Report of "Breathless" Ride
Day 1 Melbourne - Stawell
Saturday 1st November 2008
The flag waving ceremony to commence the "Breathless" 8 Day Ride took place at Freemasons Victoria Grand Lodge at Albert Street, East Melbourne.
VMMA members partaking in the "Breathless" Ride along with supporting VMMA members and Cystic Fibrosis members and families started to arrive from 9.00 am at Albert Street.
CF member and who knows future Grand Master!!!!
The MC for the departure ceremony was M.W. Bro. John Wilson, PGM and VMMA Patron who welcomed our guests which included Deputy Lord Mayor, Gary Singer, Royal Children's Hospital Head of Respiratory Medicine: Professor Colin Robertson, Sean Lusk President of CFV Council, The Grand Master of Freemasons Victoria: M.W.Bro. Gary Sebo, The Golden Tappers, Chinese Music Youth Ensemble, Victorian Police Solo Leading Senior Constable Adam Bulstrode and State Emergency Services representative Jennifer Roberts.
As the motorcycles arrived they were parked on the grass embankment on the east side of the Grand Lodge entrance, whilst Victorian Police Solo Leading Senior Constable Adam Bulstrode and State Emergency Services representative Jennifer Roberts parked their escort vehicles on the road in front of Grand Lodge.
SES ( Jennifer Roberts) & Police (Leading Senior Constable Adam Bulstrode) were in attendance & most cooperative and provide an escort on the departure from East Melbourne.
At the front entrance on the marble area of Grand Lodge a podium was setup with an area set aside for the Chinese Music Youth Ensemble and The Golden Tappers.
Prior to the commencement of the official departure the VMMA had agreed to give a motorcycle ride to the members of the Chinese Music Youth Ensemble, John Jarvis, Dean Lugton, Larry King and Brian Sanders provided the rides, thank you.
The official wave of ceremony commenced with John Wilson (MC) introducing the Chinese Music Youth Ensemble who then proceeded to commence playing a number of items, John then introduced The Golden Tappers who also performed beautifully a number of dance routines.
A few of the V.M.M.A. ladies thought they might start our own Tappers but there was more against than for so looks like our ladies we will have to stick to motorcycle riding.
John provided a ride for members of the Chinese Youth Orchestra Ensemble.
John then introduced Sean Lusk President of CFV Council who spoke on behalf of all CFV members and thanked the VMMA and Freemasons Victoria for their support of CFV via the "Breathless" 8 Day Awareness and Fundraising Ride around Victoria. The Grand Master of Freemasons Victoria was then introduced and confirmed Freemasons Victoria commitment to support charitable organisations in the general community and announced that the Board Of Benevolence was supporting the VMMA and CFV by donating $1 for $1 up to a amount of $15,000.
MC VMMA Patron MW Bro. John Wilson, PGM. and MW Bro. Garry Sebo, Grand Master expressing Freemasons Victoria support of the "Breathless" 8 Day Ride.
The Deputy Lord Mayor, Gary Singer and Royal Children's Hospital Head of Respiratory Medicine: Professor Colin Robertson both were introduced and spoke in support of the "Breathless" Ride.
It was now time to rev the motorcycle engines and start to line up for the official flag waving departure, Victorian Police Solo Leading Senior Constable Adam Bulstrode lined up in front for he was our Police Escort from Albert Street to Victoria Parade with riders ready and The Golden Tappers lined up each side of the motorcycles and M.W. Bro. John Wilson, PGM, Deputy Lord Mayor, Gary Singer, Royal Children's Hospital Head of Respiratory Medicine: Professor Colin Robertson, Sean Lusk President of CFV Council and The Grand Master of Freemasons Victoria: M.W.Bro. Gary Sebo the flag was waved to signify the commencement of 3500 kilometers ride around Victoria in 8 days to promote the awareness and much need funds for CFV.
The Tail End Charlie "Pedro" gets the official flag waving departure photograph, how strange!!!!!
The 8 Day adventure did not start that well with Sharyn unfortunately falling off her motorcycle whilst attempting to get from the grass area onto the drive way ramp to commence the ride, Sharyn was a little shaken after the fall but nothing broken and more importantly no damage to the motorcycle which meant Sharyn was still able to continue the ride.
We then rode straight into the Horse Racing traffic on Victoria Parade which we had not even given any thought to whilst preparing for the departure, hence we quickly made our first route change that enable us to get onto the Tullamarine Freeway at Brunswick Street.
Departing Freemason Victoria we unfortunately rode straight into horse racing traffic.
Once onto the Tullamarine Freeway it was thought yes we are finally on our way, but a couple of riders thought a corner marker at Taylor Lakes meant they turned off the Freeway, this was not the case and we lost 2 riders at this point in time.
We also had Baron out there somewhere for he had to refuel and said he would catch us up, well this did not happen so we are now 3 riders down and have not traveled past Calder Race track.
Viv has found a traffic free road!!!! Dean trying to ride up Victoria parade in the horse racing traffic.
Stopping at the BP Servo just past the Calder Race Track it was decided to regroup have lunch and hopefully locate our 3 motorcycle freelance riders, after many mobile phone calls we located all 3 riders and made arrangements for them to rejoin the group of 22 riders on our ride to Stawell. Pedro also took the opportunity to carry out a briefing of the ride rules that involve not passing the defined front rider and corner markers not to move until the defined rear rider gives you the okay to move from the corner, Chris continued as the front rider with Pedro the rear rider.
Due to the lost time the ride route was again changed to accommodate arriving at Stawell at 4.00 pm, we rode to Bacchus Marsh and Baron rejoined the ride after feasting on chicken and chips, as we rode into Ballarat both Brian and Graham rejoined for the ride to our refueling town of Avoca.
Riding towards Avoca.
After departing Avoca it was only a short ride to Moonambel which is Sharyn's home town, it was definitely time for a break and a ice-cream from the Moonambel General Store who also donated some items for our CFV auction at Queenscliff. We were amused for some time as a dirt bike motorcyclist was attempting to start his bike at the petrol station, he kicked and kicked that darn motorcycle with no show of life, his mate left him with the problem and we also departed without knowing if he was successful in starting the bike.
Mal Pitcher joined the core group at Moonambel for he had ridden down from Stawell so he could lead us to our accommodation at Stawell, we arrived at Stawell around 4.00 pm and Pedro promptly organised the sleeping arrangements and we all settled in prior to the departure to the Stawell Masonic Centre.
Finally arrived at Stawell for our first over night stop, Johnno has puzzled Taxi by kneeling in front of his bike!!
On our arrival at Stawell we were greeted by Lynn who made us very welcome and joined with us for a light refreshment, some thought they were even game to get into a quite cool pool but Vera, John and Jean decided to take the warmer option and went into the very warm spa, John did have a dip in the pool but he came out quicker than he went in others decided to have a quiet drink and rest.
Old Nick made a donation bucket that was used at every over night stop.
Mal and Lynn had kindly offered to provide a BBQ tea at the Stawell Masonic Centre prior to the games trivia, arriving at the Masonic Centre at 5.30 pm we started to set up the dinning area for the evening games whilst the BBQ tea was being prepared, thank you Daryl for assisting with the cooking. A charge of $10 per head was requested to cover the BBQ tea and the breakfast that Mal and Lynn once again had offered to provide, later in the evening Mal & Lynn actually donated the proceeds of the BBQ tea and breakfast collection to the "Breathless" Ride CFV Fundraising.
Mal joining in the atmosphere of the evening whilst he made a donation presentation to Dean.
The evening of CF awareness and fundraising that included a lot of fun commenced around 8.00 pm with MC Chris explaining what the "Breathless" 8 Day Ride was aiming to achieve and then introduce Kaiser who is a double lung transplant recipient as of March 2008 who enlightened everyone of some very astounding facts of CF in Australia along with an overview of his own personal experiences of CF from the time he was born (2 minutes after birth he was diagnosed with CF), Chris then interacted with Kaiser to further enlighten everyone of CF.
Kaiser each night was introduced prior to commencing the night of fun to promote the awareness of CF and the awareness concluded with an answer question session with Chris.
Following the awareness presentation Dean Lugton VMMA President was introduced and proceeded to thank the Stawell Masonic Centre, local lodges and brethren along with members of the local community who had taken the time to join with us for a night of fun.
Chris then explained how the games trivia night was to be run with 3 rounds of trivia, music questions on the table, Dean is available to purchase answers for a $2 donation for each answer and between each round of trivia there will be a number of gold coin games and auction of various donated items.
Roy Trimble visited us at the Stawell Masonic Centre
Later in the evening Roy Trimble arrived at the Stawell Masonic Centre and met a good number of VMMA foundation members along with members he had not met before. Roy was one of the main driving forces behind the first motorcycle rally of freemasons who had an interest in motorcycles that became known as "they came in the hundreds and left thousands", it is from that event that the VMMA evolved. Roy was introduced and spoke of his overwhelming satisfaction that from that first rally an organisation of worth has evolved and continues to provide an outlet for freemasons who ride motorcycles.
L to R: Keith, Daryl, Dean, Terri, Mal, Glenn and Johnno.
Around 11.00 pm the evening concluded and we packed up the trailer and headed back to the motel to unwind for it had been an extremely busy day that commenced for most around 6.00 am, some went straight to bed while others attempted to socialise prior to hitting the sack.
This was only day 1 completed, we have another 7 days of basically the same routine of long days, at this point in time we are up to the challenge.
Reported by Jean Nicholls and CW
