Saturday and Sunday, April 27 thru 28 brought about a very long day full of loads of fun, live music, eating, and riding! Fort Worth HOG and other sponsors, Rumbling Rider included, took part in a charity drive for breast cancer through Careity Foundation. This was a 24-hour relay ride that started at 9 am Saturday morning until 9 am Sunday morning. From start to finish for 24 hours there was a group of bikes on the road at all times. As a group was arriving back at the dealership, the next one would take off, this went on around the clock.
Day And Night Routes
There were 2 routes set up. The daytime route was on curvy back roads, and the other for the night which was all freeway. Each route was 1 hour long and you would sign up for what times you wanted to ride. I rode five times on the day route, and five on the night route. That put me at about 1 every other hour.
Live Music During The Day
There was live music from 2 bands, both were just phenomenal. I am not knowledgeable about local bands, it's not my scene, but one of them was a DJ's band from Lonestar 92.5. The other band had probably the best cover artist singer I have heard in my life. They did a lot of Heart covers and it was perfect. There was a pancake breakfast and a BBQ lunch for food. There was also a bra decorating contest which was appropriate for the purpose of the event.
Saturday Riding Weather
Saturday morning started chilly in the mid-50s. It was very overcast but eventually warmed up to the low 70s and clear in the afternoon. By Saturday evening the temperature began dropping quickly. We were soon back into the low the 50s for the duration of the night. Along with the cool temperatures was a heavy dew that set in. So we were chilled and damp. About 8 pm on Saturday the crowd of enthusiastic riders began to dwindle down. We were down to the regular HOG chapter members that keep events moving.
The Event Through The Night
Until about midnight riders would show up and do the night route once and then go home. After midnight, however, there were probably only about 20 bikes or so that stayed through the night. The riding groups dwindled down to about 6 riders for each time block. We would try to sleep as much as we could but it was cold and that made it difficult. There were movies that were projected onto the wall of the Honda dealership next door throughout the night to watch as well as some seriously yummy snacks. Thumbs up to whoever baked those chocolate chip cookies. And I would like to give special thanks to…….Coffee, Coffee, Coffee, for your constant injection of caffeine that kept us going.
The Night Riding Was Great
The rides during the night were awesome. I really enjoyed the ones in the dead of the night between 1 and 4 am. The roads were free of traffic, the earth was quiet except for the rumbling of the bikes moving along the freeway. I noticed something during the deep night when I could focus on the sound of the bikes without other noise distractions. Call me crazy but, I'm right.
The sound emitted from a group of Harley's when moving at a constant uninterrupted speed harmonizes within the same sound frequency. All you hear is ONE deep rumbling of all the bikes instead of each bike individually. I have never experienced this when riding with other brands of bikes. It was great, we would be moving along, mesmerized by the harmonics, then pass under a bridge. It would amplify for that second it took to cross under, then back to that low synchronized frequency.
Exhausted
Sunday Morning after the event we were exhausted. When we got home we dropped into bed and slept. We were still sluggish in the head after waking up in the afternoon. It was hard to recover from this event.
What a fantastic thing to do.