A couple of years ago one of the car clubs to which I belong received a request from the organizers of a local charity event to participate in what had been in past years a Central Florida motorcycle poker run. Because it was a charity event, the organizers were looking for ways to boost the attendance and figured they could do so by adding cars to the participants. For those of you not familiar with the term, a “Poker run” is a staged event over a designated course with five stops and a finish. At each stop (normally is a place of interest) a sealed envelope playing card is drawn and at the finish the cards are opened and whoever has the best poker hand wins donated prizes with the entry fees going to charity. Sounded like fun so the wife and I signed up the ’40.
Surprise number one we are the ONLY car there. Surprise number two, there are also over 150 motorcycles including two rival motorcycle gangs. Surprise number three, at the 9:00AM start, we are apparently the only ones who had not begun what had turned out to be a day of prodigious beer drinking. Surprise number four, the “places of interest” turned out to be various biker bars spread throughout rural Central Florida.
At the first stop we were greeted by three very large men who welcomed the thundering hoard of Harleys surrounding a very small 40 inch GT. One of the bikers ahead of us with the name of “Big Lou” on the back of his jacket approached the three greeters of an establishment named “The One Percenters” and pointing to our car announced, “It’s OK, they’re with us”. Smiling, Big Lou told us we didn’t need to worry as the establishment’s “security” will make sure nobody messes with our car (and growing throng of arriving motorcycles) while we’re inside enjoying ourselves. “The One Percenters” was a pretty interesting place with a bar, about two dozen tables and a stage separated from the clientele by chicken wire. Big Lou explained that the patrons may get a bit rowdy from time to time and express their feedback to the various musical performances by throwing things at the musicians such as plates of food, beer bottles and on rare occasions, each other. We signed in promptly as we had no weapons to surrender and drew our first card. We were then joined by several other event participants who ordered libations. Being approximately 10:00AM, we ordered coffee, the others, two pitchers of beer. We discussed the ’40, Harley’s, chrome plating vs power coating and discovered Big Lou was actually an accountant and his friend Wendell, an off duty police detective.
After our coffee most remained finishing their libations and we hit the road to the next stop. While I won’t bore everyone with the details, it made “The One Percenters” look like the ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria. We mingled a bit, grabbed our card envelope and continued to the remaining stops. Finally we finished and while we didn’t win anything we had a great time. The photos are what most of the trip looked like from inside the ’40.