "Butch", he instantly became a member of our family.  So many of us have dogs and cats and they are a big part of our lives.  They are like our children, they greet you in the morning, greet you when you come home with so much enthusiasm and love that it is over whelming.  They make you laugh, cry and tug at your heart strings every time you look at them.  They depend solely upon you to take care of them and your are their VOICE.  The loves us unconditionally as we do them.  I don't know what my world would be without them.  They can make a horrible end up to be the most beloved day.  

So the next time you decide on getting a dog or a cat, please find it in your hearts to contact your local Humane Society for your selection for the new member of your family, think Adoption first!

Here are some of the Paws & Claws Volunteers:

RUSS DELLEN MEMORIAL LOOP-8.20.11

The Russ Dellen Memorial Loop Ride, I was looking forward to this ride, Jeff and I volunteered at the Dealership to get people registered, check-in pre-registered riders and parking attendants to direct all the riders to the correct places in which the line up with take place.  It was an earlier start and I was in my proper attire and ready to go.

Me before leaving the house

The back of our Volunteer shirts - Cool!

The morning started early, people started showing up before we could get everything set-up.  The Russ Dellen Memorial Loop is a replacement name for the well know prior historic ride "Loop For Life.  The Russ Dellen Memorial Loop also benefits many charities.  This ride today had a very different feel, not sure exactly and couldn't put my finger on it, I did notice that there wasn't as many people for this years ride.  The last time we went was in 2009 and it was packed.  I was excited to ride hoping for the same experience as the one in 2009.  One can not explain the rush feeling when getting together with so many motorcyclist for a great cause.  This was my first time volunteering for this event.  It was neat to see so many different people from so many different places throughout the State of Indiana.  Because I was volunteering I was unable to take any pictures  until it was time for all of us to load up and get ready to head out on the police escorted ride from the dealership to the Marion County Fairgrounds.  I did take pictures of all of leaving the dealership and the police escort: 

Waiting to Leave

Behind us the line before hitting 96th St.

The line in front of us before hitting 96th  Street

Our Men in Blue escorting us to the Marion Co. Fairgrounds

 Upon arriving at the fairgrounds the truck carrying the 9-11 Beams veered off down one side road and all of us riders continued another way to park with all the people that arrived for registration at the Marion County Fairgrounds.  To my surprise there weren't that many bikes, in 2009 the fairgrounds were packed and you couldn't see any of the grassy areas this year only about 1/4 of the field was filled.  I was a little disappointed and could not understand why there wasn't as many riders this year.  We all went up to the band stand where breakfast was being served.  Took a much needed break before mounting up to head out for the ride.  With the Beams in front of the pack we all Mounted up and headed out to I465, we had to stop and turn off the bikes while the Men in Blue cleared and stopped the traffic across all lanes of this major interstate. During the ride we have two motorcycles that went down, the first one that went was not a good one because both riders were seriously injured with broken bones.  We continued our way around 465 and being a passenger I get the joy of waving and taking pictures of people on the over passes waving and cheering us all on.  We arrived back at the fairgrounds for a free lunch and many activities.  We ate and went around to see the Beams and look at the vendors items that were for sale.  After socializing a few of us decided to head out and ride to New Palestine for some ice cream.  Once we had our desert we decided it was time to head home as both my husband and I were very tired.  Over all it was a good day with great people, food, and socializing.  Below are some pictures of the crowd:

John & Shiz

Jeff and I

Marion County Fairgrounds before the main event

Waiting on the Men in Blue to clear the Interstate I465

  

The Main Event

The Last Leg of the Event and this was waiting for us! AWESOME!

"ROLLIN' ON THE RIVER" - MADISON, IN

I had been looking forward to this ride for over a month, all the Chapter members really said it was a must to go!  Here we go on an over-nighter! This was another great trip.  We headed out on Saturday morning and I think we split up into two groups due to the size so that it would be a safer ride.

Here we are waiting to leave in group two:

 

  

 

 

We got on the road and headed east then south, we went out to US52 then headed south on State Road 9, this was a beautiful day for riding and the excitement was building, all the hoop la is beginning to set in. 52 the scenery was ok nothing exciting to report, but it was nice to be out on the open road.  

 

Once we started heading south the roads got better with curves and beautiful scenery.  Here are some pictures of some of the curves and canopy views along the way:

During this phase of ride I throughly enjoyed this as it was hot and the shade provided much needed all natural air conditioning  :)  we went through roads that I had not been on before, it was getting close to lunch time and I was getting hungry, on the way we saw a castle like building on top of a big hill, I tried to take some pictures but the building is a little hard to see, I couldn't quite tell if this was a house or some sort of Catholic building, here take a look for your self:

We went to a little place in the country can't remember the name of the place but it was an awesome lunch spot and they had a buffet where the fried chicken was out of this world, best damn fried chicken I have ever had!  I stuffed myself full like a hungry pig!  I really shouldn't have done that because I was not comfortable for the next hour on our way down to Madison, Indiana

Now it was time to get back on the road, some of the members were only going as far as the lunch spot so we said our goodbyes to them and started to depart to move forward to our final destination "The River Boat Inn".  Leaving the restaurant one of our new riders took a fall, others stopped to help her get her bike upright and she was on her way, little did I know this would be another day of mishaps.  Shortly into our ride one of our friends took a spill in the middle of the road, it scared me at first because I realized who it was.  He wasn't hurt just his pride.  I could breathe a sigh of relief.  We headed onward, it was decided that we needed to stop at a gas station to fuel up, take a break and rest for a little bit.

We ran into some more curvey roads and canopies which was nice cause it was one HOT HOT DAY, and storms were brewing and headed our way unknown to us at the time.  Here are some pictures of our ride going towards Madison, IN which was our final destination:

This curve was a little scarey!

As you can see from the photo above these roads got very curvey and this one actually made me a little nervous.  Being a passenger you don't have any control over anything and it's times like these that make me all the more determined that I want to learn to ride my own.  That way I can be in control, but it has it's down side to because when your the one in front you don't get to take pictures or look around at your surroundings, you have to pay very close attention to what is going on around you and with other vehicles that may be coming around the bend.  I do enjoy my backseat an aweful lot and I would be crushed not to be able to take the pictures that I am used to taking.  Pictures say alot!  So here comes the river views! We pulled off again at another gas station to fuel up and I decided to look at my weather app on my Iphone 4 because the sky to the west of us was not looking to nice and I wanted to see what was coming our way.  You can't tell by the pictures below that anything was going to take place because I was taking pictures to the east

We loaded up from the gas station and started making our way to Madison, IN about 15 minutes into the ride it cut loose with rain, and high winds, everyone slowed down to a crawl due to the wind was so bad that it felt like it was taking us sideways instead of forward and the rain was hard although it felt good and cool it didn't feel good on the skin.  It is like a bunch of needles pricking your skin and that hurts a little, the rain, wind and lightening lasted about 10 minutes but seemed longer.  Once we made it through that we were very close to Madison.  We finally made it to the "Riverboat Inn" drinched and tired we checked in.  We unloaded the bike and went up to our room, to my surprise it was quite nice, two queen size beds, a sitting room with a TV, bathroom and full eat in kitchen.  It was nice and really and the price with tax was around $110, what a deal!  We dried off, changed clothes and headed down to the main area where the festivities would take place.  It is around 6pm and the rain poured out of the skies, my husband and I were undecided as to what we would eat for dinner, some people were going to the Shrimp House across the field from the hotel, others ordered Pizza.  While waiting there came the sun and a rainbow and then out of nowhere there appear in the sky next to the one rainbow it was a DOUBLE RAINBOW, this is a rare site and yes I took pictures.  In talking with a few friends we decided to go with John and Shiz, Dan and Marcy into town to have a nice relaxing dinner with Marcy's sister and brother-in-law.  It was a local sports bar, the food was good and so was the company.

Dinner in the town of "Madison"

This was going to be a once in a lifetime experience, Marcy's brother-in law is somehow connected to the famous boats that run "The Madison Regatta" on the Ohio River during the July 4th weekend here in Madison, IN, this race is a yearly tradition and he decided he would take us to see one of the boats that they house in his warehouse.  Again I'm not sure how they are connected but he works on this giants.  Below are a few pictures of this gian speed boat, who would have known that they are so big, I was amazed and taken back at the size of these things, it turned out to be a pretty cool evening.

 

 

 

 

Again another history lesson.  Learn something new on just about every trip.  We all got back to the hotel where the festivities were underway, let the PARTY BEGIN!  the rain had stopped and it was turning into quite a fun evening as you will see from the pictures below everyone had an awesome time and I will do again next year.  We got to know some faces that we had seen at prior chapter meetings but didn;t know thier names, this chapter group is an awesome group of people and we have become quite fond of everyone.  We has a blast, singing, chatting, joking!

Our Director of the HOG Chapter 1 Group

Well the night came to an end and Jeff and I headed out and up to our room.  We turned on the TV only to find that at the Indiana State Fair the Grand Stands had collapsed just before the Country Music Group "Sugarland" was to take the stage.  The storms were so severe that it litterally blew the stage down on top of spectators, this was a sad night as we found out that 4 had been confirmed dead and many more seriously injured.  The storm that blew through Madison after midnight was a bad one and  it got really windy and the rain was hard, I was concerned about the motorcycles outside in this storm.  We got up the next morning and I called my mother-in-law that lives with us to find out if everything was ok at home and she said it was but that we might want to check the roof when we get home just in case.  She had stated that was probablly the worst storm she has been up with in a long time.  Once satisfied that everything was ok, Jeff and I loaded up the bike and took off for breakfast because we heard the breakfast at the Inn was not that great and we didn't want to take any chances.  We got back to the Inn to met up with everyone, while waiting for everyone to finish breakfast Jeff and Bill were observing the damage that last nights storm had done to the grounds at the Inn, they both headed down the steps to the lower deak where a flag pole was bent in hald and the American Flag was dragging the ground, thier military instinct kicked in and they took the American Flag off the pole and folded it up, it was like they were both still in the service, you could see the respect in thier eyes and the love in thier hearts as they completed thier task to bring the flag up to the Inn and hand it off to the ladies at the front desk.  Below is a picture of them and you can see the pride in both of thier faces.

We all got loaded up and headed out, we went across the bridge to Kentucky and stopped a the gas station to fill up for the morning. While there, one of our friends had some bike trouble and headed home one of the other couples went with them in case they broke completely down, our motto is "Leave No Rider Behind". Also pulling into the gas station were old model "T"'s from the local car show that went on in Madison the day before below are a few pictures of them.

 We were headed up to Rabbit Hash Kentucky this was our second time in this neat little hole in the wall town.  Some ate lunch and others just enjoyed going into the shops that were there and reading some history sign on the town.  This is the town where the Mayor is actually a dog named "Lucy".  After that we headed back up north towards home, it had been along couple of days and I was worn out and ready to get back to see my dogs.  Below are some the rest of the pictures that I took along the way home:

The Mayor of Rabbit Hash, "LUCY"

 

this dog was running along on the side of the road on our way up to Rabbit Hash

 

  

 

 

Still looking gloomy on the way home!