Gaston County CBA Polar Bear Run

By: Wally Wersching

On Saturday, January 2nd, the Gaston County

Concerned Bikers Association (CBA) would hold their 3rd Annual Polar Bear Run to benefit the Gaston County CBA legislative and charitable work. This year’s run would again be dedicated to the memory of Mickey Seigler who died as the result of a motorcycle accident a few years ago.

The run would still start at the Country Kitchen in Dallas, NC, even though they would not be open due to a communication mishap, with the first bike out at 11am, and the last bike out at noon. For CBA members, the dice hand would cost $15 which included a meal ticket for food at the last stop, Filthy Lu’s. For non-members, it would cost $20 which included a membership in the CBA, along with the meal ticket.

The five stops to roll the dice would be the Country Kitchen in Dallas, Metrolina Motorsports in Kings Mtn, Rt 55 Country Store near Clover, SC, Cycle Gear in Gastonia, and it would end at Filthy Lu’s Saloon in Gastonia. The whole run should take about 2 hours to complete (depending on the time spent at each stop). The detailed directions to the four additional locations would be on the back of the Dice Hand score sheet, so even the bikers from out of town could find their way to the end. In addition to the normal high and low hand prizes, there would be $100 donated by Mark - the owner of Metrolina Motorsports.

I awoke early on Saturday – anticipating a fun day, but when I looked out the window, everything was wet, and the fog was so thick, I couldn’t see to the end on the block. I was almost glad that I couldn’t ride “Miss Vickie” because of her charging problems. Riding in dense fog is almost as bad as riding in the rain. Everything gets soaked.

At about 9:30, I drove my GTO to Dallas. I took back roads through Bessemer City rather than the I-85 to Rte. 321 route. The roads were very wet with many puddles along the way. The fog was still dense with relatively warm with temps - in the upper 40’s.

I arrived at the Country Kitchen at about 10:15 and parked along the side of the lot – away from the bikes. I placed a stack of The Carolinas’ Full Throttle magazines on the registration table.

I looked around for some friends and saw “Dodge” with his daughter. We talked for a while but then he had to leave to go to the first stop so that he could record the dice rolls of the riders coming in. Every stop would have a CBA/ABATE representative recording the dice rolls.

As I was standing in front of my car talking to a few bikers about it, I heard a little girl squeal. We all looked and saw that she was jumping up and down in excitement. We looked at the bikes rolling in, and it was “Cuzz” leading a group of Guardians of the Children. As soon as “Cuzz” got off his bike, the little girl jumped into his arms. Everybody loves “Cuzz”.

The group from GOC went to the table to register. All the while, more and more bikers rolled in. They had a very good turn-out. Everybody was anticipating that the sky would clear, and the sun would come out for the afternoon ride.

At about 11, “Cuzz” led a large group heading to the first stop. I followed them for a while and saw them turn into the Metrolina parking lot. I continued straight to Rte.74.

Later, I read on the Gaston County CBA/ABATE Facebook page that the winner of the Metrolina Motorsports $100 was Neil Helms. The high dice hand ($100) went to Steve Wilson, and the low dice hand ($50) went to Melissa G Lookabill. When I left the group pulling into Metrolina, I decided to stop at Murphey’s Scooter Shed, as long as I was in the area, to drop off a copy of The Carolinas’ Full Throttle magazine. He was glad to see himself in the magazine. On the way home, I stopped at Showmars to pick up a delicious lunch. After lunch, I decided to take a drive to Gaffney, and Red’s watering Hole. I gave the bartender a stack of The Carolinas’ Full Throttle magazines there was an article about their toy run in the magazine. The manager’s picture was in the magazine, too!