Ride for Dad The Motorcycle Ride for Dad is a yearly fund raising event to help raise money for prostate cancer research & awareness. It's held in 31 cities across Canada. (About Us) I decided to participate in this year's event, riding with the Kingston - Quinte chapter. This was my first time participating in a motorcycle fundraising event, and it was a lot of fun. Now normally I hate asking people for money, but this was easy - when you register on-line, you set up a profile page that you can share by e-mail, and you get pledges that way. We started at the Constantine arena located at Canadian Forces Base Kingston. Sure enough, the overwhelming majority of bikes were cruisers. I was definitely the only one on a VFR, though there were a few other sport and adventure bikes. The only VFR in a sea of cruisers: I was riding with an aquaintance, Boog, who rides a Harley Softail (Skull & Crossbones). Great guy and has done the Ride for Dad since it first began. The ride began at 9:30 a.m. This first part was more of a parade as over 500 motorcycles made their way through town. While there was a small police escort, the roads were blocked by volunteer ride participants. In this picture, riders have just left the base and are heading to the downtown core. The local fireboat saluted with it's water-canons. I didn't really like this part so much because I was in 1st gear most of the time...it got really hot. However some people enjoyed riding through town and waiving back at all the people that stopped to watch. About 20 to 30 minutes later we stoped at the Rio Can centre in the west end of town for a big group picture. My wife brought my girls to come and watch and they jumped on to the Interceptor. Finally the actual ride began. At this stage the 500 participants tend to form smaller groups of 3 to 8 bikes. We rode west on Hwy 33 along the north shore of Lake Ontario. We then made our way north. After a quick pit stop in Napanee - where free bottles of water were supplied, and where we had to get our poker run form stamped - we continued north to Tamworth. Even though the weather reports had called for thundershowers the day before, the gods must have been smiling upon us because we ended up with lots of sunshine. As we rode along the country highways, people waived from out front of their homes. It was pretty cool, and the riding was good. Tamworth is a very small town / village, and they had shut down the main street for the event. We parked our bikes in the middle of the road (volunteers had this really well organized) and we grabbed our free burger. A band on a large trailer played country rock and of course the obligatory "Born to be Wild" biker anthem. Boog's Softail...loud and beautiful: At 2:30 p.m. we arrived back at CFB Kingston. The ride was a success, having raised more than this year's goal of $100,000 for the Kingston chapter; but also, as a fun event to participate in. I found that participating in a good cause added a sense of satisfaction to riding the bike. Definitely a good go.
Thanks for supporting prostate cancer. A large percentage of men will have it before they die. It won't kill most of them but having a prostate the size of an apple or larger can be quite uncomfortable. Digital exams help and can be entertaining. Having a wife who knows what to feel for is better. Nice ride. I like your black bike. I have a nephew named booger. He was a chef in a fancy restaurant. and I always had him come out when I ate there. Just asked for "booger". Most of the servers didn't have a clue but I educated them. He now is in charge of a guided missile battery.
