puckmedic
05-06-2007, 07:29
A week ago, on Saturday 28 April, I was in Nashville. I was one of nearly 10,000 people hoping to impress the casting directors for DEAL OR NO DEAL. I stood in line from 4am until 10 am when I got to see the person I would need to speak to for 20 seconds and show why I should be a contestant. I wait now to see if I ever get called. Takes about nine months.
I was fortunate to be one of the first 400 hundred in to see these people.
I then had time to attend the funeral of LCPL Bishop USMC from Dickson TN.
Arrived at the funeral home just minutes after the Westboro Baptist Church packed up and left. The funeral home was down a hill, they had set up at the top of the hill. An immediate response by PGR was to run a few bikes up the hill, face the speakers towards WBC and tune in all bikes to the same radio station. The inevitable flag wall was built and on occassion a throttle was twisted when the WBC got too noisy.
PGR had the unsavory but neccesary duty of protecting the WBC folks from harm by local bystanders. As there apparently was not enough local LEOs present. Calmer heads prevailed and the town folk moved on.
PGR had over 200 bikes and probbaly 20 cars and trucks. As we drove off to the cemetary, nearly every inch of the route was covered in American flags, and people. Veterans from WWII in uniform, tossing salutes, one Marine with long hair and a beard (obviously out now) in his Dress Blues holding a USMC flag and saluting. Kids cheering us on as we rolled by, adults yelling we love PGR etc. I tell ya, it was dangerous riding with all that water flowing from our faces. There are sights and sounds from that day, that will stay with me forever. His bride (highschool sweetheart) of only six months, crying as she took the flag, his mother, falling to her knees as she accepted her flag. The way the people of the town took hold of this family and loved them, so much I could type for days and never capture or remember most of it.
The family was in awe, the 4th Marines were appreciative of us and I met a couple of HMs. The houses around the cemetary allowed us to park in their yards and on their two acre spreads. They also allowed us to use their bathrooms or make phone calls to home since cell phone out there was sporadic.
Afterwards there was an invite for the PGR to attend a meal at the fair grounds. The community was having a BBQ cook off and when we arrived, PGR was told several times over the PA system that we were eating for free on the community businesses involved in the event.
People were coming up to us and saying thank you all day, bikers were hanging out with ballcapped pick up trucking rednecks and not a fight one broke out. Amazing!!!
Dickson is a small and quiet little town just outside of Nashville by about thirty miles. If you ever roll down I-40 stop in and see them. It really is a community one would be proud to belong to, even for an afternoon, like we were.
I reconnected with great friends. One of whom I rode home with. He had a bike made by BOSS HOGGs in Dyersburg TN. He has a 5700 CC engine. It is the same engine used in the corvette, cut down and modified for a motorcycle. The thing goes 0-60 in a blink!!! Fun ride, I'm sure but not for me yet!!!
As always this one left me emotional for a day or two. If you have joined PGR and been on a mission, post it here please!!!
I was fortunate to be one of the first 400 hundred in to see these people.
I then had time to attend the funeral of LCPL Bishop USMC from Dickson TN.
Arrived at the funeral home just minutes after the Westboro Baptist Church packed up and left. The funeral home was down a hill, they had set up at the top of the hill. An immediate response by PGR was to run a few bikes up the hill, face the speakers towards WBC and tune in all bikes to the same radio station. The inevitable flag wall was built and on occassion a throttle was twisted when the WBC got too noisy.
PGR had the unsavory but neccesary duty of protecting the WBC folks from harm by local bystanders. As there apparently was not enough local LEOs present. Calmer heads prevailed and the town folk moved on.
PGR had over 200 bikes and probbaly 20 cars and trucks. As we drove off to the cemetary, nearly every inch of the route was covered in American flags, and people. Veterans from WWII in uniform, tossing salutes, one Marine with long hair and a beard (obviously out now) in his Dress Blues holding a USMC flag and saluting. Kids cheering us on as we rolled by, adults yelling we love PGR etc. I tell ya, it was dangerous riding with all that water flowing from our faces. There are sights and sounds from that day, that will stay with me forever. His bride (highschool sweetheart) of only six months, crying as she took the flag, his mother, falling to her knees as she accepted her flag. The way the people of the town took hold of this family and loved them, so much I could type for days and never capture or remember most of it.
The family was in awe, the 4th Marines were appreciative of us and I met a couple of HMs. The houses around the cemetary allowed us to park in their yards and on their two acre spreads. They also allowed us to use their bathrooms or make phone calls to home since cell phone out there was sporadic.
Afterwards there was an invite for the PGR to attend a meal at the fair grounds. The community was having a BBQ cook off and when we arrived, PGR was told several times over the PA system that we were eating for free on the community businesses involved in the event.
People were coming up to us and saying thank you all day, bikers were hanging out with ballcapped pick up trucking rednecks and not a fight one broke out. Amazing!!!
Dickson is a small and quiet little town just outside of Nashville by about thirty miles. If you ever roll down I-40 stop in and see them. It really is a community one would be proud to belong to, even for an afternoon, like we were.
I reconnected with great friends. One of whom I rode home with. He had a bike made by BOSS HOGGs in Dyersburg TN. He has a 5700 CC engine. It is the same engine used in the corvette, cut down and modified for a motorcycle. The thing goes 0-60 in a blink!!! Fun ride, I'm sure but not for me yet!!!
As always this one left me emotional for a day or two. If you have joined PGR and been on a mission, post it here please!!!