Memorial Ride

On the morning of April 19,1995 at 9:02 am a horrible tragedy occurred in Oklahoma. The Alfred P Murrah federal building was bombed. 168 people died, including 19 children.  This act of terrorism  changed Oklahoma forever.

We saw an article in the Thunder Roads magazine about a memorial benefit run. The proceeds from this ride benefit the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. It is put on in part by a motorcycle club that is comprised of active and retired Oklahoma City Firefighters.

Keith and I decide at the last minute to head up and participate. I had gotten up early to train for the memorial half marathon coming up in a couple of weeks. So, as we are riding, I am having a hard time keeping my eyes open.  As we get into OKC, Keith suddenly swerves to avoid being hit. The girl in the car next to us just decides to change lanes, no signaling or anything. That woke me up.  We are running a little bit late, so hopefully we will make it to Papas Leather Barn in time. We start west on 23rd and ran into road construction, we will never make it in time. We are about 2 blocks away and can see the road is already blocked by the police escorts.  We turn to go around the block. so we can come up into the back of Papas's. We see a group of bikers congregating in a parking lot and jump in with this group. It is slow going at first, as there are four lanes of bikers trying to get down to two. In just a few blocks and we have a line of bikes two wide, as far as the eye can see. 

It is always a rush to ride in a large group of bikes, especially when the roads are being blocked by the police. You have to be sure and stay in your lane, because they drive very fast to get to their next intersection to block it.
















As we near the Memorial, we can see the end of the reflecting pool and rows and rows of bikes.

We finally find a parking space and walk to the survivor tree. This tree survived the bombing, it is a symbol of the Oklahoma Spirit.  We gather with hundreds of other bikers for the laying of the wreath and the moment of silence. 

A selfie or is it a couplie under the survivor tree.

After the laying of the wreath we decide to cut out, we had not gotten to Papa's in time to pay to do the run  We walk across the street to eat at Blu's Barbecue, then we head to the Pie Junkie to eat dessert. 

I got the peach blueberry crumble and Keith waited for the coconut cream. He paid me a real complement, he said my coconut cream is better.

When we came out of the Pie Junkie, the clouds were looking a little dark, so we decided we better head home.  

It was a perfect day, cool enough for a sweat shirt but not cold enough for leather jacket and chaps, and we had a time to reflect on life. Give the people you love a big hug and kiss, we are not guaranteed tomorrow. 

View from the Back