Poker & Bingo Run Sun 19 Dec 2021

Poker / Bingo organised by, pics and report all courtesy of  Peter 'The Lens' Barclay. Very much appreciated Peter!



Well Sunday the 19th of December was our annual end of year, Christmas Bingo/Poker ride. Wasn't it only a couple of months ago we did it last? No way it`s been 12 months. Now the day before (the Saturday) was a perfect warm sunny day and the following day (Monday) was pretty good as well. The Sunday, well, that`s another story. Woke up in the morning to the sound of thunder! Oh great another brilliant day! (insert sarcasm emoji here!)
 
Well off to Waurn Ponds Maccas car park for our start. A total of 6 bikes and 4 cars turned up. Mal`s there with the playing and bingo cards, and with a help from Gentle we do the first Poker and the first Bingo draw. So just after 9.30 we head off out through Ceres, over to the Hamilton Hwy out through Murgheboluc, chuck a "rightie" (righty?) and over to the Bannockburn/Shelford Rd. A left and then a right and motor into Lethbridge for our second card/bingo pull. Six bikes and 3 cars.
 







Tried to convince the 4 wheelers to drive with the windows down but they were having none of that. (insert a stunned emoji here). Now with our Bingo Ride it is traditionally only a shorty because of the number of stops and the finish being our traditional barbie (lunch) so our route is fairly close to home. Hence we travel on familiar and well travel roads.
 
Check the photo of our group hiding/sheltering on the front porch of the Lethbridge Hall. Well one of our participants, standing there, surveying the scenery, states "Ive never been into/through Lethbridge before." (Note the Midland Hwy does not go through the "center" of the town) Well for someone, it was a new road travelled. Up until now the rain had been very light. Didn`t need to wipe the visor or ride with the visor cracked open. I noted east of Lethbridge, even though we were riding/driving in light rain the road was completely dry. They had not received, or they had very little rain before we passed through. Anyways, over through Maude and down the big hill and a right turn onto the Anakie Rd. and a leftie (lefty?) over to the Bacchus Rd. Down over the Ring Rd and a lefty onto Plantation Rd, over the Melb/Geelong Hwy. Into School Rd and down to the Geelong Grammar School. 





We do the QR check in at the boom gate. (Check out photo) Now it should be noted that Gentle had done a lot of work to secure us undercover facilities in the Grammar School Equestrian complex. Even the chuck wagon was under cover, and the bikes had individual stalls for parking.  We even had restraints so that the bikes would not escape. (Check the photos) Now at this stage we are half way through our ride with the first visit to the Chuck Wagon (for smoko). Actually it was two thirds of the the total distance, us having travelled 80k`s of a total of 118 k. 









Now we did another card/ball pull, and grabbed a cupper and enjoyed Diane`s famous cup cakes/biscuits and/or a hand full of "nuts and bolts". Check out recipes elsewhere on our website, come newspaper. There to join us was of course Gentle (he towed the Chuckwagon out there and of course did the shopping on the way.) Richard who is always around to give a hand, and John and Lauri who drove directly from the start to the Grammar School. My wife Diane was also there with her munchies. Anyways, a few were looking at the weather on their phones and shaking their heads. "Ooh" this don`t look real good. A smidgeon of rain is a coming. What to do? Anyways it was decided to stay put and finish the ride at this point. So morning smoko and lunch all blended into one, and the rest of the cards/balls were pulled.
Now the winners of the loot! For first place a $150 voucher for each of the Bingo and Poker was supplied by the Motorcycle Shed, with second and third place in both received some folding cash. Now if anyone needs to supplement their income, the following people could be approached for a loan, "coz" guess what, "they is all cashed up". 
                      
                      Bingo- 1st-  Pat.
                                  2nd- Leigh 
                                  3rd-  Amanda
 
                      Poker- 1st-   Diane
                                  2nd- Graham
                                  3rd-  Gentle
 
Now the cast of this amazing story is as follows-     Bikers-   Pat (TEC)
                                                                                                  Bob
                                                                                                  John and Amanda
                                                                                                  Mark
                                                                                                  Leigh
                                                                                                  Me
                                                                                   Car-ers-  Mal
                                                                                                  Graham and Geoff
                                                                                   Onsiters- Richard
                                                                                                   John and Lauri
                                                                                                   Diane
                                                                                                   Gentle
 
A big thank you to Gentle, for organizing the site for our function and towing the the Chuck Wagon there and doing the shopping. 
Mal for suppling the cards and b/sheets and undertaking the draws on the day.
Richard for his help on the BBQ.
Pat for being TEC.
Diane for her producing the cupcakes, biscuits and "Nuts and Bolts"
Leigh (our son) who usually rides with his old man on the Poker ride.
 
Just a side note to finish the day. Some had left to go home, and some of us had stayed back to finish up for the day. I just happened to be at my bike and I looked over towards the refinery and noted, "holly molly" here comes the weather. It poured! It dumped on us! I believe cars on the Geelong bypass were down to 40kph, I think poor Mark got caught in it riding home, my son Leigh (lives in Lara) had just got his bike in the shed when it came down. Thank goodness for being under cover. Thanks to all that took part in our last event for the Year. 
Happy New Year to all. (Insert happy/smiley Emoji here)     

Was indeed a pity about the crap weather - had every intention of turning up until I checked the rain radar at 8:00am - future poker runs should be moved to middle of Winter when the weather is better!! Entertaining read Peter - well done!!

Very entertaining ride report and I'm glad you escaped that squall which came through our place mid afternoon with 80kph wind and sheets of horizontal rain. I too was was put off by the early morning thunder (outside) and the forecast I'd read the night before. Well done to the "none but the brave" crew.

Well despite the threatening weather, it was a good ride, with the rain holding off.
Thanks Peter for all the work that went into it.
Thanks also to the usual hard-working crew (detailed above) who put in to help these rides and catering happen.
Congrats to the winners of the prizes. 
Hindsight is always clear, and having closely monitored the rain radar at lunch, I probably definitely headed 
for home about 5 minutes too late.
I got caught in the storm front on the Ring Rd, where the traffic mostly slowed to 50-60kmh, and the car in front of me lost a surfboard off the roof rack. It was hanging down one side by one occy strap and threatening to come off in my path. 
A bit of evasive action by me, and 30 seconds later, the driver finally realised it was gone. 
Rule here is - don't trust occy straps!!

So I was in the rain for around 3-4 minutes, got home totally saturated! 
Another great day out and a story from the road...