Veteran’s Ride

On July 8th of this year, we attended the Veteran’s Ride sponsored by the Pearly Gates Bar here in Green Bay.  Now if you’ve read my Rolling Thunder series, you’ll see some similarities, and that’s because I LOVE this ride.  It’s my favorite ride of the year for a few reasons. 

First, it’s very well organized.  It’s hard rounding up more than 1,000 people and getting them to and from places, on time, without incident.  The planning that’s involved on any given day is tremendous.  There needs to be volunteers for parking the bikes, getting the speakers, selecting the group of veterans who will be honored, food, beer/soda and volunteers to tend bar, music, route planning, prize donation/organizations, registration – I think you get the picture.  

Second, we have a great group of friends we meet up with and ride with every year.  It’s a great time to connect or reconnect.

Third, its a great cause. The Veteran’s Ride has been going for more than 10 years now and each year they celebrate and honor a selected group of Veterans.  This year they honored Korean War Veterans. The money raised stays local  and the area veteran’s are getting assistance. 

This year there were:

714 bikes 
136 cars
1300+ People on the ride

Lastly, it’s the only ride I’ve ever been on where people plan parties in their yards so they can be outside to see all the bikes go by.  The route is published ahead of time and people who live along the route have family and friends come over so they can sit and wave flags as we all go by.  It’s truly a sight to see.  Every year I’m brought to tears at the support our military receives and I’m so happy the anti-military behaviors have changed.

I compiled a video of the ride.  The beginning starts very slow but as we get rolling, things smooth out.  Let me know your thoughts.