Ride for a cause

A while back I stopped at my local Brier coffee stand one morning, Jason’s Java. He is one of a handful of businesses in my small town and knows everyone. I noticed on the take-out window there was a poster about a benefit ride. I read it carefully as I waited for my double tall espresso drink to be made. Not knowing Jason very well, I said ‘thank you’ and went on to work.

The notice about the ride stayed with me all day, and when my husband got home I mentioned it to him. We had only been riding a couple of years, and hadn’t ridden in a group before. We decided to just do it.

Saturday morning came and we woke up and anxiously got ready for our ride. We started up the motorcycles and rode the half mile up to Jason’s Java. There waited Jason, with a chromed out Harley Road King in the parking lot. He was surprised to see us, but happy to have more riders for the cause. One by one the riders came and we greeted each one and introduced ourselves. Everyone was appreciating each others bikes. There were 10 of us altogether, with 2 women riders including myself.

We paid $20 each and still didn’t know who the ride was going to benefit. All the bikers were willing to pay and ride just for the opportunity to help someone in need. Jason began telling us about a local 18 year old boy who had just been stricken with multiple sclerosis and was already confined to a wheelchair. He had gone to school one Monday and was fine. By Friday he couldn’t walk. It was a sad story; and Jason went on to say that the family needed help, of course, with the medical bills. Then a man spoke up from the group and said he was the dad. We were all motivated by that point to ride…..

We took off and rode the back roads from Brier, which is located north of Seattle, WA. We headed east towards the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. We rode lots of twisty, cornfield bordered roads. The feeling of riding in a group was wonderful. It was a little hard to resist going faster than the group. I felt that I was holding back, but got used to it after a while. What wonderful farmland and fields we saw. We stopped in the town of Duvall, where there is a little ‘biker bar’ that any biker in this part of the state has probably been to. We had some refreshments, took some pictures of all the bikes lined up outside, and started back. In all it was a 3 ½ hour ride.

When we returned to Jason’s Java the dad asked if we wouldn’t mind going up a few blocks to his home. His son loves motorcycles and knew we were riding for him that day. We all started up again and rode up to the house which was located in a culdesac. We rode round and round in a circle and revved our engines as loud as we dared. One guy did the ‘tire burnout’ in the center of the circle. The front door of the house opened and out walked the mother, pushing her son in a wheelchair. His eyes were lit up, but sadly he couldn’t even speak or do anything but make a few noises. We each introduced ourselves and hung around for a little while. Then we rode off, revving our engines as we left.

I think we made his day……he sure made all of ours.