2014 Black Dog ride - raising money for suicide awareness and prevention

[D_A]

Since I'm not getting any responses in the other area I'll post this here.


Ok, I know this is short notice, the ride is on this coming Sunday, but I've thrown my hat in the ring just the same.

As many will know, "The Black Dog" is a euphemism for depression. What most will not know is that it's something I've struggled with on and off for a long time. I can assure you, it's a beyotch and not something to be taken lightly or dismissed.

Anyway, I've joined up to participate and help raise funds. On the money issue I do not expect people to do anything. It would be appreciated, but it's not expected.

I'll try to get some pics and video of the day to post up, it should be good.

If anyone feels the urge to support me, here's the link to my supporter page: https://onedayer2014.everydayhero.com/au/michael

Thanks.

[NKrader]

donated what i could.

cheers!

[D_A]

Thanks! i really appreciate it. Every cent counts.

[Kingcarcas]

Bicycling?? Good luck to you mate? By when do we have to donate?? I'll see what i can do

[jeanguy2]

Kingcaras,

D_A is about 16 hours ahead of us. It is now Sunday the 23 March 2014 @ 01:17 PM for him. D_A is likely on his bike as I type this.

Their Site states this for donation for Rider support: "To ensure all fundraising riders have a chance to get their funds deposited into Everyday Hero after the 1 Dayer, the top three individual fundraisers will be those listed on the Everyday Hero 1 Dayer site two weeks after the ride, on Friday 4th April at 9am WST." See this link and look at bottom of the page.. http://www.blackdogride.com.au/view/2014-1dayer

[D_A]

Well, we made it there and back alive!

Chris and I left Brougham Park in Cowra about 0645. There was a little chill in the air and it was still a bit dark but the trucks seem to have cleared the wildlife from the roadside for us by the time we got there. We had a good run through to Blaney where Chris turned off. I thought I'd forgotten my warmer gloves, but really I'd forgotten they were in my top-box. Some people's kids, eh. The dawn sky was quite picturesque the rest of the way to Bathurst and the meeting area was easy enough to find. I met up with someone from one of the riding forums I frequent and we proceeded to shoot the breeze as more and more bikes came rolling in. I think there was about a hundred all up, or approaching that anyway. There were a very large number of v-twins in the group, with some really impressive machinery. Besides the four of us on V-Stroms taking pride of place there was also a Victory and an Indian, plus a gaggle of lesser American hardware Pretty much everything from singles, to almost every kind of twin (Vs in 45 60 and 90 degree variants, parallel and flat twins), to a Triumph Street Triple, lots of inline 4s and a couple of six cylinder machines.
After a briefing that quite frankly I couldn't hear a word of despite the bull-horn we all left Bathurst in Staggered formation. I don't know if the locals were impressed by the number of bikes, intimidated or utterly nonplussed. It was hard to tell. There was one clown in a fancy white Range Rover tailgating and overtaking us in bunches. I might have him on camera I'll have to check. Other than that the ride went pretty smoothly and other traffic kept it's distance. We didn't hold anyone up.
We rolled on through to Cowra for morning tea, stopping at Olympic park on the Sydney road for a quick photo op. I got a couple of pics to show the size of the group. After that we kept on to the parking area over the bridge and stopped for morning tea and a bit more of a yarn. After a muffin and more tea there was another session with the bull-horn. I gathered it was time to head to Forbes, but didn't get much else. The road opened up a bit so the pace upped slightly. We had a clear run right through to Forbes where we pulled up in a caravan park for a BBQ lunch. I believe there were speeches or something, I didn't get a word. Afterwards we packed up, refueled and headed our separate ways. I took a back road to Grenfell to catch up with a mate who was planning to join the ride but his wife had been ill so he couldn't. Maybe next time mate.
Overall a good day was had by all I think, and a bunch of bucks were found for Lifeline. Thanks again to everyone that dug deep for this, you've all done a wonderful thing.

[D_A]

[D_A]

[jeanguy2]

Thanks for sharing the video D_A. Looks like you guys had wonderful weather for the event. Nice music on video # 2.

Had a chance to visit North of your location at RAAF Townsville when I took part in a joint military exercise with the RAAF back in 1997. Just love it up there. 19 deg of latitude South is not a bad parallel to living near to. Loved driving on the left side of the road but found that negotiating runabout and backing out out of drive ways required my thinking cap to be on. The Australian F-18 squadron that hosted us did excellent work. We got the grand tour of the local casinos, deep sea fishing, scuba diving and loads of delicious sea food. The even brought in a real typhoon for a couple days so that we could bring down the station steel storm shutters over the windows and doorways of our assigned buildings to safely weather a rather nasty typhoon. We also got to visit Brisbane and Sydney for a couple days each.

[Kingcarcas]

Thanks for the vids!