First Ever Poker Run

Earlier this spring I did my very first "Blessing of The Bikes" event. In all my years of riding, it just never worked out to be able to attend one. Today was another first, a benefit poker run.

Flyer from today's event

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I left the house at 09:00 to meet the guys at 09:30, but I ended up arriving 10 minutes late. Today was the day that state DOT decided to fix all the road washouts from the recent flash flooding in my area. I got stuck at no less than 7 active flagged construction zones with one lane alternating traffic. Not until I got well west of my hometown did I have a clear ride. We didn't hang around long because the other two guys had not yet had their morning coffee. I did at home, and had a thermos of hot java in the trunk of "The Beast." A quick ride to the DD a few miles away and the other guys were all set and I enjoyed a second cup of my own brew. We set out for the ride from Manchester to Deep River on 2-lane state roads, no interstates. The ride was pleasant and uneventful.

The Sobieski Club is a Polish-American Club, not a motorcycle club. The parking lot is a fucking nightmare for big heavy bikes like mine or the Harley full-dressers, because it is gravel on an incline. I dropped "The Beast" on her crash bars in a flat gravel lot a few weeks ago just standing still, I was hoping NOT to have a repeat performance. Close, with some slippage under foot, but no drop. We got ourselves registered and some refreshments and headed out to the first stop. We decided to hit the closest one first, The Rusty Rail Cafe.

For those unfamiliar (as was I before this poker run), here is how it works. Pay your entry fee, sign the obligatory waiver, and get your score sheet and a wristband. I also bought raffle tickets and entered them for the prizes I was interested in. At each stop you draw a physical playing card from a shuffled deck and it gets recorded by contest officials on your score card. You go to each stop once and in whatever order your riding group chooses. The game ends at a set time and you return to the starting point to receive your final card and turn in your score sheet. I was on my way to a straight; with a 5 of clubs, 8 of spades, and 9 of diamonds, with two more stops to go hoping for a 6 and a 7. Nope, at the fourth stop I picked the fucking Jack of diamonds, making my hand garbage. We received our final card at the Sobieski Club which was a 3 of something but at that point I didn't care anymore. I just wanted to eat.

When we left at noon there was no pig cooking, so we assumed there would be one of those pig roasting trailers that restaurants or caterers will bring in, and VOLIA! piggy is served. Nope... they cooked it themselves and got a very late start. Instead of eating at 5 PM, they didn't start cutting up Mr. Piggy until 6:45PM. I wanted to be well on my way home by then. We scarfed some down and hit the road. Since it was just me and my bud with his Goldwing, we were going to just hop on the interstate and do a high speed cruise home. Getting to the highway was tricky. The road the GPS initially wanted us to take was closed until August 25th with a bridge out. The next road we tried started out good, But we stopped pretty quick when the road suddenly ended in a huge puddle of unknown depth across the entire road, and the road beyond that was a dirt road mess. We tuned around and went up to road #3 and this time got over to the highway with no issue. By this time the sun was getting lower in the sky, so we pulled over on the entrance ramp to deploy hoodies. It was cool but tolerable in t-shirts on the back roads, but would be too chilly at 80 MPH. We split up on I-91 north where he continued on towards home and I veered off  to head east on I-84. I had to make one quick stop at the bank to hit the ATM and replenish my cash. I ended the day with 215 miles on the trip meter and an aching butt. I will sleep good tonight!