A really neat chance to help the Yamaha Corporation distribute food and be part of their event!
(GOD, do I REALLY look like Bono in the picture above???)
(GOD, do I REALLY look like Bono in the picture above???)
From Chapter 230, we had:
Taz; Paul; John R.; Johney; Stacy; Keith; Ed; Gregg; Joe; Bill; Rick; Gary; Tomy; Wayne; Bob B & me. (If I forgot anybody, please let me know-I'll also check with Johney and Rick to make sure I didn't miss anybody) 
I hadn't planned on going or taking
part in the festivities or doing it, but I was chatting online with, gosh, who was it, Paul? yeah I think it was him, and he said it was a pretty good event, so I figured, why not? I had enough vaca time saved up (since I don't have to go to Utah until January) and there was nothing absolutely pressing at work, so I decided to give it a shot. Below, Joe finally gets there! To the right above, Gregg & Wayne. I REALLY don't have to tell you who's below left. Here's my take on it:
Taz; Paul; John R.; Johney; Stacy; Keith; Ed; Gregg; Joe; Bill; Rick; Gary; Tomy; Wayne; Bob B & me. (If I forgot anybody, please let me know-I'll also check with Johney and Rick to make sure I didn't miss anybody) 
I hadn't planned on going or takingpart in the festivities or doing it, but I was chatting online with, gosh, who was it, Paul? yeah I think it was him, and he said it was a pretty good event, so I figured, why not? I had enough vaca time saved up (since I don't have to go to Utah until January) and there was nothing absolutely pressing at work, so I decided to give it a shot. Below, Joe finally gets there! To the right above, Gregg & Wayne. I REALLY don't have to tell you who's below left. Here's my take on it:
PRE-EVENT: 
The first thing I did was look at the weather; it had been getting warmer all week during the day and in the morning, so I didn't have to really 'layer up' wildly. In fact, I kind of wore too much-I could've dropped the sweater or the jacket and just wore the long sleeved shirt with my vest, but I wore the sweater and my leather jacket with the vest on top. Another kind of wrong move was to wear my quasi-cool weather gloves instead of my summer gloves. It was kind of hard to put them on after all the lifting and moving the food boxes and sweating I did (as did a lot of us!) 
I was planning on getting there uber early but due to school on Thursday night I got there around 7:55 AM. The schedule had planned for all STAR members arrive between 7:30 and 8:30, so it worked out really well. It actually only took me 25 minutes from Brea, all surface; Harbor S/Lambert W/Euclid S/Imperial W/Beach S all the way down to Katella W.
AT THE STAGING AREA: Got there, parked and then made a BEELINE for the coffee. John R., Tom, Johney, Taz, Paul were already there as was Bill Rotberg from Chapter 415, Marge Cunningham from 422 and others I recognized (at least their faces; I'm really bad with names)
Being the person I am (with a sense of the historial importance of all occations), I grabbed my daughter's camera (don't know where mine is, dammit!) and started shooting.
The camera, that is. Got some of our guys in photos with the semi in the background; 
got pics of the general assemblage; got pics of some of 422 and others; got a great pic of everybody who attended plus a video in a 'circlevision' way below.The president of Yamaha presented a check for $5085 to the Feed The Children organization and 
photos were taken of employees, 
STAR members, everybody. They opened up the back of the semi and started handing out food boxes for us to put on our bikes. (I kinda knew about this part so I brought extra bungee cords in case) I was trying to figure how howinthehell to put this largish box onto my seat, and so decided to ask one of the Cypress motor officers (Officer Faessel, I believe it was, prounounced "fissel") and he got me bungeed on there. Of course the media just HAD to take a picture of the cop putting the food on the bike-heh,heh,heh.
Rick S, Joe, Wayne, Keith, Stacy, Ed with his daughter Teresa, (I believe her name was), everybody who had a back seat all came up to get food boxes also. 
The first thing I did was look at the weather; it had been getting warmer all week during the day and in the morning, so I didn't have to really 'layer up' wildly. In fact, I kind of wore too much-I could've dropped the sweater or the jacket and just wore the long sleeved shirt with my vest, but I wore the sweater and my leather jacket with the vest on top. Another kind of wrong move was to wear my quasi-cool weather gloves instead of my summer gloves. It was kind of hard to put them on after all the lifting and moving the food boxes and sweating I did (as did a lot of us!) 
I was planning on getting there uber early but due to school on Thursday night I got there around 7:55 AM. The schedule had planned for all STAR members arrive between 7:30 and 8:30, so it worked out really well. It actually only took me 25 minutes from Brea, all surface; Harbor S/Lambert W/Euclid S/Imperial W/Beach S all the way down to Katella W.
AT THE STAGING AREA: Got there, parked and then made a BEELINE for the coffee. John R., Tom, Johney, Taz, Paul were already there as was Bill Rotberg from Chapter 415, Marge Cunningham from 422 and others I recognized (at least their faces; I'm really bad with names)
Being the person I am (with a sense of the historial importance of all occations), I grabbed my daughter's camera (don't know where mine is, dammit!) and started shooting.
The camera, that is. Got some of our guys in photos with the semi in the background; 
got pics of the general assemblage; got pics of some of 422 and others; got a great pic of everybody who attended plus a video in a 'circlevision' way below.The president of Yamaha presented a check for $5085 to the Feed The Children organization and 
photos were taken of employees, 
STAR members, everybody. They opened up the back of the semi and started handing out food boxes for us to put on our bikes. (I kinda knew about this part so I brought extra bungee cords in case) I was trying to figure how howinthehell to put this largish box onto my seat, and so decided to ask one of the Cypress motor officers (Officer Faessel, I believe it was, prounounced "fissel") and he got me bungeed on there. Of course the media just HAD to take a picture of the cop putting the food on the bike-heh,heh,heh.
Rick S, Joe, Wayne, Keith, Stacy, Ed with his daughter Teresa, (I believe her name was), everybody who had a back seat all came up to get food boxes also. 
LINING UP TO ESCORT THE SEMI TO THE DISTRIBUTION POINT AND THE RIDE TO THE CALVARY CHAPEL:
I heard someone yell that we were going, and I saw Joe get up there in line so I started 'er up really quickly before a lot of the others were even on their bikes and whipped over to him. In the front of the line were the 2 motor officers who 'cleared the way' for us: Alan Cease, our International President of STAR Touring and Riding; his lovely wife Ginger in the cutest red outfit, riding her Raider; then Joe behind Alan and yours truly behind Ginger. Again, when I whipped over to where Joe was, I swerved left, right, then left, worked out really smoothly and there was a photog there catching me on video. Wish I could get a copy of that sucker! Most of 230 were directly behind us and I caught a pic of the line up directly behind.
Times like that I wish I had a passenger to take pics, but then I would have to have a sissy bar, pad and a rack for the food.
We took off and it was so neat to have a police escort, lights and sirens going through the intersections and having all the cages wonder what in the world was going on with all these motorcycles on parade! (Last time I had been involved in something that had a police escort was a funeral.) Some of the media guys were also on bikes with one driver and the photog on the back, sometimes stopping and taking videos of all of us riding, sometimes riding ahead with the photog turning back and taking pics that was. We only went about 20 MPH but it was pretty cool. I can only imagine all the bikes in line all at once, escorting this big semi-truck with the 'Feed The Children' words and logo on it-high energy all the way.
ARRIVAL AT THE CALVARY CHAPEL:
We arrived at the distribution point on Knott just before the 22 freeway, passed the church and swung around to park at around 9:05 AM. AND HERE IS JOE'S MOST EXCELLENT IDEA: After Alan and Ginger parked, Joe swung around to park but STAYED OUT without backing into a parking position. PURE GENIUS! I stayed out when I realized what he was doing, the others in 230 stayed out until we got into position, then backed up PERFECTLY, all together, like what we do when we finish a ride. Again, the media caught us on video doing that! Let's face it, our group has CLASS.
We parked PERFECTLY, below right.
WE ARE PUT TO WORK, AND I MEAN WORK:
Walked over to the semi, they opened it up and started taking pallets of food out of it. The first pallets were toys and some of the Feed The Children folks started opening those boxes up and taking out the toys for distribution. I figured, well, may as well help get stuff out of the way so I joined in and started getting rid of the used toy boxes, etc. It was also then I realized that the battery was dead in my daughter's camera, so I figured I could just work instead of looking for interesting photo shots. I finally realized that one of the reasons a lot of the STAR members are requested to come is that we do most of the unloading, setting up boxes, maintaining sets and passing them out to folks. It was WORK, believe me. I'm ready for anything, jump in wherever I'm needed, so this was right up my alley.
(I'm posting this all, by the way, just to let others know that it's not just a 'dog and pony' show/media event, that we are utilized by good organizations who need help; and we are SO GLAD to give whatever help we can.)
The pallets with the food and hygienic items came out and some of us formed a 'bucket brigade' lineup (with food boxes instead of buckets, DUH), setting up sets of a food box with a hygienic items box, then putting waters and a toy on them. Others (including Taz-what a team player! Doing what he could even with a busted wing!) were at the front taking red cards from people who came up for their stuff and who were to receive a set of the food and hygiene boxes and some waters. It worked out pretty well-the guys at the front would yell out, "one with a toy!" and one of us would grab a set of the boxes and take it to the persons' car. It's been a while since I did that much lifting and grabbing stuff! I know my back might just feel it tomorrow (right now it's not hurting at all and this is at 8:00 PM, although me feet are bein' a bit achy, don'cha know.). Quite a few of our STAR-ers were lifting, carrying, getting into the thick of it and doing what needed to be done. We had guys giving out toys to the folks who were to get toys, we had a big line of guys and a couple of we girls to carry the box sets and waters to the cars (I took only a few because usually one of the guys would take it from me and carry it to the cars-hey, that worked for ME!) Getting box sets and distributing them went from 9:30 until about 11 AM, in about 85 degree sunny weather. I am SO glad I brought a lighter shirt with me!!! Even with that a lot of us were soaked with sweat. I will say that Keith Limbaugh below got the workout of his life. I've never seen anybody work so hard and lift so much. I know other guys did a lot too, but he was up there at the front with me and I saw him go back and forth and back and forth to the cars carrying TONS of boxes.
LEAVING THE DISTRIBUTION SITE AND GOING BACK TO THE FESTIVITIES AT YAMAHA:
Some of the STAR members left around 10:15-10:30, some left at 10:45, but some of us waited to make sure all distributions were done and that there was no one left who needed food. After everyone had gotten their food and there was no one left, around 11:05 AM we walked over and jumped on our bikes. THIS is where I really should've had my summer gloves, because my sweaty hands had a hard time getting into my lined 'cooler weather' gloves. Paul, Keith & Stacy & I were some of the last people who left and went to Yamaha, parked and walked to the back for food and DEFINITELY a potty break! After all the work we did, I am SO glad I didn't do my hair, because it was soaked under Barry's full face. (I really like that helmet with the jaw piece that can disengage and flip up-really neat and comfy when you're sitting in traffic and hot.)
Yamaha in the back had some recreational vehicles displayed and a quasi-snowmobile whatever demo'ing. The food was pretty damn good and the Yamaha motorcycle team did the BBQ'ing. Hamburgers (thick juicy suckers, yum!), hot dogs with chili, potato salad, pasta, pork and beans, fruit, cheese, bread, desserts and drinks were part of the Yamaha hospitality for all employees and STAR members who participated. I found Taz (kinda hard to miss him, what with his sling and all-he's getting it off next week and can ride in about 2 weeks, he said) and I sat down with him & some 109 folks also. One of the 109 guys wasn't too clear on how to go home, so I told him the easiest way, easiest I mean a)carpool lane almost all the way, and b) easy to remember.
After eating Yamaha had a demo crew doing tricks, flips, 'flying eagles' etc on what sounded like Yamaha dual-sport two-strokes.(You know, the "whing-whing-whing-whing-whing) Got some video of that with my phone, came out ok, I think. I hope. Won't know until I put it on this post.
After the demo we started be-bopping around to say our goodbyes. Saw Tony Barbano, gave him a hard time as usual, Bob Barbano came over to chat, then Ryan "Hot" Duerksen, Central California State Director (one of the guys who was also working his tail off with the food boxes), had to come over to say buh-bye to Barbano and ask how to get to the 5 Freeway. Barbano started telling him and I said, "Hey, HOT, I'll take you to the 5 north since I'm going that way to Brea". I figured THIS way he wouldn't have to rely on Barbano's directions. Which was a good thing, trust me.
Left Yamaha around 1:15-1:30 or so, north on Valley View and turned right onto Firestone so that way Ryan knew EXACTLY where the 5 north was, and headed over to Best Buy where Bub was. He was going to get off work in about 1/2 hour, so I waited around, we got gas then had some chips and a couple of beers and I showed him my videos and pics.
All in all, a pretty damn good day, and a great day to do something for others.
One thing I forgot was the sunscreen and a hat. Oh, well. Next time.
I heard someone yell that we were going, and I saw Joe get up there in line so I started 'er up really quickly before a lot of the others were even on their bikes and whipped over to him. In the front of the line were the 2 motor officers who 'cleared the way' for us: Alan Cease, our International President of STAR Touring and Riding; his lovely wife Ginger in the cutest red outfit, riding her Raider; then Joe behind Alan and yours truly behind Ginger. Again, when I whipped over to where Joe was, I swerved left, right, then left, worked out really smoothly and there was a photog there catching me on video. Wish I could get a copy of that sucker! Most of 230 were directly behind us and I caught a pic of the line up directly behind.
Times like that I wish I had a passenger to take pics, but then I would have to have a sissy bar, pad and a rack for the food.We took off and it was so neat to have a police escort, lights and sirens going through the intersections and having all the cages wonder what in the world was going on with all these motorcycles on parade! (Last time I had been involved in something that had a police escort was a funeral.) Some of the media guys were also on bikes with one driver and the photog on the back, sometimes stopping and taking videos of all of us riding, sometimes riding ahead with the photog turning back and taking pics that was. We only went about 20 MPH but it was pretty cool. I can only imagine all the bikes in line all at once, escorting this big semi-truck with the 'Feed The Children' words and logo on it-high energy all the way.
ARRIVAL AT THE CALVARY CHAPEL:
We arrived at the distribution point on Knott just before the 22 freeway, passed the church and swung around to park at around 9:05 AM. AND HERE IS JOE'S MOST EXCELLENT IDEA: After Alan and Ginger parked, Joe swung around to park but STAYED OUT without backing into a parking position. PURE GENIUS! I stayed out when I realized what he was doing, the others in 230 stayed out until we got into position, then backed up PERFECTLY, all together, like what we do when we finish a ride. Again, the media caught us on video doing that! Let's face it, our group has CLASS.
We parked PERFECTLY, below right.WE ARE PUT TO WORK, AND I MEAN WORK:
Walked over to the semi, they opened it up and started taking pallets of food out of it. The first pallets were toys and some of the Feed The Children folks started opening those boxes up and taking out the toys for distribution. I figured, well, may as well help get stuff out of the way so I joined in and started getting rid of the used toy boxes, etc. It was also then I realized that the battery was dead in my daughter's camera, so I figured I could just work instead of looking for interesting photo shots. I finally realized that one of the reasons a lot of the STAR members are requested to come is that we do most of the unloading, setting up boxes, maintaining sets and passing them out to folks. It was WORK, believe me. I'm ready for anything, jump in wherever I'm needed, so this was right up my alley.
(I'm posting this all, by the way, just to let others know that it's not just a 'dog and pony' show/media event, that we are utilized by good organizations who need help; and we are SO GLAD to give whatever help we can.)
The pallets with the food and hygienic items came out and some of us formed a 'bucket brigade' lineup (with food boxes instead of buckets, DUH), setting up sets of a food box with a hygienic items box, then putting waters and a toy on them. Others (including Taz-what a team player! Doing what he could even with a busted wing!) were at the front taking red cards from people who came up for their stuff and who were to receive a set of the food and hygiene boxes and some waters. It worked out pretty well-the guys at the front would yell out, "one with a toy!" and one of us would grab a set of the boxes and take it to the persons' car. It's been a while since I did that much lifting and grabbing stuff! I know my back might just feel it tomorrow (right now it's not hurting at all and this is at 8:00 PM, although me feet are bein' a bit achy, don'cha know.). Quite a few of our STAR-ers were lifting, carrying, getting into the thick of it and doing what needed to be done. We had guys giving out toys to the folks who were to get toys, we had a big line of guys and a couple of we girls to carry the box sets and waters to the cars (I took only a few because usually one of the guys would take it from me and carry it to the cars-hey, that worked for ME!) Getting box sets and distributing them went from 9:30 until about 11 AM, in about 85 degree sunny weather. I am SO glad I brought a lighter shirt with me!!! Even with that a lot of us were soaked with sweat. I will say that Keith Limbaugh below got the workout of his life. I've never seen anybody work so hard and lift so much. I know other guys did a lot too, but he was up there at the front with me and I saw him go back and forth and back and forth to the cars carrying TONS of boxes.
LEAVING THE DISTRIBUTION SITE AND GOING BACK TO THE FESTIVITIES AT YAMAHA:
Some of the STAR members left around 10:15-10:30, some left at 10:45, but some of us waited to make sure all distributions were done and that there was no one left who needed food. After everyone had gotten their food and there was no one left, around 11:05 AM we walked over and jumped on our bikes. THIS is where I really should've had my summer gloves, because my sweaty hands had a hard time getting into my lined 'cooler weather' gloves. Paul, Keith & Stacy & I were some of the last people who left and went to Yamaha, parked and walked to the back for food and DEFINITELY a potty break! After all the work we did, I am SO glad I didn't do my hair, because it was soaked under Barry's full face. (I really like that helmet with the jaw piece that can disengage and flip up-really neat and comfy when you're sitting in traffic and hot.)
Yamaha in the back had some recreational vehicles displayed and a quasi-snowmobile whatever demo'ing. The food was pretty damn good and the Yamaha motorcycle team did the BBQ'ing. Hamburgers (thick juicy suckers, yum!), hot dogs with chili, potato salad, pasta, pork and beans, fruit, cheese, bread, desserts and drinks were part of the Yamaha hospitality for all employees and STAR members who participated. I found Taz (kinda hard to miss him, what with his sling and all-he's getting it off next week and can ride in about 2 weeks, he said) and I sat down with him & some 109 folks also. One of the 109 guys wasn't too clear on how to go home, so I told him the easiest way, easiest I mean a)carpool lane almost all the way, and b) easy to remember.
After eating Yamaha had a demo crew doing tricks, flips, 'flying eagles' etc on what sounded like Yamaha dual-sport two-strokes.(You know, the "whing-whing-whing-whing-whing) Got some video of that with my phone, came out ok, I think. I hope. Won't know until I put it on this post.
After the demo we started be-bopping around to say our goodbyes. Saw Tony Barbano, gave him a hard time as usual, Bob Barbano came over to chat, then Ryan "Hot" Duerksen, Central California State Director (one of the guys who was also working his tail off with the food boxes), had to come over to say buh-bye to Barbano and ask how to get to the 5 Freeway. Barbano started telling him and I said, "Hey, HOT, I'll take you to the 5 north since I'm going that way to Brea". I figured THIS way he wouldn't have to rely on Barbano's directions. Which was a good thing, trust me.
Left Yamaha around 1:15-1:30 or so, north on Valley View and turned right onto Firestone so that way Ryan knew EXACTLY where the 5 north was, and headed over to Best Buy where Bub was. He was going to get off work in about 1/2 hour, so I waited around, we got gas then had some chips and a couple of beers and I showed him my videos and pics.
All in all, a pretty damn good day, and a great day to do something for others.
One thing I forgot was the sunscreen and a hat. Oh, well. Next time.
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