Ronald McDonald House Poker Run

I'm always a sucker for a poker run. Keeping on par with my history of these runs, I managed to once again draw a lousy hand. It started off looking very positive - first a Jack of hearts, followed by a 9 of hearts. The next stop, a 10 of clubs was drawn. Looking at a possible straight. I soon draw another 9 of hearts - that isn't allowed. It went back into the mix and another card drawn - 4 of clubs. Now it's getting ugly. I follow it up with a 6 of some suit I can't remember. Luckily, this is a best 5 of 6 poker run. At the final stop, I managed to uncover another Jack, making a cool pair of jacks. Alas, this wasn't enough to win anything. The winner had a straight flush, king high (if I remember correctly).

I try to keep in mind that it isn't the poker hand that counts. It's the cause that it benefits. This one was for the Ronald McDonald House in San Diego, home to a couple of friends while their daughter was going through some things.

The company of friends and like-minded individuals comes in second. There were quite a few of those and they were great to share the road with.

The ride's importance comes in third. This one wasn't the greatest ride, with few curvy roads to follow. With all of those beautiful areas in San Diego that we could have went, we stuck to towns populated with many traffic signals. A couple of the stops were at McDonald's franchises - kind of expected.

We ended up taking a detour to check out Bigg's Harley-Davidson in Escondido. This shop was big, with a lot of bikes for sale and on display. Fortunately for us, they were also having a free barbeque, but accepting donations. We ate and dropped a couple of bucks into the receptacle.

The final destination was the Ronald McDonald House in San Diego. This is the same place where friends stayed for months at a time, waiting for their daughter to recover from some serious surgeries. Sadly, they expect to be there again shortly. Our prayers will be with them. At RMH, we were once again provided with a meal. We ate, participated in the raffles, enjoyed the company of others, and witnessed the winner of the poker hand receiving his glory.

Here are a few pics from the event. Enjoy.

This is where it all began.

Here is a taste of some of the many bikes participating in the event.

This cool keg trailer was on hand.  I have to say, this is the most creative bike trailer I have ever seen.  The craftsmanship was to be admired.

Some might deem this one to be a tragedy, but this chopper actually started out as a Night Train.

Here's my friend Donna Wandro on her spiffy Sportster.  We had to beg her to slow down a bit in order to get a picture.  She had somewhat of a lead wrist today.

You can't have a Ronald McDonald House ride without Ronald McDonald.  Here he is in all his face-painted glory.  Sharing the scene with Ronald are Donna Wandro, Kris Wandro, The lovely Mrs. Weakened Warrior, Valerie Knight, and me.

On the way back home, it was smoldering hot in the Inland Empire.  The wife and I took a break and headed for a neat (yeah, I used the word "neat") little church in Perris, Ca, where we would drink some water we were carrying and pour some of the contents upon our heads and torsos.  This is a local Seventh Day Adventist Church.  I just love the architecture.

Here's a picture of the wife and bike outside a cool old building in Downtown Perris.

To quote an old movie (Casablanca), I've been telling the spousal unit "we'll always have Perris."

I hope you enjoyed the words and photos.