WarChild Riding Group
Sandy's Toddle Inn - Chaffee MO
Bikers Who Care – We Support:
Finding Cures – Saving Children
Free Spirit
Patriot Guard Riders Mission Statement
Notice - The PGR store is open since the first of the new year.
Thank you for your patience.
The Patriot Guard Riders is a diverse amalgamation of riders from across the nation. We have one thing in common besides motorcycles. We have an unwavering respect for those who risk their very lives for America’s freedom and security. If you share this respect, please join us.
We don’t care what you ride, what your political views are, or whether you’re a "hawk" or a "dove". It is not a requirement that you be a veteran. It doesn't matter where you’re from or what your income is. You don’t even have to ride. The only prerequisite is Respect.
Our main mission is to attend the funeral services of fallen American heroes as invited guests of the family. Each mission we undertake has two basic objectives.
1. Show our sincere respect for our fallen heroes, their families, and their communities.
2. Shield the mourning family and friends from interruptions created by any protestor or group of protestors.
We accomplish the latter through strictly legal and non-violent means.
Folks, this is not just important…
It’s what we do!
Join Us!
RD - SE Missouri Ride Captain
Stars & Stripes Museum
 This Dayin History |
|
|
Over the last 139 years, millions of copies of The Stars and Stripes have been distributed throughout the world. And, it all began during the Civil War in the town of Bloomfield, located in southeast Missouri. It was here on November 9, 1861 that ten Illinois Union soldiers, using the vacated press of The Bloomfield Herald, published the first "Stars and Stripes" which they named after the American flag. One of the original copies of that 1861 paper is now owned by the Stoddard County Historical Society and to be put on loan with the museum. The Stars and Stripes flourished during each of the five major wars this country has fought. |
|||
|
|
|
||
During World War II, General George C. Marshall referred to The Stars and Stripes "as a symbol of the things we are fighting to preserve...free thought and free expression of a free people". Many famous people have been connected with The Stars and Stripes: Cartoonist Bill Mauldin; Andy Rooney and Steve Kroft of "Sixty Minutes" were former Striper's as was Harold K. Ross, founder of the New Yorker magazine. Grantland Rice, Ernie Pyle and other war correspondents have also contributed to the newspaper. Several former S & S staff members and various war veterans have donated personal letters, unpublished behind-the-scenes reports, back issues of The Stars and Stripes and other interesting war-related items to be displayed or filed as reference material. |
|||
All this history will be preserved. A Stars and Stripes Museum/Library with climate-controlled storage, handicapped accessibility, display and meeting rooms will be invaluable for research. The facility serves historians, students and writers, as well as the general public. |
|||
Drinking is part of Bike Week atmosphere
Bikes and booze: A lethal mix
Henry Pierson Curtis and Ken MaSentinel Staff Writers
Beer and Bike Week go together like crash and die.
Tip a few, hop on a motorcycle and you may help Volusia County retain its title as Florida's top spot for dying in an alcohol-related bike crash.
A quarter of Volusia's fatal drunken motorcycle crashes in recent years have happened during Bike Week and Biketoberfest.
Call them Florida's deadliest cocktail parties on two wheels.
And safety officials doubt much will change, even though safety experts and every licensed motorcyclist know one drink is too many.
"I don't know how you can educate people when a lot of the money made in Daytona is made in the bars," said Louis Kyler, head of motorcycle training for the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. "We can't educate common sense."
At the heart of the problem is a rough-and-tumble image many baby boomers and other riders adopt when they don black leather. Put 500,000 of them together for 10 days in the winter sun, and death follows.
The party signs are everywhere. "Welcome Bikers Full Liquor Bar" reads a billboard for Ker's Wing House near the corner of Interstate 4 and International Speedway Boulevard.
Enjoying a noon brew at Ker's, Gary Lloyd, a 50-year-old biker from Maryland, said he paces himself to meet his 12-beer-a-day limit.
"I don't get buzzed and drive," he said. Lloyd explained he learned his lesson last year when he drank a bit too much, got on his Harley-Davidson, tipped over and caused several hundred dollars of damage to his bike.
Waitress Scarlett Hayes said many of her motorcycle patrons "like to drink Jack Daniel's and Coke" but know when to stop. Though drinking-related motorcycle deaths nationwide declined during the past 10 years, they surged among older riders, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The administration's report said that of the 1,264 motorcycle operators killed in 2004, alcohol was involved in a large percentage of crashes involving people ages 30 to 49. Of those who died with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 or higher, nearly 60 percent were in that age group.
Drinking and riding has become so widespread and deadly that the Florida Highway Patrol is filming a public-service announcement this week to be broadcast statewide. Finding people to star in the video was easy. "They didn't even have to go to bars," Trooper Kim Miller, an FHP spokeswoman, said. "They're going to all the events where bikers are standing around drinking."
Late Tuesday, a head-on crash near Deltona between two motorcycles killed both riders, bringing the Bike Week death toll to six, officials said.
No determination has been made on whether alcohol was involved in any of the deaths.
Last year during Bike Week, a record 21 riders and passengers died. The number of alcohol-related deaths has not been released.
Daytona Beach officials have never tried to restrict drinking at the event.
"It's not really an option," City Commissioner Shiela McKay said. "It's a very lucrative event for a handful of people, and a lot of people enjoy it."
On Main Street -- ground zero for excess -- a giant inflated frog with an overflowing mug of beer holds court above the heads of thousands of revelers.
"Breakfast is a couple of shots of tequila, two shots of Sambuca [Italian liqueur] and a beer," said Joe Loy, a 46-year-old New Jersey biker. "Drinking is the whole part of the atmosphere, the whole persona of Bike Week."
Sipping a Bloody Mary, Loy was on Main Street inside Froggy's Saloon, which stays open from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. It advertises itself as "The World's Largest Biker Bar" and "The World's Biker Party Headquarters."
Unsure of how much he had drunk by midday, Loy said he and his girlfriend rode his gold 2004 Harley-Davidson downtown and parked near Main Street. On average, he said, he consumes 15 to 20 beers and cocktails a day during his annual vacation.
Stopped four years ago during Bike Week on suspicion of drinking and riding, Loy says he now takes a couple of hours to sober up or gives his keys to a bartender and finds another way home.
"Now I would never get on that bike if I feel like I'm not in control," Loy said.
Bartender Diane Christensen said Froggy's has a policy to take the keys of intoxicated patrons and call cabs for them. But she said she hasn't had to do that or seen that happen in 2 1/2 years working there.
Fellow bartender Robyn Pinkham said most bikers like to drink between 3 and 10 p.m., after they finish riding. She estimated, on average, each consumes about six drinks a day.
That number seems low when you talk to bikers such as George Seney. He said he spends about $200 a day on drinks during Bike Week.
By midafternoon, the 50-year-old said he'd already had six Bloody Marys and six Budweisers. Before calling it quits and riding home on his Harley-Davidson to New Smyrna Beach, he guessed he had put away 12 more beers.
"I'm a piece of work, ain't I?" Seney said, downing his beer.
It's the kind of talk that gives safety experts heartburn.
Besides causing loss of reaction time from being impaired, drinking exposes riders to additional medical risks.
"Motorcyclists with head injuries are about two times more likely to have fatal head injuries if intoxicated," according to researcher John Brick of Intoxikon International, an alcohol- and drug-prevention research company in Pennsylvania.
Compared with about 750 skills needed to operate a four-wheel vehicle, about 2,500 skills are required to safely operate a motorcycle, according to Kyler, who coordinates rider-training programs in Florida.
"There's no room for mixing drinking and riding. Anything you do to take away that fine edge will affect you," said Kyler, who rides a 1993 Yamaha GTS 1000 sport touring bike.
"I wouldn't even think of getting on a motorcycle with a drink in me."