Cruisin for kids with Cancer

Is an annual motorcycle ride that my family participates in. I don't ride, so typically, my mom and I volunteer while my dad, Evan, MIL, FIL and Dave ride in it. all proceeds go to benefit the peds cancer ward at Carle.

Today was the 3rd annual ride and it was quite fun. There 40 bikes, which is down from last year. Some of that can be attributed to the fact that it looked like it might pour down rain at any second most of the day (it never did, but the threat of rain is enough to keep some people away) Not only did the family ride, they set up a group of people from work which totalled 15 of the 40 bikes. C also rode with my dad for about half of the ride. His very first poker run ever :) The ride goes by the hospital that it benefits so the kids can see the bikes. The ones that are able, come down to the circle drive to see all the bikes ride by. The ones that aren't watch from their hospital rooms. Today, there were no kids downstairs. We found out later that it probably meant there were none in the hospital today, which is superb.

There was a small snafu with my volunteering. We (my mom, Liz and I) took one car over and mom planned to follow the ride, in case C wanted to get off. They wanted me at the end, but I couldn't get in there until 12:30, which was smack in the middle of the ride and I wouldn't have a way to get from the beginning to the end. I ended up riding with mom for most of the ride and then when C got off we took off for the end so I could be there when the riders got there. It all worked out well.

When you ride in these things, you draw marbles at each stop. Each color of marble is assigned a point value and at the end, they tally all your colors and generally 1st, 2nd and 3rd get nice prizes and last gets some gag gift. First prize was big screen high def TV (retails for about $700) Dh won one similar to it the first year at C4KC. I can't remember what second was but third was an iPod shuffle. Last place was "Anti-Monkey Butt" powder. Apparently, it is similar to Goldbond and prevents chafing on long rides :) In addition to the prizes, they raffled off various gift certificates, food stuffs, and poster. Dave won a really nice leather jacket with Looney Tunes characters on the back. That will come in handy when he goes to Sturgis in a week. This year they also raffled off a beautiful quilt that took shirts from various Harley dealers and black cloth, with rainbow stiching and then on the back they had a gold ribbon (the symbol for childhood cancers) that was signed by survivors and their sibilings.