Poker Ride Sunday 17th December 2023

 Sunday's Poker Ride. Now with Peter B's Ride Report 


Ride Leader: Peter 'The Lens' Barclay


Pics from me, James Rousseaux and 'The Lens' 

After many weeks negotiating with the Spirit of Tasmania shipping line, I was able to facilitate the arrival of the Tasmanian Ferry to coincide with our arrival at the Moorpanyal Park. This was our 2nd stop (3rd card draw). So a little entertainment watching the ship motor down Corio Bay and dock at Corio Quay was hopefully enjoyed by all. You may say it was a coincident, but would I fib to you?
 
Well the weather Gods behaved themselves this day, with perfect riding weather. We won the lottery on that one!
 
It was a 9.30 planned start from the Corio Road House, but was closer to 10 before we actually hit the road with Mal and Gentle completing the paper work associated with our Poker Run. I did it a little differently this year with our first card draw at the start point and having 4 additional stop/card draw points before arriving at our destination. That allowed us to miss a later draw if we were running short of time, or if running early, we could kill a bit of time before arriving at our final destination point. 12.30pm was our booked arrival time at the Lara Sports Club. Didn`t want to be rude and arrive too early or more so too late. We also elected to include the Joker and anyone wishing to enhance their hand was able to purchase an addition card at the end. This was untaken at the final destination.
 
"Anyways" we head out from the CRH and skim along the edge of Lara (Heales Rd) over into Lovely Banks with our second card draw (first stop) at the Abe Woods Reserve, next to the Lovely Banks CFA Fire Station. Rudi was getting a bit worried, because he was very familiar with the area and he was aware the bitumen finished at the end of Edgerton Rd. and that I wasn`t going to navigate some gravel roads.
 
Anyway we stop at the park, flip the cards and back track, and start heading south with a right and a left down the Bluestone Bridge Rd. under the Bluestone Bridge!!!!! Into the Bell Post Hill area, and zig zag our way over through Norlane (past the old Ford site) onto The Esplanade in North Shore to our 2nd stop (3rd card draw) at the Moorpanyal Park, over looking Corio Quay. (Hey! Get a load of the big red ship) Oop`s I think I`ve already mentioned that. Anyway, admire the scenery, do our third card pull and start heading north. Past the Lascelles Wharf, where they are unloading and storing the windmill generators. We slip past the Shell Refinery and The Grammar School and up through the edge of Lara, eventually hitting the Old Melbourne Rd, and head up into Little River. Stopped at the Little River Reserve for our third stop, 4th card pull.
 
All`s well and off we head over to the famous You Yangs. Up the big hill to the top carpark and we did our last card draw. Great views. I heard a statement from one of our fellow riders, "I have never been through Little River and I have never been up the You Yangs" New and exciting places/experience`s for some. Time to go, and it`s 12.15 and it`s a 15min ride to our destination for our planned 12.30 arrival. All is good. It should be noted that it`s taken about 3 of 4 years to get to the You Yangs. Our Grammar School Poker run was planned to climb to the sky`s but one horrendous storm put a stop to the second half of that ride.
 
The Lara Sporting Club looked after us extremely well with a great meal, and prompt service.
We had about 26 punters for the meal, with 17 bikes (2 pillions) and 2 cars partaking in our journey of discovery. A great turn out for our final ride for the year.
 
Now, if you need a loan for extra Christmas shopping, the following people are all cash up! The big bucks winner was Torquay John with a haul of $80. $50 to Isabella (James daughter, Phill`s granddaughter), and Astrid (Peter H`s wife) picked up $30, Rudi a $20, and Mal a whopping 10 bucks. 
 
A very big thank you must go to Mal and Gentle for their effort in organizing the cards, doing the card draws, and handling the "spondula". Thank you chaps, a great job. Also Gentle was managing the Tail End Charlie duties.
 
Thank you all, I think we had a great and successful day.
 
Pete the "L"     
 

It was a great day! Thank you to all the members for making Isabella feel so welcome. She had a fun time!
Thanks for a great ride PB!

Great Report and photos, Peter.   I’ll have to try to make it next year.  Top of the You Yangs.   Haven’t been there (since teacher’s college, thus no memory) either. 
Great to see Isabella participating and winning!

Great report and photos Peter - looks like another excellent Poker Run!
Having done the last few runs I was sorry I couldn't get to this one.
Let's hope the tradition continues next year