2022 Riding Season is Officially Underway! - Kickoff Ride Recap
More photo’s can be found at Eddie’s photo gallery.
It was a long time coming, but the 2022 Kickoff Breakfast and Ride can be summed up in one word…WOW! Let’s start with the numbers.
Breakfast attendees – 40ish…at some point you just lose count
Kickoff Ride Bikes – 30! Yes, you read that right. It was a record-setting kickoff for the 2022 season, which I hope is an indicator of what is yet to come this year. I encourage you to check out the pictures and video of us rolling out on our Facebook page.
Temperatures – 50’s when we rolled out and 70’s by the time we got to ice cream. You couldn’t ask for much better.
As always, we started with breakfast catered by Buehler’s and provide by Bair’s Indian Motorcycle, with plenty of fellowship as our members and guests mingled and caught up with each other. It was especially good to see our snowbird friends who have returned home to ride with us. We also welcomed several members of North Coast IMRG 1946, who joined us for breakfast and the ride. One of our Midwest Regional Volunteers, Bryan Moore, is an officer in Chapter 1946 and introduced the other officers and riders from that chapter who came down with him. Here’s hoping our Kickoff Breakfast is just the beginning of friendship and fellowship between our chapters for a long time to come.
We were also honored to welcome some very special guests: the family of Mike Johnston, our 2021 Rider of the Year. President Wanda Carlisle unveiled our Rider of the Year plaque (personally designed by Vice President John Breda) and presented it to Mike’s wife Rose Johnston as Mike’s son, Mike Jr., daughter-in-law Dawn, grandson Mike III and his girlfriend Amber, granddaughter Mary and even two of Mike’s great-grandchildren looked on. It was a touching moment to be sure. Mike is doing well, by the way. His trach has been capped, which means he’s breathing normally now with only minimal oxygen and he’s regularly eating “people food” as he refers to it. The Rider of the Year plaque will be displayed in the Service area and will have a new name added each year. The Rider of the Year is selected annually by the officer based on participation in rides, meetings and functions, volunteering at chapter/dealership events and general enthusiasm for IMRG. In addition to recognition on the plaque, the Rider of the Year receives a gift card from Bair’s Indian Motorcycle.
The Rider of the Year wasn’t the only presentation made at the Kickoff Breakfast. Ever since Kevin Irwin announced he was stepping down from officer duties to plan his 55-day bucket list retirement trip out west, the other officers started making plans of their own…in the form of a send off goodie bag, filled with some practical and some entertaining items, including: bear spray, an MRE, a can of tactical bacon, a tote of first aid supplies including the all important Monkey Butt, Preparation H and anti-diarrheal meds and enough maps to get him back on track no matter how lost he might get, even if he finds himself looking at the wrong ocean! We’ve been informed that Kevin’s daughter has set up a trip blog for him, so we can all follow along on this once in a lifetime trip.
Finally, the new IMRG 1963 official chapter patch was unveiled. You’ve been asking, and we are finally able to come through for you (thank you Maria for pulling this together). The patch comes in a 3-inch and 6-inch size and thanks to the IMRG local chapter support program and Bair’s never-ending support, the 3-inch patch will be available at no cost to the first 50 members who request one. Patches are on order and should be available at the Parts counter at Bair’s soon. Keep an eye on your email for details of how to request a patch and when you can pick it up. Bair’s has also ordered 6-inch patches which will be available for sale at the Parts counter.
Between breakfast, presentations and the unveiling of our chapter patch, it was a jam-packed morning, but there was still a ride to get to! Before launching into our pre-ride meeting, Wanda took us down memory lane for a minute, sharing the story of the very first IMRG Chapter 1963 ride in 2014 and group picture at Custer Monument, both courtesy of the founding president, Bob Roger. After checking out the official group picture from every year after that, we had a quick review of how we ride, what our route would be (mostly 172, 9, 646,151, 332, 416, 800 and 212, plus some pretty county roads) and how we were going to manage 30 bikes; then headed out to the parking lot for our new chapter photo and made beautiful music firing up all those bikes. Again, I encourage you to check out the video posted by Dawn Johnston on our Facebook page. If you followed the previous link, do it again. I could watch that video over and over, and I have.
How did we manage 30 bikes you ask? We used 2 mid-sweeps in addition to the tail sweep, all in communication via helmet Bluetooth and followed the practice set last year of pulling into parking lots to the right if separated. Once again, even with 30 bikes, we managed to stay together for the most part. A handful of bikes missed one of the splits for Rt 9, but the tail sweep was with them and they, together, found their way to Custer monument, where we took the traditional group picture. By the way, the church parking lot across from the monument was barely big enough to hold all the bikes! A few minutes after leaving the monument we filled another parking lot across from Bob’s Pub in Scio (now the Country Pub) and then filled the pub itself. With 4 passengers, we were nearly 35 strong! Bob’s Burgers were enjoyed by most of us (eventually) and we continued on our ride…the ice cream was calling! When we arrived at our final destination, the Dairy Queen in Bolivar at 77 and 212, we got a surprise…the dining room was closed! We would not be deterred, however, so off to the drive-through we went…on foot! That was an interesting experience to say the least.
All in all, an incredible day with good food, good friends, good roads and good weather. And did I mention 30 bikes? I’m back to WOW!
