2000 Yuma HOG Rodeo - The way it was
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I had a great opportunity to view the games and get a few good pictures. Yuma HOG (of which I am member) was kind enough to let me set up an ABATE membership booth right next to the track.
Yuma HOG does this rodeo with class. They opened the rodeo by having Arizona Airplane parachute in streaming the flags behind them. Then the Rough Riders MC, a veterans causes club, did the flag raising ceremony.
I didn't get all the game winners, but Dan Winans a local expert handy man and his fine lady Sheila won the over all for the games with a first place in the weenie bite and a first place in the tennis ball drop.
My kids had a blast playing on a big sand pile with some new friends.
Patti placed her bike in the bike show. I thought they mis-classed her bike, but I'm not a judge. They placed it in casually dressed, but to be fair I thought it should have had to compete as a custom. She did take first in her class, and to really say its a nice bike she took the people's choice award. That is awarded by popular vote by everybody who signed in at the rodeo.
Scan down, I probably didn't get the pictures that I should have, but these are fun.
Thats one happy lady. By the way, she put almost every piece if chrome, and custom stuff on that bike herself.
... and she rides it almost everyday. That was a nice ride home from the rodeo.
This is called the tennis ball drop. No, not because she dropped it at the end of the tube. The rider drives past the tube and the passenger drops the the tennis ball in the top end. As the ball rolls down the tube the rider synchronizes their speed with the ball by watching it roll past small cut outs in the tube. When the ball rolls out the bottom end of the tube the passenger reaches down and catches it. It is not easy. Nobody caught the ball on the first pass this day.
Note Ted's bright orange official shirt? While not the sexiest outfit, it adds greatly to the safety and efficiency of the games by making it easy to see and identify the oficials on the track.
Speaking of sexy. Here we see our local Yuma HOG chapter president Steve Matowik trying on his own official uniform at the last official meeting before the rodeo.
Here we see Gilbert Hernandez, the ABATE of Arizona Yuma Chapter Coordinator. He is demonstrating the correct way to put on your pants while jumping out of a window in "The Ol' Mans Home."
We certainly appreciate this excellent demonstration of motorcycle safety techniques.
The tennis ball set is an excellent test of both rider skills and passenger dexterity. The rider goes past a row of cones witha tennis ball on the top of each one and the passenger picks them up. Then the rider turns around and passes back by the row of cones and the passenger must replace them on the cones. The team who successfully picks up and replace the most balls wins.
If I remember correctly this young lady sucked the weenie right off the fork. She didn't win though. The object is to bite off as much as you can and leave the stub on the fork.