When I went to the awards dinner, I really didn't expect to win anything. My poker hands were lousy (but not lousy enough to win the worst hand contest), even though I bought raffle tickets, I usually don't win the good stuff, and even though I had planned to, I did not enter my bike in the beauty contest. So, I was really there for dinner and some socializing. For those keeping score, Jody was right, there was barbecue – – even though I was, also right because I said we were getting chicken.
There were many certificates given out. Person who rode the longest distance, oldest rider, youngest rider, some prices for the bike rodeo and a special award for the rider who was newest Valkyrie rider. Guess who won?
Well, I'd only been on the bike for 2 1/2 months even though I’ve put almost 4000 miles on it.
As a whole, our table was doing very well with raffle prizes. I won some bike wax, a sticker, some Seafoam (courtesy of Grumpy's Custom Parts) and a doo rag. As the evening wore on, each of us at the table had won a couple of different things except for Jody, who went the entire evening without winning anything until the very last drawing – – which was for a prize valued at over $600. Any guesses as to who won that one?
In the end, the real winner was Camp Quality, a very worthy cause. Aside from individual donations that were made, a bucket was passed around that netted over thousand dollars… VRCC handed them a $7,500 check at the end. Valkyrie riders are very generous.
I do wish to thank the people who shared the table with me: Momz (and his wife whose name I did not catch), Banker, Jody, JJ, Turtle Dove & GreenDragon. Thank you all for the good dinner conversation and for sharing a bottle of wine.
Then came the time to say goodbye. I packed up my doo rag, Seafoam, sticker, bike wax, event T-shirt, InZane pin and my framed Certificate of Achievement then got ready to head out. Prior to leaving, I was hoping to get my bike blessed since I had heard that was part of rally as well. Since I did not own the Valkyrie when the annual blessing happened in Baldwin earlier in the riding season, I wanted to be sure to get my bike blessed while I was here.
I noticed a fellow biker wandering through the parking lot and I knew he had been sitting at the biker ministry table. Therefore, I walked up, introduced myself, and met Loren who was a Chaplain. I asked him if he would please take a moment and bless my bike. He smiled and explained that it was more important to bless the rider than the bike but he would be more than willing to do both. We went over to my bike and he said a brief prayer for the bike and or the rider. I have to admit, I've never heard a prayer that included good mileage and mechanics, but I was grateful for it. Which brings me to one failure that I made that day: I meant to hand Loren a donation for his group and forgot all about it because I was in such a hurry to be headed home. So, Loren, drop me an e-mail or someone drop me the ministries' address and I will be glad to send it on.
Overall, I had a great time. I wish I had been able to stay for the entire event and maybe next year I will be able to go to Arkansas and do just that. It may have been an advertising slogan back in the 70s, but good things do happen on a Honda -- and even better things on a Valkyrie.
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