11/08/08 - Teddy Bear Ride

The local Harley Davidson dealer puts on an annual teddy bear ride, a ride where you’re entry fee is a new stuffed animal. I’ve never done the ride and this year the opportunity was there so I took it and took Jade along. This year was the 15th annual event in Birmingham. Jade and I arrived at about 10:30AM at the Harley dealer and there were already hundreds of bikes there. Miss Alabama Amanda Tapley was there signing autographs. Most beauty contest winners look too generic to me but Miss Tapley is a really beautiful girl. Jade and I scarfed up some free doughnuts and drank a coke and talked to many friends from church and from the Southern Cruisers. The next hour and a half passed quickly and when noon arrived 501 motorcycles pulled out. We had a police escort around 459 and up 65 to Children’s Hospital where we gave all the teddy bears and stuffed animals to the hospital. Throughout the year the hospital will give the animals to sick kids. The route was fine but it was very windy and some cross winds pushed my bike around a bit. I was also concerned that one of the 15 or so stuffed animals tie wrapped to my bike would become a victim of the the crosswind but thankfully all of them made it, some were not so lucky as we passed them on the interstate face up to the sky waiting for a savior that would likely never come. The weather is growing cold and nasty and I’m already suffering from my first head cold in a long while so riding a motorcycle may be rare in the coming months. Wintertime for a biker is really depressing.