Poker Run
Pete sent me an email last night asking about any runs that might be going on in our area. I asked my husband about it and the only one he knew of that was coming up was the Hog Town run and said that we could go. He explained that HOG stood for Harley Owners Group and that anyone could go. I sent out a text to our group to see if anyone had any interest before I responded to Pete. As it turned out everyone wanted to go. Stacey was happy to get her Sportster out on a run again now that she was comfortable. I emailed Pete and set up the meet.
We met in Imlay City at a little diner I knew of that was easy enough to find. Since the run wasn't starting until 11:00am it gave us time to meet at 9:00am and grab some breakfast first. Everyone Arrived at Nicks and the waitress commented on how the Canadians pronounced a few words and asked where they were from. This made us all laugh as they got this every time they came our way. They commented that what the restaurant had listed as Canadian Bacon was not Canadian Bacon it was Ham. This caused another laugh out of me and everyone looked my way. I then had to explain that I knew what Canadian Bacon really was. When I explained that Canadian Bacon was Peameal Bacon our Canadian friends looked impressed and my American friends looked confused making me and the Canadian friends laugh even harder. My husband called me a show-off and then everyone laughed. Once the laughter died down I mentioned that we needed to get going.
The ride to Brown City wasn't extremely far but I wanted to take the back way because M-53 can be ridiculously slow on the weekends. We arrived in Brown City at the Park where registration was taking place and got checked in. This was a poker run with designated stops to draw cards and get your page stamped. If you didn't hit all the stops you couldn't make a poker and possibly win 1st, 2nd or 3rd prize. You didn't have to stop in any special order just had to hit them all and be back by 5:00pm. then you would find out who the winners were, party and enjoy the band.
Once we saw where all the stops were our American friends and I decided what we thought would be the best route. We asked our Canadian friends for input to which they all laughed. They were lost and had no idea where we even were. Once we were done laughing again we were ready to go. Our first stop was going to be the gas station to make sure everyone was topped off.
We made our rounds and hit our stops and as my poker became worse I accepted the fact that I would not be winning any prize. I focused on enjoying my time with all our friends. We played pool at a few of the stops as we were making extremely good time. When we had drawn our second to last card and still had lots of time to spare we decided to take our Canadian friend to our bike night bar for lunch. I explained that this is the bar where I played pool on a league, where I met my husband and where we got married.
Time was slipping away fast and we needed to head back to Brown City and get our last card so we could get back before the deadnline. Pete had an amazing hand and with the right cards could win a prize. Our last stop was in Brown City and was a quick stop for us. We arrived back at the park with almost 45 minutes to spare. Once we turned our pages in we went to enjoy the band since they were going to use that stage to announce the winners. Pete had a seriously good chance of winning first place from what we saw.
About an hour later the music stopped and everyone started yelling. We realized that one of the officials was on the stage and walking up to the mic. He thanked everyone for all the support and explained that they had raised more money this year than the last 3 years combined. Then he said he was ready to announce the winners. A hush came over the crowd as everyone anxiously awaited the results. He announced 3rd place was Stacey and she looked shocked not having realized she had a good hand. Then 2nd place was announced and it was someone we didn't know. Then he when on to explain what the money raised was going to support and why it was such a great cause. This frustrated many and irritation could be heard over him and he said finally he was going to announce the grand prize winner.
Pete looked anxious and excited at the same time. Who could blame him? He was likely holding the best hand and the grand prize winner. The announcer asked someone on stage to come reed the page he was holding. He nodded his head and said that he was going to slaughter the last name and then he call out Pete's name and we all looked at him and asked what his last name was again. He said it's French and pronounced "Du May" but it's spelled Dumais and most people pronounce it "Dumb Ass" like the announced just did. We laughed and pushed him towards the stage to collect his prize. Once on stage he corrected the announcer and collected his prize.
We met near our Harleys because we knew the Canadians would want to be heading home soon. We had agreed to ride with them back to Imlay City so they would be able to get back to the freeway without any issues. We rode with them to the Speedway just before the freeway and refueled our motorcycles. Our friends from the Flint area headed home then too. The rest of us headed back to Marlette and stopped at Eddie G's for some pool and bar snacks before calling it a night ourselves.