REAL Memorial Day ride in Western Illinois

[CatatonicBug]

I recently found a group here in St. Louis on a website called Meetup.com. The group is just a local riders' group, and they are planning a ride this Saturday (the actual Memorial Day) to visit several memorable locations in the area. We will start at 8am at the SIUE campus just on the East side of the Mississippi, and ride up to Springfield, Illlinois. There, we will visit Lincoln's tomb. After that, there is a 105 mile ride back, stopping at 3 Veteran's memorial sites. So, it will be about a 200 mile trip, and my first group ride ever. If anyone else in the St. Louis area is interested, please join me! It would be nice to have another XSive in the group.

Here's a link to the ride map, if anyone is interested.

I'll try to remember to take pictures and let you know how it goes!

[DGXSER]

Sounds like alot of fun! Hope it is a great and enjoyable ride. Most of all, safe.

[CatatonicBug]

This sucks!! We were all supposed to meet at 8am, and a small thunderstorm passed through the area at about 7am, so the organizer called off the ride! It's now 8am, the time we were supposed to meet, and all the rain is gone, and it's sunny out now! I'd go alone, but half the fun was to go as a group... Oh well, maybe some other time.

[wa407mpp]

phone tree

I don't like belonging to clubs or riding in large groups, but having a few buddies along on a ride can be fun, so what we did was start a phone tree. That way when someone wanted some company on a ride he could start calling around until he found someone to ride with, because even if a planned ride is canceled there's always someone who might still want to go.

[DJinNH]

Yesterday, I rode over to Newmarket, NH to see the Vietnam Memorial Wall that is travelling through New England. I got there just in time to watch a very moving service.

It was pretty hard to watch all the Vets gathered there and listen to some of their stories without getting a bit choked up.



A very special "Thank you!" to all of you that served or are now serving.

Don (USCG Vet)
Proud father of a U.S. Marine

(ref the photo, I took this picture after many people had left. It was actually pretty packed only about 30 mins prior to the photo)