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1997 1998

JPC Midnight Tour,

Chicagoland area, Illinois, June 13, 1998

(Story and photos by Evan "The Bulldog" Breyn, VROC #485)

A wonderful night for a ride among 1000 or so friends, give or take a few.

June 13th marked the 19th annual Midnight Tour put on by the Jerseypine Cruisers, and they could not have asked for a better night to hold it on. The Midnight Ride is a fundraiser for the Jerseypine Cruisers to raise money for their club's events. They have a raffle with the proceeds going to the Maryville Academy and in exchange for the use of the Academy grounds, Jerseypine provides security for Maryville Academy's Chuckwagon Days the following week.

This, being my third year attending, was the best yet. The weather was great and the temperature held above freezing. My wife Pat and I arrived around 7:30pm to a parking lot with about 750 bikes parked in nice neat rows. Thinking that with hog fest in Milwaukee and the VROC ride going on in southwest Wisconsin, 1,000 bikes was gonna be about all were gonna see. Wrong! The unofficial count was about 1,500 according to Bill Mumford, the ride coordinator and pilot of a white Boss Hoss. Less than last year, but what do you expect with most local VROC in Wisconsin.

We bumped into Bob Williams with his '85 700 and I saw Ace's bike complete with a Subway Chicago Bulls horny hat on, and ran into a few other members that I am embarrassed to admit have forgotten the names of. The bike show had a lot of great paint jobs and two Vulcans that I thought should have taken a prize.

We met Al Lauer and his "cheri" '95 800A with custom red eagle paint job, more chrome than the eye can take in at one look and an ass-kicking stereo complete with chrome speakers mounted on the handlebars. Next to his dream ride was a '99 G/G Nomad with custom eagle feather paint on his stock paint job owned by Greg Flermuga. Greg is still beaming, wearing the S-eating grin that most Nomad owners wear as people drool over their rides. Nice paint and makes me want one even more. Wifey said no.

We even saw a 1500 Classic complete with real bull's horns (No, not the chrome bullhorns you all want either).

After spending too much money on the vendors, we heard the call to "man your mounts". As more people fired up their bikes, the exhaust hung heavy in the air and made my eyes tear, but at about 11:20 with the temperature at a nice 70 F, we were on our way to Harmony, IL up near Elgin. We rumbled out and began our journey without a hitch.

Something about a 5-mile string of bikes roaring down the road ignoring all traffic signals gives me wood. As we got on the toll road, the looks in the windows of the cages was priceless. Heading West toward Rockford on I-90, we found our group in road construction and had to regroup a few miles down the road. As we exited the tollway, we took a country road that went over the tollway.

What a sight, miles and miles of motorcycle headlights in a row. At the end our journey, we ended up at Country Junction (yes, another CW bar) where they had plenty of beer, soft drinks and food waiting for us. Pat and I stayed about an hour talking to various people and just enjoying each other's company.

The ride home was short because we live nearby, and felt weird to be alone after being with so many. I really enjoyed meeting all of the present and future VROCers. I passed out many flyers and hope to see you all at future rides. The Jerseypine Cruisers have invited us to attend any of their open rides, so I will post the ones that look like fun. A real fun night, next year let us have our 2nd annual Great River Run on a different weekend so we can attend both.

Safe Riding, The Bulldog