Rat Ride

This is a few weeks behind, but I just saw the pics and thought I would post about it.

Every year, for like 30 years, Saint Louis has the Rat Ride on the first Sunday in October. All the "bikers" in St. Louis converge in one place, Jack's Iron Horse on St. Charles Rock Road. People begin arriving around 8-9 am. The M.C.'s send their lackey in early with caution tape so they get good spots without actually having to get up and go first thing. This year we left the house around 8 am to meet some friends at Denny's. It was freezing cold, but I figured it would warm up, so I just wore my t-shirt and a flannel I always ride in so I don't get grease on myself. I didn't want to worry about leaving one of my expensive leather coats on the bike while we wandered around and the bike we took has no saddle bags...

This is Mister, Craig, Redman's bike, and Glenn getting ready to leave Denny's. Notice the boys all bundled up? Yes, it was freaking cold! Glenn actually showed up wearing coveralls...
Then we headed up to the par-tay. Thousands of people show up, from all walks, all groups, and all different kinds of bikes. There was a Cushman group this year, which are antique little tiny bikes, don't think you can even ride 'em on the highway. They are pricey too. Mister found a partially restored Cushman for like 8 grand... That's a lot.

I wish I could have gotten up on the roof to take a picture of the whole crowd, this was only about an eighth.

Check out all the cops they sent to hang around and "supervise". They were in the crowd too.

We got a spot right at the entrance cause Craig's crazy buddy Bob got there early. Bob is a true asshole, but some things you just can't fight.

See the guy in the red shirt with his back to the lens? I don't know his name, but there's a crazy story there. Supposedly he was riding behind Craig (black jacket, black jeans) one evening in a big group. Craig hit a piece of sharp metal, his bike flung it into the air, and it slit this guys throat open! Obviously he survived, but isn't that wild? Craig didn't even know it had happened.

Can you tell how big the tank on this bike is? It has to hold enough gas to power a V8! Yup, like a car engine, see the header covers (or whatever they're called) right under the tank? Can you even imagine?

 

 

The next place we went was right on the river. Beautiful.  There was even a pirate ship that came to visit!!

 

Can you read the name on the back? It's the Gypsy Rose! I want a pirate ship!

 

And check out this little girl. She was 14. It's not a real motorcycle, just 100cc or so, but man is she cool. I was a little jealous to be completely honest. She couldn't ride it on the highway, so they loaded it up on dad's truck and met us at the next stop and she rode from there. She must have kept up pretty good, I think we were doing about 55 on the back roads. Imagine going to school on Monday and getting to be all, "I rode my own bike on the Rat Ride". Well, maybe kids don't think that's cool, but I would've killed to be her at that age. 

We went to Fast Eddie's in Alton, Ill.  for dinner after that. If you are ever in St. Louis you must go to Fast Eddie's! They have phenomenal food and it's super cheap. They only have like 8 things on the menu, you wait in a line kinda like a cafeteria, and they make the food in front of you.  Mmmm... it's soooo good.