Charity "FUN RUN" Sept 27th (Poker Run)

[Mike]

Everyone Involved Had A Blast - If Only It Weren't For Such A Sad (But Worthy) Cause!

FISHLIPS - The "Meeting Place" For Our "FUN RUN" Event

Would You Like To Meet The Reason For This Ride? Look At That Unbelievable Smile!

Meet Another Reason We Had This "Fun Run" Is She Adorable Or What?!!!

Oops! Sorry For The Blur But This Is Cheryl, Chris's Wife...

Some Of The Family During Sign Up - There Were A Lot Of Automobiles This Run!

This My Friends Is The Guy That Played A Key Roll In All Of This Happening. We Had To Have A "Start Point" That Had A Big Parking Lot & Breakfast. Meet My Friend Mike Schwarts Owner Of Fishlips. He Opened Early - Paid His Employees To Come In And Take Care Of Us... So I Hope Everyone Tipped Well! *grin* --- If You Look Closely You'll See Mike Has Been Working Hard To Help Make This Event A Success!

Ever Heard Of The "ALLIE CAT RIDE" Or The "COCOA VILLAGE BIKE SHOW" These Are The Two Guys That Put Those On! Hopefully They'll Start Their Own Charity Run For The "Allie Cat" Which Is "Operation NOW" (not on our watch). A Fantastic Cause We Fully Support. Folks Meet Renee & Tim!

What A Welcome Sight - Probably The First Sport Riders In... Can You Save NoS Injected SV1000 Sportbike?!!!

Perhaps The Hero Of The Event - Dale Has A Heart As Big As A Booster Rocket!

FLNY Showed Up To Support The Event - The Guy On The Left Sneered Every Photo.... but one! I got him with a smirk! haha

That's Chad Back There. He's Been Friends Of Cycle Riders USA & Space Coast Riders Since The Start. We Appreciate Him More Than He Knows!

Lil Lauren

Local Go Fast Road Racer Steve Murphy - Prob My Oldest Friend. We Appreciated Him Showing Up With Several Buddies - Especially "SMILEY" (you'll see what we mean later!).

Josh R and His Lovely Girlfriend

Big Rich & His Riding Buddy For The Day - Rich Is One Of The Hooters Bike Night Promoters!

LaMar Is Another Of The Hooters Bike Night Promoters - We Were Glad They Supported Our Event - That's "Frogger" On The Right - He Scored Big Time. Seemed Like Every Other Ticket We Pulled At The End Was His! LOL

Bob & Steve Of The Group I.V.I. (In Visible Ink) Big Supporters Of Our Events!

Chris's Family Chowing Down Before The Event

How Can Ya Not Love Guys With A Smile Like This?

Some Of The Women In The Wind Riders I Believe?

Our Friend Lois

After Having A Little Breakfast - Tim & Renee Relaxed Before The Ride...

A Dad Enjoying His Son Being Home From The Middle East... A Neat Story About This Trio Below!

These Three (see dads picture above) Were The Only Riders To "Charge Tico" During The Monsoon Rains!

Meanwhile Back Inside

CJ & Tawny "Strike A Pose". They Drove All The Way From Daytona Beach To Help! Many Might Remember Them As The Tandem Stunt Team On Other Posts Here On Space Coast Riders - They Just Took First (1st!) At A Huge Event A Week Before This Photo Was Taken - They Are One Of The Top Tandem Teams In The World!

Chris Welfords Dad, Brother, Family...

Chris Brother, Sister and the little one in the blue and the little blonde smiling so big she's about ready to explode are his two little girls!

Riders Meeting

Reminding Everyone To Be Safe - And Reminding Them The Reason We're Here!

We Had A Nice Turn-Out For The Event! Long Before Sign-Up Was Over We Counted 62+ Bikes & People Just Kept Pouring In - So We're Not Sure How Many Bikes Arrived! They Were Still Arriving "After" Sign-Up & After Most Had Left On The Ride!

A Couple Much Appreciated Late Arrivals! This Is The Surfboard Shaper I Introduced At The Final Stop - His Wife An Airbrush Artist - They Are Part Of The "Quiet Flight" Surfboard Factory! Meet Bruce Ragan. They'd Caught Up Before The First Stop Was Over! Oh And Their Son On The Back, That's Ian - He Took Some Of The Photos You Will See In This Pictorial Down Below!

[Mike]

Bruces Wife Ready To Blast Off On That New Honda Fury!

CJ Harris Sizing Up The Day And Preparring For A Lot Of Fun!

First Stop Sandbar

Getting To Sandbar Early Worked Out Great. It Let About 20+ Bikes Park Right At The Front Door - Sweeeeet!

The Parking Lot Across The Street Was FULL Of Bikes!

Welcome To Sandbar - All Kinds Of Crazy Sports Memorabilia!

Meet Vicky Being Silly!

HIIII Ya! Check My Shirt Mikeee - It's One Of Yours!

This Is Vicky & Gary - Two Great English Friends We Couldn't Have Done It Without!

That's Carl In The White Tee... He's the GM Of Sandbar. This Would Have Never Happened Without Him. He Opened Early For Us - Thanks Bro' Carl Is An Old Friend. Oh And Thanks For All The Discount Coupons Carl - They're Appreciated!

Okay BLOW ON THOSE DICE - SHAKE 'EM UP! SHOW US WHATCHA GOT!!!

WOOOOooo What's That - 615 Points! WOO HOO!

I Understand Some Of The Guys Took Me Up On This And Gave It A Good Punch! I Heard Someone Got Into The 900 Pound Punch Range! That's Impressive!

Thanks Sandbar - Great Job!

Next Stop Wynfields Sports Bar - Satellite Beach!


Photo: Ian Ragan

Wynfield's Sports Bar Just South Of Pineda Cswy On A1A - Free Pool, Cheap-Cheap Drafts ($1.00 or $1.50?) And A Great Manager In The Form Of Desirae... If It Weren't For Her, Like Many Of The Other Managers, This Would Have Never Worked. They Opened A Couple Hours Early For US! Thanks Desirae, It's Appreciated!

Photo: Ian Ragan

Look At The Mixture - Sportbikes, Cruiser Bikes, Harley's (American & Metric Bikes). Awesome!

Photo: Ian Ragan

Lots Of Popular, Or Well Known Bikes In This Shot - That Orange ZX14 Is Well Known In The Drag Race Circles. NASA's Eddie Fisher aka "Fish" or As I Like To Call Him "The Flyin' Fish" Has Whipped Up On Many-Many High Dollar Big Buck Bikes At The Drag Races Aboard That Orange Terror! --- The Two Guys Just Pulling In Are Complete & Total Locals Between Titusville & Port Canaveral. Riding Their Bikes 24/7/365 - That's Billy, Chad & Little Lauren.

Photo: Ian Ragan

A Mixture Of Internet Bikes, & Hooters Bike Night Riders - Thanks For Showing Guys. We Appreciate It!

Photo: Ian Ragan

This Guy Looked Just Like Jason Britton From The Popular TV Show "Superbikes". New Friends, Thanks For Coming!

Photo: Ian Ragan

I Told You We Had It All. In This Photo Are A Couple Harley's A "Metric Cruiser", Two Sportbikes Pulling In Off The Street, And A Suzuki Burghman. Just To The Right Is Another Suzuki Burgman. What's A Burgman? It's The T REX Of The Scooter World. It's A Water Cooled 650cc Scooter With Auto Shift Or Manual Shift. It Has A "Sport Mode" To Allow It To Rev Higher & Is Capable Of Approx 115mph Which Some 750cc Cruiser Bikes Can't Do! Funny Story - One Of Harley's Former Test Pilots Now Rides A Burgman & Calls It "Trouble Free".

Photo: Ian Ragan

Inside There Is A Full Bar - Several Pool Tables, Darts... Great Little Hang Out. Many Commented They Didn't Know It Existed, But They'd Be Back!

Photo: Ian Ragan

The crew pulled out from Wynfields and headed out along one of the most scenic parts of the ride. Many commented later that they had no idea how beautiful Tropical Trail was that far South. We had the riders leave Wynfields on A1A, cross the Bananna River on Pineda Cswy (which is beautiful) then turn South (North) along Tropical Trail for an approx 10+ mile ride along the Bananna River... for much of the way the river is right there on your right. Boats, sailboats, osprey... it's a gorgeous ride. The destination... Champions Honda/Kawasaki

Champions Honda / Kawasaki


Photo: Ian Ragan - Also A Self Portrait Of Sorts - Check The Mirror, That's Ian Shooting This Photo!

It Didn't Stay Like This For Long!

First Riders In (this and next photo came in together)

Then The Bikes Started Showing Up...










Oh No-No They Kept Coming, And Kept Coming!






Photo: Ian Ragan

A Few Of The Bikes Just Starting To Show At Champions Honda/Kawasaki in Cocoa - Third Stop!

Rich Showing Off His $150 Something Dollar Ticket For Riding With One Hand Off The Grip! Apparently The Officer Saw It As "Reckless Driving" So He Must Not Know About Florida's "TURNING/STOPPING LAWS" - Of Course Left Hand Straight Out Is Turning Left, Straight Up Is Turning Right, Straight Down Is "STOPPING" So If You Use A Legal Hand Signal This Particular Officer Might Write You Up For "Reckless Driving!" LOL

HEY THERE'S "SMILEY!!!" That'd Be Our Buddy Kevin On The Left! He Was Smiling Ear To Ear The Entire Event!!!

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Meet "FISH"

Meet "FLYIN' FISH!"

Grrrrrr! --- I'm Tellin' Ya. I Got A Picture Of This Guy On The Left "ALMOST" Smiling! FLNY Representing & Helping With The Cause - Thanks Guys!

One Sweet Lookin' Ducati!

Young Guy Going "Old School!"

PONY TAILS! Or Are Those Pig-Tails? We Had A Lot Of Automobiles Do The Event!

Earlier I Commented About The First Sportbikes In At The Start - These Are The Guys - Check The Bike On The Left Just Above The Exhaust... One NoS Bottle On Each Side! I Bet That's One Strong Running SV1000!

We brought in a bunch of soft drinks for this stop since it was in the parking lot of Champions Honda/Kawasaki. It took all of about 2 minutes and 2 seconds to waste 8 two liter bottles! Next time we'll double that amount! It was a good stop though - people got a chance to stretch their legs, chat a little bit, talk about the ride... turns out that along the river stretch of Tropical Trail some guy NOT with our ride decided to do a bonzai pass on some of our riders - nobody was too happy with that guy when they got to the stop - he was on a cruiser, straight pipes and riding very dangerously. Our crew this day... straight "A" with no accidents, everything went smooth and we had a good ride - even later when some of the riders got wet! *wink*

[lojo]

Great pictures for a most memorable event. Thanks Mike et al.

LoJo

[Mike]

OLD FLORIDA GRILL & OYSTER HOUSE

The next stop was to pull outta Champions and head down to the river to River Road and ride along it until it comes back up onto US1. A few people were reluctant because it's a relatively slow, easy going ride... but afterwards we had a whole bunch of people come up and say "Thanks for convincing us! That was the best part of the ride!" and "Man you weren't kidding that was beautiful!". You see River Road is pretty much epic "Old Florida". If you look closely you'll see the old houses are all "lifted" and that's for hurricane protection to keep them out of the water. There are oak trees along the way that are probably a couple hundred years old. The view of the Indian River (Intercoastal Waterway) is just unbelievable. It's truly one of the most scenic rides on the Space Coast! But our goal was to hit Old Florida Grill which has one of the nicest "Old Florida" style bars out back. It's a nice air conditioned resturant in the front, an open air bar out back then a river bar with sundeck and dock out back on the water - I love this place... So in the words of Jackie Gleason... "AWAYYY WE GO!"

Hey There's Pony-Tails Again! Outta The Car This Time - Actually That's Cheryl In The Green And "Pony-Tails" Is Her Good Friend That Did The Ride In Her Car!

Old Florida Grill's Cool Little River Bar!

Getting Down To Business & Rolling Dice - Check Out All The Photos From Past Events Posted All Over This Little River Bar!

Riders Just Kept Rolling In!

Dynamic Duo!

Jean O' Riding Her Beemer (BMW) Did The Event!

Look At The Smile - That's What This Event Was About!

Dale & His Son - Not Sure Who This Kid Is Going To Grow Up To Be - But If He Follows The Example His Dad Sets - He's Going To Be A Great Young Man - Dale Later Won The 50/50 Raffle & Over $100... He Smiled, Had His Photo Taken Then Turned & Handed His Winnings To Cheryl!

Her Shirt Was Cracking Me Up It Said: "If I Throw A Stick Will You Leave?"

Nice V-Rod Muscle Parked In There - Alongside of metric cruiser bikes, HD cruisers, Sportbikes, BMW's... everyone came together to forget whether they were sport, cruiser or touring rides and did a good thing...

As mentioned we had a LOT of cars on the ride - very cool! Actually this is only a few of them!

CJ & Tawny drove down from Daytona to help. Not a bad way to spend your day. This is just beautiful - great people - great music - great fun!

Mike Welford (Chris' brother) Pondering life... I could almost hear his thoughts saying "God is great, beer is good... and people are crazy!" Sorry couldn't resist that's a song on the radio right now and it fits most of our lives most of the time!

Riding smart... a Coca Cola and a good jacket!

Oops Caught CJ & Tawny Off Guard - Hey There's "SMILEY" In The Back Ground!

See What I Mean? Kevin Was Having A Blast! That's My Buddy Steve On The Right That I Grew Up Racing Motocross All Over Florida With. We Have A Long Lasting Joke About A Crash He Had - I Came Out Of BCC One Day When I Was In College To Find A Note On My Truck. It Simply Read: "I raced this weekend and crashed in the first turn with 30 other bikes... PS It Hurt!" hahaha We've joked about that ever since!

When I took the photo of "SMILEY" and Steve I noticed this guy out back wading with a cast net catching mullet. How cool is that and how "Old Florida!"

Here is our "Hard Charger Award" He and his son were the only riders to brave riding Tico Airport in the rain!

Just some silly and "Grizzly" guy and his better half - much-much better half!

Okay-Okay in the words of Madonna "STRIKE A POSE!"

Caught Off Guard! haha

Why you rotten... I ought to... *grin*

I told you this place was beautiful!

Bob, Steve and... and.... what's that other guys name? hahaha just kidding. These three guys are three good friends that have always supported everything we do. Thank you Big Bob (right hand side) Steve (middle) and... and what's that other guys name honey? Hahahaha (he'll get me for that)

All kidding aside that's our buddy Troy. He had one of those "You have got to be kidding me!" stories about his bike. A while back Troy picked up a really nice VTX1300. A few days later the phone rings and I hear "Hey Mikeee... my dad was painting the house and my entire bike is covered in little drops of overspray. Any idea how to get those off?" Needless to say hours and hours of elbow grease (polishing) and Troy once again has a really clean VTX".

"FISH" Eddie Fisher saying hello to the ladies... Cheryl on the right has been a trooper. The trouble she went through in the past few months... losing her husband and the father of her two beautiful little children. Then to have her home broken into and everything stolen... it's people like the people on this ride that reassure us all that life is worth living and that there are good people out there! I'd personally like to thank the motorcycling community for your help with this event! It meant a lot to me, but I'm sure it meant even more to Cheryl...

SMILEY!!!

Neat-Neat Old School Bobber! I like the thick 8 spoke rim on the front!

The people that made this happen! Thank you all...

In these photos we're already down about 20 riders. Many headed out after the 2nd stop and said "Hey we just wanted to donate. This will be our last stop." and they rode off having done a good thing. A few others saw some rain coming and wanted to get home before possibly getting wet which is understandable... we figure there were probably 80 riders at the start?

[Mike]

TICO AIRPORT

Only two bikes braved the rain... a father and son duo. The son... home on leave from the middle East. Ironically in the background is an F-18 waiting out the rain and probably in town for the airshow that happened the week after the ride.

F-18 Hornet "Claimed" top speed approx 1200 miles per hour. Speculation is closer to 1400 honest to God miles per hour! Ummm that's moving boys and girls! In the time it takes us to drive from here to Daytona he could be in New England touching down in Boston (if he could carry enough fuel).

SHUTTLES GRILL

On the way to "Shuttles" I stopped and had CJ jump out and take a photo with the "Shuttle".

Cool little outside bar with great music on the weekends!

Before we go any further I have to mention (again) some of the awesome sponsors. If anyone sees that we missed a sponsor, please-please drop us an e-mail at SpaceCoastRiders@yahoo.com and let us know. The reason, people actually showed up at this event and handed us gift certificates and things of this nature so the sponsor list kept growing and growing... thanks to everyone involved!

Cycle Riders USA
Champions Honda / Kawasaki
Beach Sport Yamaha
Wild Ocean's Seafood - Port Canaveral
Atlantic Seafood - Port Canaveral
Hook & Lasso - Merritt Island
Carabbas Italian Rest., - Merritt Island
Fishlips - Port Canaveral
Old Florida Grille - N.US1 Cocoa
Shuttles Dugout Bar & Grill
River Roost - Merritt Island
Chris Welfords Mother
Fraternal Order Of Eagles - N.Courtenay Pkwy
=ALL The Bar/Grill's That Opened Their Doors To Us=
Fishlips
Sandbar
Wynfields Sports Bar
Old Florida Grill & Oyster House
Shuttles Dugout Bar & Grill

[Mike]

Once again this guy jumped out there and tried to take over like he was running the show... crazy! Just kidding and I'm really glad my voice held out! I also want to thank Cheryl Welford - whether any of you realize it or not, she pulled almost every single ticket for you guys! (See below)

Cheryl Pulling Tickets!

Did I tell ya!!! We finally got this guy to smile! When he started winning $$$ and Gift Certificates he broke this little half smile - half smirk and we caught it for posterity! Seriously though we're get FLNY came down and helped out with this ride. Maybe next time they'll roll in 100 bikes strong from Orlando and blow everyone away with their generosity! Thanks...

Grrrr back to the growl-grimace face!

Remember the two heroes riding in the rain at Tico? Well someone stood out there and took those photos - yeppers that was me. Check my shirt! I was soaked to the bone! haha

LET THE MIRACLES BEGIN...

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Miracle 1 (no joke). Chris Welfords mom showing off a beautiful airplant she had made for this event. It was in a beautiful sea shell basket that was made of conch shells, and cowery shells. She was really admiring it and how beautiful it was - so we decided to let HER pull the ticket for this unique and awesome gift...

When She Pulled Her Own Ticket Out Of Over 100+ Tickets The Crowd Erupted In Cheers, Laughter & Applause! Look At The People In The Background! Everyone Could Tell How Much She Loved This... It was as if Chris was there saying "Hey mom, thanks... this is for you!"

This little jewel is for LAST PLACE and I was up at 1:30am in the morning before the event at the shop working on it! That's a real honest to goodness burnt up clutch plate. There are two clutch springs on there so burnt up they have rust on them. That piston wouldn't make it around the track one more time if it had to because it's so burnt up - there are those ugly-ugly little red reflectors that WE ALL use on our tags to hold it on... then of course there are a few honest to goodness stripped bolts on there because hey what would a last place trophy be without a few stripped bolts... what we didn't know is the sweet and gentle person that would claim this prize...

Miracle 2 - Meet Chris Welfords Grandmother... The Surprise - it also included a $45 Gift Certificate To Carrabas Italian Restraunt! Much to our surprise and it warmed our heart... another relative of Chris's was there and he said he really liked the trophy and asked Grandma if he could have it. So a relative gets a neat little rough-cut trophy to remember Chris, and Grandma gets to have a nice dinner in rememberence of a great young man (RIP Chris). So what's so "miraculous" about this? There were over 100 entries what are the odds that THE ONLY AWARD we had... was won by his grandmother! It's almost like Chris wanted to give his grandma a nice night out to have a nice dinner, and his other relative that cool little gag gift to remember him by!

The Amazing Thing Is... There Are More Miracles To Come!

Back in July when Michelle and I decided to take a nice helmet off the shelf and start a "raffle" to raise money for Chris' family we had no idea of the things that would transpire.

Next in line was a nice, expensive helmet and it was in it's own seperate raffle - over 300 tickets...

Cheryl smiled and told me that the night before the event as her father was laying down to go to sleep, her dad "matter of factly" told her he was going to win that helmet!

Miracle 3 - When the number was called her dad leaped into the air and had won the helmet - 300 tickets and it was his that was pulled just as he had predicted the night before! What Cheryl didn't know is that almost 3 months before her dad had told us the same exact thing... and he did it! If that's not a miracle, I don't know what is... but read on it gets better!

Cheryl was in shock she couldn't believe it!

Her dad immediately held the helmet in the air and started raffling it off to the highest bidder - the winning amount would go straight into Cheryl's hands...

Dale threw in the opening bid...

Billy countered the bid with a higher one...

Bids kept flying, inching up each time higher and higher...

It came down to Dale and Billy (seen here) bidding the highest amounts... the bidding went up into the triple digits...

Dale pulled out his wallet and said I HAVE THIS MUCH! and made the final bid... and it was the winning bid! Dale told us weeks, even months ago he was either going to win the helmet, or win the 50/50 raffle and donate the money right back to Cheryl and the kids... he almost did it. He got to "buy" the helmet and the money he handed Cheryl's dad was given straight from father to daughter.

Oh wait... it's not over yet... the miracles are still happening!

Remember the 50/50 Drawing? There were triple digit's in there for the winner!

Cheryl Pulled The Number......... (drum roll please...)...

Miracle Number 4 - Dale Wins It Just Like He Predicted!

And Just Like He Said He Would Do - He Turned Right Around & Handed The Money To Cheryl For Her & Her Kids...

I Think Cheryl Was A Little Overwhelmed. Her Dad Won As He Predicted Turned & Handed Her The Money From The Helmet. Dale Won As He Predicted Turned And Handed Her His Winnings... The Crowd At This Point Was Cheering, Applauding, Whistling & Going Wild... THIS Is What This Event Was All About - People Helping People!

[Mike]

1st Place

First Place - Does she look familiar? Check out the photos from Tico! Her boyfriend is the guy that's home on leave from the middle East! Right on how deserving! This awesome Joe Rocket jacket was also donated by Champions Honda/Kawasaki

2nd Place

The guys from FLNY accepted this helmet donated by Champions Honda/Kawasaki for their friend who had to leave.

Third Place

FROGGER! He gets a great gift basket full of all kinds of goodies including some great liquors!

LAST PLACE AWARD (lowest roll of the dice for the event)

Grandma! She also gets a $45 Gift Cert For Carrabas!

Helmet Raffle

Won by Cheryl's dad, this helmet was donated by Michelle and I at Cycle Riders USA... he quickly raffled it off to the delight of the crowd! Thanks to your generous donations over the past few months, this helmet raised "OVER" $600 for this event!

50/50 Raffle - Winner Gets To Keep Half Of The Total Pot

Winner "Dale" Who Quickly & Generously Donated His Winnings Right Back To The Cause! (see below)

Then there was the biggest miracle of all... it actually happened BEFORE all of the above miracles, but it deserves to be the last thing mentioned here...

At 9am in the morning at Fishlips... Chris Welfords mother walked in with a beautiful all glass vase. Think big, think very big... probably 3 gallons big. It had a long flowing beautiful neck, and it was adorned with flowers probably 2-3 feet out of the top of it. It was really gorgeous (can't find a photo of it though!). Cheryl saw it and immediately said "Oh my gosh, that's so beautiful, I wish she weren't raffling it. I'd like to have that!" at which I turned and asked if she'd like to have it... she quietly said "No..." and smiled. Later she was still admiring it and I said "Cheryl, would you like that?" and she replied "I really like it... but I don't have a home anymore. I don't have any place to put it". Cheryl had just moved home with her dad, and her home had just been robbed so... Fast forward to the actual raffles that happened at the end of the day. When I brought this gorgeous piece in she was still saying "I really like that!" and I asked her again but she declined to take it... when she pulled the raffle ticket, everyone that had heard her throughout the day roared with approval. With over 100 tickets in the basket, as if Chris's hand had led her to the correct ticket... she pulled her own and won the beautiful display vase she'd been admiring all day! If THAT is not a miracle, then I don't know what is.

Thanks Chris, we know you were there man. Your laughing joking demeanor was with us all day long - even when things were tough (getting rained on) people were still laughing and enjoying themselves!

OF SPECIAL NOTE:

1) The winner of the helmet (2nd place) tells us this helmet is now up for sale and the earnings will go to Cheryl and her children.

2) Dale has to win our "Big Heart" award! Not only did he LOSE his tickets on the ride and have to re-buy some... but he purchased the helmet that Cheryl's dad won, and he turned around and gave her his 50/50 winnings to help her family out.

3) Shuttles "doubled" the amount they had agreed to donate - Bill was very generous and allowed us free run of his place! Thank you Bill that was fantastic!

That's it folks - we hope you enjoyed the ride. That to us is very important.

Many are already asking when we can do it again...

Hopefully very soon!

Mike