This past Saturday, members of the Gold Coast Honda Rider’s Club journeyed to all the way to West Palm Beech for a Poker Run.  Ok, don’t laugh, by the time I returned home, I had gone 250 miles seeing a sight not normally seen here in South Florida, more to come on that.  But first of all, I want to welcome Xavier C. to our club.  Xavier is only 17 and just finished his motorcycle endorsement.  By the end of today, he would see many different type of road conditions that would put an experienced rider to test.  Xavier was awesome!

Twelve motorcycles (16 people) meet early Saturday morning for a 7:15am departure.  Doug J. had volunteered to lead this ride.  This gave me the opportunity to ride in the back and observe the club.  With Doug and I having CB radios on our Wings, lane changes were a breeze.  We departed Rick Case Honda around 7:20 taking the Sawgrass until it turned into 10th Street.  Right across I-95 to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast.  After stuffing ourselves, some more then others, we jumped onto I-95 north towards Palm Beach Harley Davidson and the start of the Poker Run.

I-95 greeted us with some moderate levels of traffic, but even worse then that was the construction.  Uneven pavement, lane changes, merging traffic, etc.  It was all there.  Luckily, we only had to endure this for 20 miles or so.

We arrived at the start of the Poker Run with just minutes to spare for the last bike out.  When they saw the large group of motorcycles Doug was leading, they had no problem waiting.  I guess money talks loudly.  After registering and paying the entry fee, we were all given a nice poker run t-shirt along with a coffee mug.  Free bottle water was available here as at every stop along the way.  We met up with some other members who had chosen to arrive on their own.  After reviewing the directions and a separate trivia challenge, we were soon departing.

The trivia challenge consisted of counting how many railroad crossings you crossed, flashing lights you passed, number of schools, name of an airport, etc.  It really made the journey interesting.  There would be no way to complete this quiz if you were riding single.  The first stop was about 20 miles into the ride and we all compared notes about what we had seen.

Since we were the last group out, we would normally arrive at a stop just after a large group was leaving.  This was nice, because we would normally have the stop to ourselves.  I am not sure how anybody else did in their poker hand, but ours was a bust.

Now to the sight you don’t normally see here in South Florida.  There was a 20 mile span we covered where the road was covered by a tree-top canopy.  It was a reminder of riding in the mountains without the hills or curves.  Down here, we take what we can get.  Part of the ride was along the east side of Lake Okeechobee.  On one bridge we could actually see the water over the dike.  Each stop along the way provided us with water, soda, and additional door prizes.  One gift was a “Forever Flashlight”.  That is one that does not require batteries, you shake it to work.  A great addition to your hurricane kit.

We arrived at the end point a little past 1pm (we were greeted with a packed-gravel road).  A great BBQ dinner with all the fixings awaited our hungry appetites.  The food was very good and after lunch, motorcycle games were scheduled.  Unfortunately, my wife and I had to be home by 3pm, so we departed ahead of the rest of the club.  Doug J. was kind enough to lead the members back to Weston.  We also raised almost $100.00 for Ride for Kids.  Thanks to Lee S. and Matt in parts for the door prizes.  To date we have raised over 600.00.  I will try and get an exact dollar amount for an upcoming letter.

Wishing you all the best that motorcycling has to offer.  Riding season is approaching South Florida, you can already tell there is a slight change in the weather.  It’s now only in the low 90’s rather then the mid 90’s.  Take this opportunity to get your bike in for an inspection, oil change, tire change, etc.  Don’t wait until the last minute.

Ride safe,
Greg Mathes
Club Coordinator
Gold Coast Honda Rider’s Club