Grizzly Adams Visits Deadwood Saloon

On Saturday and Sunday, November 1 & 2, 2008, Dixie Biker Illustrated sponsored a Poker Run and benefit for Rochelle's Boots on the Ground at The Deadwood Saloon in Ormond Beach. The run was put together pretty quickly and the poker runs on Saturday had about sixty sign ups. Sunday's weather didn't cooperate, but a couple of hundred came out anyhow.

This group is headin' over I-95 on Airport Road in Ormond Beach. We provided maps for the folks on the Poker Runs to avoid traffic, and this is a great way to avoid the traffic on Hwy 1 and Hwy 40 (Granada Blvd.) on the way to country backroads to Trader Jack's Roadside in DeLand. I followed them to Trader Jack's where we had another registration point for the Runs. We only got ten sign ups, but it was a gorgeous day to ride the by-ways. From Trader Jack's the run went up Hwy 11 to Bunnell -- about twenty-five miles of country ridin' with no traffic lights, no stop signs and no traffic. About five miles north of Bunnell is the AmVets Post, the second stop. From there it was a shot over to McHenry's Irish Pub in Flagler Beach, a six mile shot down Oceanshore Blvd, to "The Loop" and back in to The Deadwood Saloon on Hwy 1 in the middle of Daytona's "Ormond Strip." There's lotsa room at Deadwood Saloon for Bikes Only parking and even though there were a couple of hundred bikes, between back yard, front yard, and side yard, they get kinda lost.

Folks hung out doin' what we do: chowin' on an awesome, free BBQ Rib and Chicken dinner with the fixin's provided by Deadwood Saloon and smoked up by Irwin and Rodney. Finger lickin' good, guys. You done great! Live music was provided by Rock n Roll Dundee, and Boots and I gave away a buncha raffle prizes. The winners of the Poker Run Ron Jaffe, owner of Deadwood Saloon - best hand and Linda Wallace - worst hand, won two tickets each to Roscoe's Chili Challenge for next weekend. They both donated their winnings back to RBOTG to be auctioned or raffled off, helping to raise a few more dollars for the cause. Thanks! Below is a group shot of folks that signed a banner to be sent to the 7th Cav serving in Iraq.
Mr. Dan Haggerty, better known to us older folks with TV memories from the 70s, as "Grizzly Adams" - star of the show of the same name, dropped by, hung out with us for a few hours and hadda cold one or three. He graciously posed for pictures---below with Rochelle, left, Boots, middle, and Jade, right---with everyone that asked. He also did a couple of his 'magic' tricks and some sleight of hand that amused everyone.

Ken, Rochelle's grandpa and a USMC vet who is the front man for RBOTG, explained the mission of RBOTG to anyone that asked about it. After explaining to Grizzly Adams, Grizzly graciously made it a point to sign the USMC portion of a banner for our Troops.

Then it was another photo opportunity with Rochelle and Jade (below) with the Grizzly Adams 'ride'. Oh--before I forget: the link above to RBOTG will lead you to their website which has all kindsa good info on how RBOTG started, who it's helped, letters from Troops, and much more.

After signin' a few - and I mean a lot! - more autographs, Dan took off home before the sun set and temps dropped into the fifties. Thanks for the awesome support, bro. You da man! See that, y'all ... you just never know who's gonna show up the Deadwood Saloon or at a Dixie Biker event. With 'Grizzly' if it's about kids or our troops, you can bet he's gonna do his best to ride out, even if it's only to make a 'cameo'. Once again, thanks!

Before Boots and I headied home for the evening, I hadda get a picture of the lovely Gina, below. She'd been bustin' butt all day behind the bar. And I can't forget how fast she was runnin' when suddenly Ronnie said, "Cuervo shots ... three bucks for the next five minutes!" Holy moly. Folks bellied up to the bar, emptied two or three bottles and Gina had her hands full, that's for sure.
Sunday morning dawned cloudy, drizzly and chilly, and the weather worsened during the day. Bummer. We still got a couple of dozen hardy bikers ridin' in, a few from Orlando, Clermont and Lake County - Uncle Bob and Jon - you guys are hard core! - and lotsa folks came in cars and pick ups. It turned out to be a pretty good turnout for such a crappy day. Plus Ronnie had NFL and NASCAR goin' on all his flat screen HD TVs.

With the crummy weather, Ronnie hadda move The Double Barrel Band to the inside stage -- they were originally gonna play on the outside stage -- and we hadda cancel our 'outdoor' bike games. No 'tater in the hay, weenie bite, slow ride, etc. Just too dangerous in the wet and slick conditions. Oh well, we had a great time inside doin' vibrator races, raffles and just hangin' with each other doin' what we do.
Rochelle's Boots on the Ground was set up on the front porch, and we got to meet Brandon and Stacey Peters of Peters Trial Group on Orlando. They're corporate sponsors for RBOTG, along with Winn-Dixie and Orlando Harley-Davidson, and are responsible for us getting on board as another corporate sponsor. Below they're with Ron, owner of Deadwood Saloon, far left, and Jennifer, far right. Jennifer, according to Ken, is a huge asset to RBOTG. She's a volunteer who handles weekend set up. web site editing, bos packing and lotsa 'behind the scenes' stuff for ROBTG. And, to top it off, her husband is currently serving a tour in Iraq with the US Army. Thanks for your efforts and hard work for the Troops, Jennifer!

Around 4:30 we did our last raffle of the weekend and gave a way a buncha Dixie Biker and Deadwood Saloon gear. But everyone was waitin' for the drawing for tickets to Roscoe's Chili Challenge. We drew those last, of course, and the winners were Crazy Horse and Mary, left, and Bob and Babe, right, all of Ormond Beach. Congratulations!

We're gonna do it all over again the last weekend of November. Only this time, we're gonna try and get all of our readers involved. We have nine poker runs startin' in eight cities in North-Central Florida all ending at The Deadwood Saloon. There's more info here: http://www.dixiebiker.com/Events01.html and we'll get a seperate page up with all the event info shortly. The entire weekend, nicknamed "Dang, I'm Sick of Turkey" poker runs and Backyard BBQ oughta be a blast.

We like the Toy Runs, under privleged kids are near and dear to our hearts, but we wanna take care of some heroes that are often taken for granted and forgotten at this time of year: our Troops. These young men and women are off in a foreign land defending what America stands for. We don't care what your politics are, these American Heros deserve our support. Hope to see y'all on Nomember 29th & 30th.