There was so much going on it was difficult to capture with pictures to even begin to understand the enormity of todays event. The charity focuses on providing clean safe drinking water to people who have none. For each rider that participated Fort Worth Harley donated $50.00 to the charity. There was also a raffle for a 2012 road king and the proceedings from that were also donated to the charity. What more could you want! A great ride that benefits a fantastic cause!
The event started at Fort Worth Harley at 9am with pancakes for all and a poker walk. Registration was also open and you recieved a raffle ticket for goodies from that as well.
My wife rode with me on this one so as count as another rider for the charity contribution since passengers also counted. We arrived about 10am and was surprised at what we saw! WOW, there were already over 100 bikes there at the staging area!
First thing, REGISTER!!!
Then we spent some time wandering around taking everything in, seeing friends, having a good time with everyone. The Water for Life group had a tent where you could get detailed information about their organization. While we were there my wife bought some riding glasses and doo-rag. I got one as well, since she was buying.
I wanted to try and capture the enormity of the event so we went back to the road so I could get some pics of the line of bikes. In the short time we had been up at the dealership the amount of bikes had doubled! Literally, the final count when the ride began was 225 bikes! I took a bunch of pics but the line of bikes was so long and went so far back it was impossible to capture them all unless you were airborn. So what I did was take 3 pictures and stuck them together to form a landscape kind of pic to get an idea of it all.
The Honda dealership wasnt doing anything with their parking lot, they never do, and the line of bikes was getting so long we began staging in their parking lot as well. This ride was open to all bikes so it was considerate of Honda to let us use their parking lot. Their sales team doesnt care about anyone (I know this firsthand from experience) but at least they were willing to do this small favor.
Then came the word to saddle up and get ready to go! Everyone began making their way to the bikes. It took over 30 minutes just to get everyone ready and bikes started for the procession to begin.
The ride route is 22 miles total which starts at the dealership, goes right through the Fort Worth Stockyards, and ends at Billy Bobs Honky Tonk. Our road captains completely blocked off all crossroads and highway entrances so the ride could stay together parade style. When we got closer off the freeway a Fort Worth Police Department escort was provided to insure everyone could stay together safely. I would like to give a big THANKS to our road captains and the fort worth PD for helping to make this ride go so smoothly.
I dont know how far back the line of bikes trailed from start to finish as it was impossible to get a picture of the entire procession at once. Someone from our chapter took this one from a bridge over the freeway and it gives a small idea of how big this event was. There are 3 separate pictures taken at different intervals of the procession.
Hehe we made it in one of the pictures!
Once we got closer the Fort Worth PD took over escorting the procession.
When we got just outside of the Stockyards there was a staging area set up so that everyone could get back together from any separations that might have occured during the 22 mile ride. Again, I tried to capture the essence of the event and kind of stuck 2 pictures together. The line of bikes was so long we didnt fit on one section of street so they had us parking around a corner. The picture is taken from the corner pointing both directions and merged together.
My wife just had to take my picture! BLEH!!! HAHAHA!!!
We stayed here for about 10 minutes while the Fort Worth PD went in and around the stockyards to begin blocking the streets for our ride through COWTOWN!!! It was great, 225 bikes rumbling through the stockyards. It certainly gave everyone a great deviation from the usual site seeing.
Once we got to Billy Bobs everyone was guided into parking formations. I was able to get a pretty decent picture by standing on some cattle guards close to the parking lot. Unfortunatly the picture only covers a few of the bikes but its still pretty kewl.
We got inside and the bull riding arena had been reserved for the grand finale event.
After a short video about Water for Life and a Harley Davidson Road King raffle ticket give away, a check was presented for $69,500 to the charity! What a great feeling to know you were part of saving lives. This end result was what the event was all about and for my wife and myself it was personally fullfilling and rewarding to have been a part of.
Thanks to everyone who rode, gave their time, organized, and contributed to this wonderful cause.
I had a GREAT time!
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