Blessing of the bikes

I was lucky to be asked by Andy to lead DanHOG from Harley-Heaven to Pakenham where we were to meet the Yarra Valley Chapter. With the Saturday morning shopping traffic, I decided on the most direct route down the freeway avoiding the busy shopping precinct. With 30+ bikes we were quite an impressive sight for the Saturday morning shoppers. With some good management, OK OK, luck I managed to keep the group together and we arrived at Maccas as one group. Twenty minutes later we were joined by another 30+ riders from Yarra Valley Chapter.

After our morning coffee and chat, Kez from Yarra Valley and I gathered the troops, had brief briefing, formed up at the BP servo and headed off to Grantville to collect the Gippsland Chapter. With Kez as Tail end Charlie and in communication with me via the 2-way radios it was easy to keep the 60+ group together.

We took Racecourse Rd to the South Gippsland Highway and followed this to Grantville. Andy scootered ahead to get a video of the 3 HOG Chapters riding as one down to San Remo for the Blessing of the Bikes. At Grantville we slowed to give Gippsland Chapter time to join the group. Kez radio though when everyone had joined the group and we quickened the pace and cruised into San Remo 90+ strong. San Remo was jumping, with bikes everywhere but traffic management was excellent. We were directed to carparks at the back of the main shops, which turned out to be just a street back from all the action. There was a Harley Heaven sales pod setup with Laura, Sarah, Jess and Steve all being kept very busy.

After a quick look, around a few of us decided that a cuppa back up the road at a local service centre was a good idea as all cafes were inundated with bikers. The new location for the Blessing of the Bikes seemed to be very popular, the town and locals were certainly very welcoming. Disappointing that the roads that lead to San Reno can be a bit on the boring side.

Ride Safe  TJay