Sept. 18th, Oklahoma, Ride for the Promise

[Daniel_Malloy]

So last time I stopped in at the Lawton Kawasaki dealer, there was a flyer detailing a charity ride through the Wichita mountains. I've accumulated 2,000+ miles on 2 wheels now, but I'm new to group riding and would love the company of other ninja riders; especially since this'll be my first group ride. Anyone interested? If so, we can meet up beforehand and head over as a group. Heck, I'd even pay someone's entry fee and lunch for helping me get accustomed to group riding. See below for more details taken from the flyer:



Lawton Heights Nazarene is sponsoring a charity ride to benefit Lawton's "Family Promise"

the ride will begin in the Lawton Heights Church of the Nazarene parking lot, go west on Quanah Parker Trailway, then north to the Wildlife Refuge and will end back at the church for a 10:30 am gospel/country concert by "Glory Bound" and an Indian Taco lunch.

$10 per bike, $5 for passenger.
All paid riders will receive a ticket that will give them a $2 discount on lunch. All others pay $5.

First bike out at 7:30 am, last bike out at 8 am.

Lawton Heights Church of the Nazarene is located at 17th & Lincoln Ave. Lawton, Ok 73507. For more information, call 580-353-8866 or 580-2848387

[Alex]

How did this turn out?

[Daniel_Malloy]

It turned out alright and was actually very enjoyable how it turned out. First off with our extreme drought conditions here we had been dealing with a huge fire (burned over 35,000 acres... over 55 square miles) so the half of the route had been blocked off for weeks leading up to the ride. In addition, the weekend of the ride we got some wet stormy weather that did not look appealing to ride in at all.

HOWEVER, the refuge opened up scenic highway 49 (the planned route) right before the weekend and the wet stormy weather Sunday morning JUST missed us and our route. Side benefit is it made it just the perfect temperature to ride. I think there were just over a dozen riders that took the risk and showed up; ready to ride in the rain and all. I ended up riding right behind the group leader and had a Can Am following me the entire way. Sadly there were no other sportbikes out but I tell ya, got nothing but compliments and wide-eyed looks from my fellow riders and people we passed; must've been a sight to see a lime green ninja in the midst of cruisers! My bike and I sure enjoyed the attention!

The little ninja had no problem keeping up with the Harleys and Goldwings and a couple even commented that I must've been chomping at the bit to unleash my evil green in the twisties and leave them in the dust! We had a bunch of Buffalo and Longhorn right along the road at times. Mix them in with the landscape and it made for one enjoyably scenic ride. After taking a little detour up Mount Scott to let the "tourists" that stopped to take pictures catch up, we proceeded back into town and enjoyed a small country gospel concert and some of the best indian tacos known to man. Can't imagine how fun this would have been had conditions been ideal!

And like every good thread, here are some pictures. Betcha can guess which one's mine

Group Ride 1.jpg Group Ride 2.jpg