Many motorcycle runs – most, it seems – take place to help one cause or another. The Katelynn Stinnett Memorial Run is no exception. You can catch the back story on that link, but basically this run is held simultaneously in many states each June. Each event is coordinated independently and benefits an area 501(3)(c) charity.
This year, here in New Jersey, the run was for the benefit of the NJ Chapter of Bikers Against Child Abuse. BACA is an international organization. Confused yet?
Pam and me have ridden this event for a few years now and it’s definitely trending downward. The NJ site I mentioned earlier still features the group shot 
made that first year as a banner. (Well, it did until the site went away, as things sometimes do on the ‘net.) That image was made toward the end of the after-party. The crowd is still at a respectable number, some of the police escorts are still there, you can see some of the vendor tents and if you look carefully, you can see part of the band’s PA on the right. (The image, while a good one – Pam and me are on the viewer’s left, front row, in black tank tops -Â isn’t the only thing that’s outdated on the site. Keep your informational hunger in check if you visit.)
By contrast, this year’s after-party was a couple of dozen, tops, enjoying pizza and beer in a local restaurant.
Not sure what’s up with that, whether it’s the economy in general or what.
On a personal level, though, it’s the riding not the party that interests me and the leads from NJ BACA did not disappoint. We spent several hours – a good 160 miles or so – rolling through some of the better roads that the Garden State has to offer. This was in contrast to earlier years, where the run was basically from one of several registration sites to a central end site.
I’ve got some pictures from the day in my gallery. Not many, and not particularly dynamic, because Pam rode her own instead of as my passenger, where she usually snaps away. For her, with only a couple of years under her belt, this ride was a bit of a milestone for both distance and group size. She even scraped a floorboard or two on her Deluxe! Made me proud of how far she’s come as a rider.
