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Leesburg Poker Run "392"

Submitted by BeArPaW (Chuck Kelley), June 5, 2006

You will find out what's up about "392" at the end of this story.

EDB prez Dale Ford and veep Dick Moore (not Cheney!) joined the fine bunch of 6 Deaf Bikers from Northern VA, for the 10th annual Leesburg Poker Run in VA. After a nice hot breakfast at the Leesburg Fire Station # 1, This group of 8 Deaf bikers rode with police escort cars and bikers, plus a total of 236 bikes, all the way to the HD dealer in Gettysburg, PA, non-stop. 

Then they rode through some fine PA countryside lanes for 20 miles to the next stop at Fairfield. Then they admired one really cool biker dog with his own goggles and harness and seat. The dog's human master biker is really a very nice fellow. He explained to the EDB/VA group that he found this lost dog and adopted it. He hated to leave him at home so he takes the dog riding with him. This dog has ridden 40,000 miles. When the motorcycle is turned off, the dog is quiet. His owner says that the dog gets excitable and barks and wags tail when motorcycle engine is running. He did give us short demonstration. When we stand around talking, all MC's were shut off. The dog looks so quiet and sleepy while he sit in his special seat. The owner turned on the ignition switch of his HD but not yet started engine. The dog then suddenly changed his attitude, by becoming tense and raised ears, and focused on the ignition switch. Everyone laughed at the dog's appreciation for riding. When they were actually riding, the dog is excitably barking and wagging tail, and shifting behind owner's back from left shoulder to right shoulder repeatedly.

But this was old news because Big Al (Al Manfredonio) and BeArPaW (Chuck Kelley) had already seen him last year at Leesburg 9th annual Poker Run.

More fascinating and far out for this year, a new participant was a real colorful and eye catching parrot. When they were having breakfast nearby the Deaf group, they watched the parrot share breakfast of egg sausage sandwich, plus drink water and eat ice from a cup. This parrot loves to ride on the handlebars of his HD, protected by a windshield with his colorful blue long tails flapping in the wind. Of course he is protected with safety harness attached to his feet in case of unexpected departure from handlebars. 

It was only 8 miles from Fairfield to Emmitsburg through fantastic countryside with smells of lilac and farms. After getting the poker stamp on their sheets, the group departed for the return trip back to Leesburg. 

Then there was an excellent hot lunch back at the Leesburg fire station # 1. Everyone's stomach felt so good. 

The deaf bikers did not win the poker hands, but 3 out of 8 deaf bikers did win a door prize. Everyone in the fire station community hall became so annoyed because they called out for door prizes using ticket numbers starting with "392...", so many times, but many bikers had tickets starting with "658", or "474". Both hearing and deaf bikers called out for the announcer to shake the box more, to mix up the tickets. They swore that if "392.." was announced one more time then they would go crazy.

The Deaf bikers are thankful for a volunteer sign language interpreter, Charles Fitch, with Leesburg PD. He was with us from beginning to end, and he repeatedly fingerspelled the ticket #'s for more than 60 door prizes. His wife is deaf. He rode with the LPD chase truck and trailer to each stop so that he could meet the deaf bikers and keep us updated on the ride.

The Leesburg Poker Run always happens on the first Saturday of June. It cost only ten dollars with full hot breakfast, hot lunch plus refreshments at Gettysburg HD dealer. That is a very good bargain for an exciting ride. EDB should plan to join this ride next year. The quality of this ride is excellent, and where else can you get a hot breakfast and lunch for $10?!