MDA01

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Eastern H-D Dealers MDA Run

Everybody who rides a Harley in the Poconos probably knows about the annual MDA run. The cause being to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association so they can help the victims of that disease. It also gives local Harley riders and their families a reason to get together and have some fun early in the riding season. The event is open to riders of any brand of motorcycle, but being sponsored by a group of Harley-Davidson dealers it is understandable that few other bikes show up.

In past years this event had been held in various locations from Scherer’s Grove near Adamstown to the H-D factory in York. It began as a one day affair but in recent years got stretched to two. This year day one was held at the Deka Battery factory in Lyons, while Day two was held at Dorney Park in Allentown. Both are much closer to the Poconos than previous years’ events.

Saturday started out sunny and mild, looking like a great day for biking. Unfortunately, as we got nearer to the event we ran in to a few heavy but sparse raindrops, and some ominous wind gusts, as the sky rapidly grew overcast.

Upon our arrival we were directed to park in the lower lot where the reception area, kids games and field (asphalt?) events were taking place. We traded our blue tickets that we had gotten at our sponsoring dealership for turning in a donation of $45 each for event pins. We spent some time watching the slow races, the hoop toss and the tire throw before we began our long trek uphill. The upper lot was about a quarter mile up a relatively steep hill and shuttle service was available in the form of a tan minivan, but Guru said “I could use the exercise”. Not wanting him to go alone Hippie and I went along.

Puffing and wheezing, I arrived at the upper lot picnic area, where the band “Blurred Vision” was belting out really great renditions of classic rock oldies, if perhaps a little to loud for us to engage in any kind of reasonable conversation.

We turned in our yellow food tickets in exchange for a picnic lunch of hot dogs, sloppy joes, potato or macaroni salad (but not both) potato chips (one small bag only please) and oatmeal raisin cookies (all you want). The sloppy joes weren’t bad and seconds were offered on them, the cookies and chips were good too. Hippie’s hot dog was cold, which launched him into a spate of grumbling since he had already discovered that the only things available to drink were Seven-up and water, no beer, not even a beverage with color of any kind.

The only other activity in the upper lot was a silent auction, where you could look over a selection of donated items from hunting knives to decorative art and rain suits then write your bid on the paper located at each article. Highest bid buys the item, and the money goes to a good cause, the MDA.

We took the tour that was offered of the battery factory. The audio-visual presentation at the start had such poor sound quality as to be completely unintelligible. The tour gave us plenty of exercise being that the factory is about a half mile long and our guide was a young fit man of about 28, and we are mostly ageing ex-industrial workers. I didn’t find the tour very interesting except for being somewhat surprised at the high degree of automation involved in the process. The smell of battery acid in the air was enough to mildly sicken me, prompting me to seek another can of free Seven-up as I exited the tour.

As we sat at a table it began to rain on us driving us to find shelter under one of the tents. I noticed that the sky was actually clear and blue to the northwest and correctly guessed that if we would just wait awhile it would clear up. Many of the attendees thought otherwise and cut out during the shower. We sat it out and grooved on the music. Less than two hours later, under a clear bright sky we walked down the hill to a mostly empty lot and rode away on dry pavement, stopping at Mark’s café in Kutztown for a really fine cheese steak, fries and beverages that had color to them, before heading home for the night.

Sunday was as nice a day for biking as one could wish for. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the weatherman was predicting a high of 65 F. The parking lot crew at Dorney Park directed us to the lower (most remote) lot. We were parked on a steep grade so we had to carefully angle the bikes so they weren’t leaning too far as to cause the kick stands to dig into the pavement. After looking over the show bikes that were on display in that lower lot, we started hiking up the hill. We approached the entrance to our MDA Ride picnic grove but were not allowed to enter. We were ordered to go in at the main gate at the top of the hill, so, dutifully, we hiked the rest of the way up the steep hill under the beating sun.

We turned in our gate passes and were left in to the park, then walked directly down the same long steep hill that we had just climbed only now inside the fence, to the picnic area. Security people collected our picnic passes and wrapped bands tightly around our wrists before allowing us into the picnic area.

There was plenty of seating under pavilions and there were several serving lines so there was almost no waiting. The food was actually good! There were hot dogs, hamburgers, fried chicken, macaroni salad, pasta salad, potato salad, potato chips, and many flavors of soda pop on tap. Best of all was that there were no limits on anything.

After eating well, we walked through the park and went on a few of the rides. There are so many coasters it boggles the mind. The biggest problem was the lack of shade. There are many trees in the park, young trees. Fifteen years from now it will be a shady pleasant place to walk around, but walking there Sunday only gave me sunburn. To add insult to injury, when we left at five p.m. the gate in the picnic area was locked, so we had to again hike to the top of the big hill to exit only to hike back to our bikes in the lowest parking lot.

All in all the Dorney Park experience beat out the Deka experience hands down; and since it was for such a good cause, I expect to do it again next year. Maybe I'll try to get in better shape though, for the mountain climbing involved.

I spoke to one of the dealers who told me that this weekend netted about three quarters of a million dollars for the MDA. Not bad for a fun weekend, eh?

Clanmother

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