September 9, 2013
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Ride To Remember
It was an exciting weekend in my usually quiet corner of rural Michigan. Saturday was The 'Duh's big village festival where yours truly beat out a blueberry chocolate pie to win the brutally competitive Pie Baking Contest. If you ever want to win a baking contest, remember the acronym JAR (Just Add Rum).
On Sunday I skipped church in order to spend three hours pouring orange juice for bikers at the Ride To Remember. It's an escorted motorcycle ride through two or three rural counties in memory of first responders who lost their lives on 9/11. Proceeds go to the local chapter of the American Red Cross. I just happened to have my camera with me and managed to slip away from my onerous orange juice duties long enough to shoot a few photos.
A few of the escort vehicles: city police, city fire department, sheriff's department motorcycles, ambulance, news station, township fire department, sheriff's department cruiser, Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicle.
A few of the volunteers. We were labeled for easy access.
Haha! I took a photo of somebody pouring their own OJ. Oops!
The red fire truck in the collage photo was there to hang a large American flag from their ladder over the intersection where the ride began. It made me feel very special that they remained there after all the motorcycles and support vehicles were gone and waited while we cleaned up and packed all the tables, flags, bags of trash, leftover food and tee-shirts into the remaining Red Cross vans and allowed us to drive under the flag, too.
A few of the motorcycles.
Color guard from one of the law enforcement agencies.
The small fire truck from one of the local townships was carrying a piece of the World Trade Center.
I slipped away just before the ceremony started and shot a few photos from the second story of the courthouse. I also shot a video of all the bikes and escort vehicles leaving, but stupid Windows 8 is not letting me upload the video onto my laptop. Just try to imagine the roar of a couple of hundred motorcycle engines and the sirens of all those emergency vehicles. It was pretty awesome.
How was your weekend?
Comments (5)
That's pretty awesome!
not nearly as good as yours...thanks for all you do SaintVi <3
Very cool. I have goosebumps imagining the sight and sound of all those vehicles going under the flag. I'm kind of disappointed that you didn't get to drive the ERV..
I heard today it was 250 bikes and 354 riders.
You may not have been in a church building, but I am sure that God was with you and all the others at this recognition ceremony.
Kudos on your pie winnings.
My weekend was great; a mixture of work, family and friends.
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