ROAD REPORT: September 25th 2005
6:30am, Sunrise over the Meat Market
A quiet calm throughout the Meat Market in Manhattan's lower West Side. Washington Street was empty but for a few devoted Lady Liberty Ride Volunteers including Barbara Goldstein, LOVE's U.S. President, Barbara's husband Larry, Carlos Navidad, Hog's Manager, Leslie Kirschenbaum, the Art Director of the LLR and volunteer extraordinaire, and myself, Claudia with my ever loving husband Shelly Hirshon (who seconds as our Attorney). Michelle Dell, Hogs & Heifers intrepid and beautiful owner arrived on the Red Eye straight from Hogs & Heifers, Las Vegas with Jessica Hirshon, Director of Marketing and Special Events for Hogs' (yes, we like to keep it in the family) joined us with huge smiles as we pressed on.
7:00am, Here comes our trusty Joe from the Motorcycle Association of NYS!
Joe Aiello and Ramon Perez arrived with the MANYS Truck and set up the sound system. We could not have stayed on schedule with out Joe's support and strength. He moved more than half of the equipment early in the morning never stopping to take a break. What a terrific man. Eric Dorso and Chris Quinones, two of our esteemed LOVE Youth worked so hard assisting with the complex set up and were invaluable.
We scrambled to prepare the street for the onslaught of riders who would begin arriving at any moment.
7:45am , God bless the Fire Fighters from Lindenhurst. Gotta' love 'em.
We were in need of rescue! The men showed up with their gigantic truck (put her up on the side walk) and raised all of the flags and banners for the ride. They moved all of the tables and began the ritual set up of their renowned Pig Roast, which is top notch. Noting that there were zero left overs.
7:50am , Breakfast.
Coffee and Bagels for 200 arrived right on time gratis Joey Zaro from his renowned Zaro's Bakery. Joey arrived with his wife Nancy later to join the ride. See, it pays to have friends who ride.
The sun warmed up the morning as the first riders appeared, the first at 7:30.
8:00am, And did they arrive!
Now began a steady flow of riders and it never slowed down.
The ever present voice of reason, John Stanton, Esteemed Controller of Hogs' kept order, the electricity plugged in and our sanity. It was busy! We barely kept up with the demand. Mark Blitzer, our computer/web site guru and his sweetheart put up signs and directed traffic with Mickey Sumner, thank god. And with the mighty ministrations of Dale Hirshon, Liz Angelucci, Barbara, Leslie, Nikki Shannon and all of the gals from Hogs', at the registration tables, we managed to keep the flow going and the folks happy. On a personal note, my fellow WIST buddies, Ali and Erica rode together for WIMA and as always, they are always a welcome addition and great examples of what wonderful women riders are all about.
The NY/NJ Port Authority Motorcycle Unit pulled up on their beautiful HD Steeds to escort us safely road rules were announced.
10:00am , kick stands up and clutches out.
We had 525 registered riders and there were more in line. They would have to catch up. The take off was dramatic. The spirit was high and the excitement was palpable. There were a lot of bikes. There were representatives from; The Fire Riders, Blue Knights, Nam Knights, WIST, WIMA, Motor Maids, Women in the Wind, Southern Cruisers Riding Club, The United Ride, several HOG Chapters including many from Long Island, Westchester, Connecticut, New Jersey and NY. We had and SO many more riding groups but I don't know their names. Please send me your names and links and I will add all of your information to our site!
11:00am , A brief rest, coffee, photo ops, laughter, admiring the bikes.
We arrived up at Bear Mountain in under an hour, with out a hitch. Traffic on the West Side Highway, the GW Bridge and the Palisades Parkway was halted for our exclusive passage. It was, in a word, cool. We had so many riders this year that our motorcade was over 2 miles long. That's impressive.
Ron Peters, the park's commissioner, greeted us up at Bear Mountain with open arms as we blanketed the entire carousel parking lot and adjoining grassy slopes. Eric and Chris awaited the crowds with Jessica and manned the registration table keeping order of the controlled chaos. We took our annual carousel ride and there were plenty of photo ops out front.
The mood was giddy and the extraordinary mix of motorcycles and their owners was inspiring. The sheer number of women on their own bikes was awesome. This is what it's all about. Defying the stereotypes. What the LLR proves is that there is no one type of rider, no one best bike, and no one kind of girl or guy who chooses to partake in this sport. As a community, we support one another and encourage folks to learn to ride- safely.
12:15pm , Move 'em Out!
We departed from Bear Mountain after registering 38 more riders, many supplied by Dan and Bret from Wulf Brother Cycle Werks in Rochelle Park, NJ at 12:30. The return trip was perfect until we hit at a tremendous traffic back up on the PIP Southbound. There had been an awful accident involving a motorcycle on the PIP minutes before we arrived on the scene. The man was medi-vacked out to a local hospital and he did survive. Our ride was delayed nearly an hour. The delay was frustrating, an understatement, but everyone dealt with it in the best attitude possible, patience.
1:30pm-2:15pm , Party On with out us!
The block Party was in full swing with Steve Marshall at the entertainment helm rocking the block with his fabulous bands blues and classic rock. Steve put together a band of top notch musicians and sexy ladies Wendy from Snapple jumped up on the stage and helped keep the natives from becoming restless by amusing and rallying the troops. The band played on. Washington Street waited out the delay in style and with a party!
2:30pm , Welcome to HOGS!
At last we made it back to Manhattan and we were ceremoniously welcomed with huge cheers and the total rock n' roll insanity of Steve Marshall's band. Steve's band entertained us for the next 4 hours and they were amazing for sure! For those of you who may have missed it, a high light was Steve's burn out on his own bike in front of the stage while playing his guitar. Handcuffing some of our cops to his dancers was also a highlight. Don't ask.
3:00pm , Let the Fund Raising for LOVE begin!
We were graced with the presence of the very lovely and witty Graziella Baretta, Miss New Jersey and the fun loving hip hop styled rapper dude DJ Chef as two of our fabulous MC's along with my personal favorite (he's a friend), Casey Neistat from the Nesitat Brothers.
ALL AFTERNOON , Charity, Kids, Dancing and Great Eats!
John Stage generously provided the LLR 2005 with enough of the GREATEST BBQ eats from his famous Dinosaur Bar-B-Q (up on Broadway and 131 st St.) to feed 500 folks. That was amazing. Every person that I spoke with during the day raved about the food. The Lyndhurst FD Pig Roast was scarfed up in record time, I believe that we polished off at least two giant hogs (how appropriate) and we made 3 emergency runs to Western Beef for more hot dogs and turkey burgers on the grill that was run by Kenny Vance. We had a table of vegetarian wraps and delicacies donated by B.R. Guest and Snapple kept our thirst at bay along with huge gifts of beer from Bud, Heineken, Jack Daniels and Bud Light. Tracy Shankman once again provided us with the most delectable table of sweets including her award winning brownies from Sugar House in NJ.
Speaking of sugar, Susan Sugarman (who just happens to be Michelle's Mom) gets the award for selling the most raffle tickets hands down along with her trusty crew of gorgeous girls including but not limited to Lisa and two of Leslie's colleagues, Tina and Wendy. Of course the raffle tickets sold like crazy because of the generous donations from N.Y.Kids Club, The Guitar Center, Monkey Ass Leathers, Hein Gericke, Trama's Motorcycle School, Aprilia and Ducati of NYC, Bergen County HD, Light House HD, San Diego HD, and of course New York City Harley Davidson who donated the 2006 Sportster! Thanks Dave Martin.
4:30pm , And the winner is......
A wonderful man named Rob Getreu won the bike and he has donated it BACK to the LLR! This is some of our best news to report!
The Bottom Line ,
The block party was a huge hit. We had over 1500 guests supporting the Lady Liberty Ride and LOVE. We raised a total of $50,000 for LOVE US. Our largest gift ever by far. All of our LOVE youth were in attendance and they were fabulous. We came together to raise awareness and money for LOVE and we succeeded! THANK YOU FOLKS!!
PLEASE sign up now for the Lady Liberty Ride 2006 on Sunday, September 24 th . It promises to be an even greater day of riding, music provided again by NYC Wildest band, the Steve Marshall Band, new women on bikes, more great men supporting them and everyone supporting Leave Out Violence, U.S. (LOVE-US). Your support is helping to STOP the cycle of violence in our youth culture. You are changing the world. That's huge!
Motorcycling is a great metaphor for life. Our community is a healthy example of an inclusive microcosm of diversity, acceptance, and support.
Thank you all for your LOVE .
See you in September!
Claudia and Michelle
