The First Bike Rally Notice

The first rally notice dates was received here Feb. 21st. Check out the MC Events page for details and dates of upcoming events, throughout the year.

3rd Annual Kroger - United Way Poker Run

The 2003 3^rd. annual Kroger United Way Poker Run held Saturday August 23^rd. was once again a very pleasurable event.  Upon registering you received a commemorative foam can holder, and a key-ring. New this year, to my knowledge was the dual registration locations option. Most of the participants started and registered at the Mt. Vernon Kroger Store. Others Started and registered at the run’s second stop in West Frankfort, a nice option for those wishing to take a shorter ride. Each stop along the way had snacks (chips & crackers), and plenty of drinks, (can soda & bottled water). Restrooms were also available at each location.

From West Frankfort the next stop if you were paying attention to driving directions and not the next stop to draw a card was the Kroger store on Giant City Rd. in Carbondale, where lunch was served. A sufficient number of tents provided shade for an ample amount of tables and seats. A well-organized food service line made it a quick trip to get your meal. Your choice of any combination of hotdogs, and/or hamburgers that you wanted. Potato chips and choice of beverage rounded out the meal.

Then it was on to card stop number 3 in Anna. This leg of the journey was the most scenic. The route took us through Giant City State Park, and Makanda, and some lesser-traveled roads. From Anna the route took us to Murphysboro for card number 4, then onward to DuQuoin, the State Fair, and Steak Dinner.

Rally participants arrive at the fair grounds.

This year the dinner was held further inside the fair grounds, actually right between the horse barns and the beer/entertainment tent. Door prizes were drawn, the first prize given out wasn’t drawn for but was held up and announced if the owner who lost this foot peg would like to claim it, a cheer went up around the owner, and the foot peg was returned to its owner. The 50/50 drawing followed this, and the winning highest and lowest hands were all given out. Then dinner was served.  

Once again some previous experience and planning made processing the 300 some people through the food line a quick task. Four lines were formed for the main meal, which consisted of rib eye steak, baked potato, salad, and pie. The only bottleneck was at the condiment and dressing line. There were plenty of bottles of everything from dressing, relishes, butter, and etc. but they were placed in one area causing a little back up. But this was a very slight inconvenience.

We said our goodbyes around 6:15 and headed for home, logging right around 300 miles for the day. Kroger raised over $15,000 with this event last year, and had a goal of over $20,000 for this year. I haven’t received any final word yet on an exact figure but will add it here when I do.

If you haven’t been to a poker run yet, or are just looking for a nice route to ride, some good food, and a bit of fun along the way, then I would suggest planning on attending next years Kroger – United Way Poker Run I will be posting the schedule on here as soon as I get the info. This is also a great rally to take the entire family on, I noticed more children riding passenger this year than in the past. This rally gets our top marks for overall event quality.

A big Thank You to Kroger and United Way for hosting such an event.

Other Stories & Pictures

Die Hard Bikers 1st Annual Poker Run for Underprivileged Children in Harrisburg Illinois