Day 9 Denver with Harris

   

Here is Harris and Patricia beside him. We were getting ready for some leisurely riding around the area. Colorado has so many wonderful roads and Harris being from there was excited to show us them. This day there was about 20 riders, not everyone wanted to go or could go for what ever reason. It was quite the site having so many in our pink parade. We were meeting Pam and going for breakfast before we set out to Mnt Estes. Having Harris and Donna give us all a little talking to about riding your own ride was a good thing. Not that EVERYONE listened lol. I will come to that and explain, why, someone got the nickname Ditch digger Denver!!

Here my buddy Doc and I are. Unreal it felt to be riding with her again. As you can see we are supporting not only the Conga Ride but the Breast Ride Ever from Windsor Ontario, whom we hope to connect with these gals on the Conga IV. 

We just had our breaky and were getting ready to roll. Harris and his pink parade. Now Harris doesnt usually ride with big groups and not knowing any of us. We certainly drew attention with every stop we made. The gal that served us was in her early 20's and told us she had been fighting Breast Cancer for 10 years and didn't know how long she had but was going to live every day to the fullest. She had the pink ribbon tattooed on her back. We stopped at one place to fuel up and the attendant gave us $100 bill. The thing is when you are all pinked out like that , it is easy to raise money. Most of the time, we just say "Would you care to make a small donation" So even when we are just out riding, we are raising money easily.

It was an amazing ride, beautiful big twisties. Everyone was happy and riding at their own pace. Harris warned us we might get rained on a little as he almost never road this road without at least a little rain. And that it did. The skies opened up, then out came the sun.  A little while later it felt like rocks were coming out of the sky and basically it was. Hard rocks of hail. Pellet flying at us. I got a fat lip and a swollen lip. The traffic slowed down to about 5miles an hour. Not too long after that out came the sun again. Harris was up front with Biird, Vgirl. I was just doing the speed limit as the last thing I wanted was any issues. I could totally see Biird and Vgirl were enjoying flying around the curves. Not that anyone should even try to keep up with Harris. Wilbur was behind me, so I waved him by, as I also didn't want to hold anyone back if they were so inclined. As I was coming around a curve I saw that the group pulled over. I thought they were just waiting for us. It was more than that. I saw Vgirl and Wilbur hugging each other. It wasn't just a little hug. Then they looked at each other and hugged and hugged. I got this big knot in my stomach and asked the what the heck??? They both looked shaken and white in the face... Your brother... he went in the ditch!! Well, I could see he was alright, sorta! They were looking at the bike and describing what had just happened. He came over and gave me a big hug and said "Thanks Sis"... I am  like, for WHAT?? he told me when he realized he was going in the ditch, he heard me yelling at him saying..."Look where you want to go....THROTTLE UP, OR YOU'LL GO DOWN" . He did exactly that!! Harris said he saw the whole thing in his mirrors and thought omg, this is not going to be good! Biird kept going thinking...I just know he  is going to be fine. Well, he did good, and it was a huge wake up call to him. All I can say is thanks once again to Ride Like a Pro now wouldn't ya know it, that is where he got the name  DDD DITCH DIGGER DENVER, from Miss Docdonna!! We could all laugh about it a little while later. All in all it was a great day, and we headed back to our hotel to eat drink and be merry. And of course raise money. Check out the hairdo that raised about 180 bucks in half an hour

This is Miss Fancypants, not looking to Fancy and traveling with a hairdresser I might add. I think she should fire her!!! She was plum worn out after that day of riding but couldn't wait to share the stories with everyone else. We had all the beer boobie koozies to sell to raise money and there just happened to be alot of men in the lounge that night.. Big kutos to our Princess for going with the flo and not worrying about the hair raising day!!!It is all about fun raising.

Our Conga Sister Dusty

Last night I received a letter from Cindy about our Conga Sister Dusty who is fighting Breast Cancer. Here is the conversation!!

Cindy Alexander October 12 at 5:38pm Report

I sent an inquiry to Dusty about how she is doing. She and I had a conversation in Cheyenne about the return of her cancer that the doc told her about in June. She told him that this was the last summer with a child in her home and when she left for college she would come back for treatment. He advised against it. She said, "I'll see you in August." It was her children who did fundraising for her to ride the Conga because she was the best survivor they knew. I got to thinking that is was long overdue to hear about how it all went so I sent her the questions and here is her response. She posted on FB but somehow I missed it and figured you may have also. She did hear from Vegas. Just saying.
Read on. She's quite a gal. I feel honor to know her.
-C

Dusty Price October 12 at 5:03pm Report
Hi Cindy! Can it really be three months since Conga?? It seems like yesterday AND a lifetime ago. Many things have happened since I took my daughter to Hawaii for school. The day after I returned to new Mexico, I went for my MRI.the day after that, I scheduled my appointment for surgery, which was on September 24, to remove 4 tumors. After surgery, I asked the dr what he thought and he begged off til my follow up on Tuesday... I said nonononono....we aren't playing that game. Tell me what you think. He thought things were ok but wouldn't commit to it until the pathology report came back. Sooooooooo...Tuesday I had my appointment and I was waiting on pins and needles in his office...he came dancing in!! Literally dancing! Free and clear and goodbye for six months! No maintenance drugs, no blood draws, no steroids, no nothing!! Let me tell you, I did my own happy dance - and still do every chance I get! I am so blessed to be through with this insidious thing, and I am so blessed to have met the wonderful people over the summer on the Conga ride...can life get any better?!!
Thank you for asking...I get a bit carried away, but it's all good!
Prayers work...keep praying for every soul who has been touched by breast cancer and let's not only kick it to the curb, let's ray it off the face of the earth! It can happen!

I hope all is well with you and I look forward to seeing you next year on the Conga iv!

WHOO HOO DUSTY WE ARE SO HAPPY FOR YOU , SEE YOU IN JULY!!!

Day 8 Cheyenne

Day two in Cheyenne was a very very eventful day. The American gals, ran down the the local Walmart I believe and bought bras for themselves and for their bikes. What a site to see, not to mention the party they had going on in the store. I guess they had people laughing and asking questions and of course donating.

Hamming it up!!

Miss Carrie got everyone to sign her vest. Now I think she started an anual thang. Before long we were all doing it. Great memories.

Biird signing Fancy's

This is our friend Harris whom I also met on You Tube of all places. He is a motor officer instructor. He had come across on of my videos while I was practising Ride Like a Pro. We became friends and when he found out the Conga was coming close to Denver, he offered to come help us with our demo. For those of you who don't know, that is Donna Palladino from Ride Like a Pro 

Here is Pam and Mark from the  precision riders in Denver. How lucky  are we to have such a great team to give us demos. You should have seen Harris and Mark ride side saddle, no break, total friction zone. Very impressive. Actually I got to ride with the team. I was freekin nervous as I had not practiced, other than every day out on the  road when riding. I got Donna to go out with me to play follow the leader for 5 minutes. All it took was one of her famous..."Flo look where you want to go" yells. Okay I wasn't perfect but I kept up. Miss Tanya also got to ride. Her Valkyrie was in getting some work done so Mavericks lent her a Softail and she jumped right in for the demo. Pretty darn impressive too.

Fun was had by all. Next stop Maverick Motorsports. 

Day 7 arriving in Cheyenne

Sonny/Creeper-Flo-Vegas/Debbie

Debbie is a Breast Cancer survivor. I have known Debbie the longest on the WWR Forum from the very first Conga. She was one of my biggest Spirit Riders and told me that through her recovery it was one thing that helped her get out of bed everyday to see where the Conga was. Sonny is her husband and a very great Cabana Boy. At first he didn't want to come. He didn't think traveling with a bunch of women would be his cup of tea. I tell ya, he fit right in, wore pink, and cried like the rest of us when it was over. They will be at Conga IV

These are the Twisted Sisters, Natali/Twisted, Lori/Twisteder. They are from Saskatchewan. We hooked up with them in the last couple of weeks of planning. They lost their mother to Breast Cancer so this was very important to them. They raised over $2,000.00 by selling pink Angels that Lori had made. What a blast these two are, and are planning the next Conga also.

Shirl Joan, Pamela. These Chickies have no knick names as of yet. Pamela is a bit of a Cougar though ;) These gals are from Idaho

Here is sweet Cindy/Texasred. She is from Texas and a huge organizer of the Conga. She pretty much set the whole thing up in Cheyenne. We talked weekly almost daily for the year. It was so amazing to meet her.

Here is all of us together. I think there is a few missing as they were tired and didn't make it to the shindig at Mavericks. That is Vicci Melton on the far bottom right. She found us the cool American Canadian Flags

Here is Virginia/Koozie-Tamela-Karen/Biird-Vgirl-Tanya. Koozie is from Arizona (Ithink), Tamela from North Carolina, Biird, Washington, and our Vgirl Canada eh! 

Kooziegirl found us the cool boobie koozies that we made big bucks on later selling them in the lounge. Tamela she  is a brand new rider of a month traveling alot on her own but managing to find riders along the way too. I got to know Tamela a few months before the ride. We all know Biird and Vgirl as they have traveled all the way by now

A couple of more Texans Connie, and Dusty. Dusty is a survivor also. I got to know these two lovely ladies through FB and were huge supporters of anything I tried to do, from purchasing items to finding items to auction.

Shirl, Carrie, Patricia

Carrie is the Idaho leader, Shirl follows and Patricia is from Colorado.

Now I know I have missed a few due to not having the pictures other than in the group shot. Like the Instigator/Barb, my buddy Docdonna.. I didn't get hold of her for a few hours.

We finally arrive and here is my recollection three months later as we pulled into the Holiday Inn, in Cheyenne. My guts were churning. I knew that everyone thought I was the leader of the Conga. Not the ride itself. But I made the rules. I don't, but that  is just the way it is. I am the Founder and that even sounds funny when I was labeled that. In my eyes I had some obligation to make this whole thing work. I was nervous as hell!! We pulled into the breeze way and everyone was mingling out side. The bikes were undercover, and there were TONS of them. Omg, it's really happening!! They are here, it worked!! I managed to park my bike okay and everyone started coming towards me. I had seen many pics of everyone, so I pretty much knew who they all were, it just took a bit because I was so nervous.

The first one I can recall seeing was Vegas/Debbie my longest time friend on the net other than Donna. She came at me with open arms and just said "Vegas"It was always easier to go by nick names as that is what you saw on the forums. We just stood there hugging each other rocking back and forth. Pulling away, and laughing and looking at each other. Wow!!

I recall Tamela coming at me ripping her helmet off in the same manner with her arms flying saying "Tamela" 

One after the other, the gals from Saskatchewan everyone. I was over whelmed.. Flo this, and Flo that, and omg... Stop, I feel like a celebrity!! Enough, enough,and where is that Donna, lets all go in get to know each other. I don't think there was a single  minute any of us felt uncomfortable or stuck for words. We went into the lounge shared stories and ideas, and talked about the next few days of events. I confessed how nervous I was and worried how things were going to work.

Everyone was fantastic and said not to worry it would all work itself out. From then on in,  it was smooth as silk.

Donna came to the the lounge with her son Andy who was an absolute pleasure to have with us. The laughing started and didn't stop for the next 3 days.

I think when we arrived in Cheyenne we had raise $20,000.00 for Breast Cancer. This was just the beginning we had surpassed our goal by 6,000 already! 

We had a fairly early night. The next day we were  to give a Ride Like a Pro demo. Harris from Denver Colorado was to meet with us. He is an instructor for Police Officers.

Later on in the day we were headed to Mavericks for a Barbecue.

Heading to Cheyenne Wyoming

Here we are Fancy, Biird, Wilbur,Vgirl, Flo, Shiela making our way to Cheyenne after having a time of our lives in Shell. We have a long way to go. Each time we leave for a new destination, I go through a sadness of saying good by.  I always wonder will the next stop be as good as the last. With the big 3 day convention so to speak (sounds too big of word for me) coming next, I can certainly say, I was getting nervous. So many things were going through my mind. Excitement to see the girls I had been talking to on line and never met. Vegas who is a Breast Cancer survivor that rode with me in spirit in 2008 when I bought my Harley from Donna Palladino. Well that goes with out saying how excited I was to be seeing her again. We are like long lost sisters since purchasing her bike. Now we have created this Conga Craze. Could we pull off a 3 dayer in Cheyenne and keep everyone entertained and organized. Crikey, I did not know what to expect on the other side. 

Then there was Texasred, whom I had been talking to weekly if not daily by emails and a couple times on the phone. Vicci who helped in so many ways and found those super cool American and Canadian flags. The Idaho gals!! Harris who was going to be there to help us with the RLAP demos. Tamela whom I just got to know, who was a brand new rider and joining our Conga. Shees the gals from Saskatchewan, the twisted sisters. I think they all thought I knew what I was doing and now I had to pull it off!! yup I was one   nervous cookie inside. 

It was still a blast at every stop!! Nick from Shell gave us the donation can which made it alot easier than wads collecting in my back pocket. It proved to the donaters we were for real and on a mission. Mind you one look at us all and our bikes, it didn't take much to convince them. We handed out business cards with the website so they could check it out or make an online donation if they wished. 

We alway try and take time to do the Conga dance. Front to end, we have Biird, Vgirl,Wilbur,Fancy,Carrie,Shirl,Joane,Flo, Dusty, Vicci, Shiela , our Cabana Boy Phil taking the shot. It wasn't long and we had a dozen bikes rolling down the highway on a mission! Felt great!!!

We had been texting back and forth with the Idaho group hoping we could meet up but didn't think it would happen as they left their hotel before us. Anyway, we were pulling in for fuel at this little town of Douglas Wyoming when all of a sudden we saw pink, they saw more pink!! Us.. seconds later we were all in the gas station together, hugging each other and introducing ourselves. We caused quite a commotion in that gas station that day, so much so that the woman running the store called the local news paper. They told us they hadn't seen anything like this in years if every.The guy was there in minutes and we were famous again.

We collected donations got ready to hit the road. I have to say it brought tears to my eyes going down the road 12 bikes decked out in pink just meeting each other for the first time. We had Texas, Idaho, Washington, Canada eh! Off we went with our feather and bling fying once again. Off to Cheyen to meet some more sisters. Actually now we had 2 Cabana boys, Wilbur and Phil.

Shell Wyoming

One of the signs made by Miller

This is our friend Tod whom we met the year before that was so kind to us in Dirty Annies Cafe last year.

Here we have the owner of the Antler Inn, Al!! As you can see he went above and beyond to help make this fund raiser in little Shell a success. Al donated 10% of sales that night to us also. As did the gal that was  cooking.

Here was an emotional moment as I was shaving a ladies hair off who had lost here mother to Breast Cancer. We raised 250 for that head. There's Wilbur taking care of the girls. I ended up shaving about 6 peoples head to raise money.

Wendy and Al from the Antler Inn

This is Morris who donated a pony to auction off. He did the auctioning. Morris had just lost his wife to Breast Cancer in the spring. This was an important event for him. We raised $400.00 for the pony. The guy with the microphone cooked us pitch fork steaks. The young boy auction off a couple of dances, a slow dance and a fast dance. Miss Fancypants paid for the slow dance.

Here we are all lined up in front of the Antler Inn. We caused quite a commotion by the passer-byers. People were stopping by instead of driving by to see what it was all about. There wasn't one person, that didn't stop by to make a donation, or have a meal with us. All in all there must have been a  couple hundred people. Not bad for a population of 50 people.

Here we have Nick. We had been talking on FB quite a bit before arriving. Nick had a great part in making this event happen. He lost his hair that day, and I do believe we raised a couple hundred on him too.

There i s Biirdie sitting back enjoying the festivities. The sun going down. By this time all of our little trinkets, scarves, pins, boobie koozies, shirts, etc were gone, and we raised $4,000.00

I wish I could have put a picture in of everyone and everything that happened. It was over whelming. I remember just before we got to Shell we pulled over to the side of the road so Tanya could take the lead and we could ride right up to the Inn honking to let the town know the Conga had arrived. I told Tanya to lead so they could see her bike had grown up. 

We had the whole campsite booked at Dan's campground.  Everyone had seen pics and heard us talk but unless you have been there, you never really know. I knew how excited we were to see everyone again, and meet Nick our new friend. It was late in the day. We were all tired, but all excited. It didn't take long after we said our hellos, got settled into our cabins, that we were all like one big happy family.

The internet was not good in Shell at least not from the cabins. I tried and tried, and that is where I truly lost it and stopped blogging. There was way to much going on, to even make notes. We had an early night, slept in, then walked across the street to see where we were to start.

It was a full day of selling Conga items, helping out, getting to know each other. Laughing our dang heads off. There was no one in the town of Shell that was afraid to wear pink.

We hit the news in Greybull. We unloaded all our Conga items so I actually had a little space left in my saddle bags again.

A good time was had by all. We all agreed that Shell would be the place to have the Conga IV convention. Look out 2011 Shell Wyoming!!!!!

Thanks for helping us KICK CANCER TO THE CURB!!!!

Yellowstone Park to Shell

Our new rider Sheila. We had only just met Sheila in Yellowstone. I had started communicating with her shortly before the Conga started. She was looking for some friends to ride with. Well she certainly found some. Sheila hung with us the rest of the trip. Quiet gal, not sue what she thought of us all but she said she really enjoyed herself. We met for breakfast and then off we went through Yellowstone park on the hunt for Yogi Bear Wilbur says.

Flo and Fancy the pink ladies we are called more often than not. I am so proud to have my good friend from home travel the whole trip with me. Fancy is a survivor so this trip means a whole lot to her apart from a trip of a life time she says.

Now there is Wilbur, my brother, my friend, our Cabana boy, if you can imagine. Wilbur and his girls looking for Yogi. We turned a lot of  heads that is for sure. He would be walking along nonchalantly forgetting  what he looked like. People could not contain themselves whispering in the background. This place was amazing.

Vgirl my good friend f rom the Island we were together here last year and it was with out a doubt one of our favorite spots. Tanya was going all the way to Cheyenne and doing the Iron Butt ride home alone from there as she was limited for time. She made it to by the way.

I met Biird last year through my blog. How frickin amazing this story is. She didn't even ride last year and is fighting a different type of cancer but look at her now, in complete remission and leading the pack.. She was kinda like our mamma, someone had to keep us on track, on schedule. Biird grew up in the area so she pretty much new our time line etc.

We didn't raise a whole lot of money that day as we were there to see Ol Faithful the Geezer which goes off faithfully every hour. When we first arrived in the big crowd,  the tour guide was welcoming everyone in the group and then paused and pointed to Wilbur... "I'd like to welcome you all  here today, and her eyes widened and she looks at him and says...especially you" The whole crowd started to chuckle.

When we were heading back to our bikes getting  ready to head to our next destination, we heard that sound again...."Conga...there's the Conga" There was a couple ladies from Motormaids who had heard of us on FB. Small world, they donated some money and signed our banner.  It wasn't long after that, when we were parked long side the road to get our rain gear on, the same sound...Conga!!! Honking and yelling and giving us the thumbs up!

Our next stop would be Shell Wyoming. We were all very excited as everyone had heard about this tiny little town with great big hearts. When the year before Tanya and I stopped in to eat a moose burger at Dirty Annies Cafe, met Todd Stoelk and that was where it all started. Todd wrote us a check once he heard our story, and said in his accent.."I like Breasts"

We ended up staying in Shell Wyoming, being treated like Queens, fed, bikes warshed, place to stay and some great laughs, not to mention, raising over $300.00. And we thought that was great, well wait till I tell you what we raised this year in one over nighter. 

We had all been communicating through FB since we knew we were returning to Shell. 

Off to Shell Wyoming!!!

Texas Conga Line hits the local news station.

The Women Who Ride (WWR) always "think pink" while riding for their fundraiser the Conga Line.


"We're fighting cancer," said one of the members while sitting on her motorcycle with a large pink rubber ribbon mounted on the front.


The WWR is a group of female motorcycle riders from North Texas who will meet up with other riders in Cheyenne, Wyoming on July 7. For a third consecutive year, the group is raising funds for the Breast Cancer Fund and the National Breast Cancer Foundation.


"Fabulous bunch of women," said Cindy Alexander of her fellow WWR members. "Safest riders I've ever ridden with. Always willing to throw their leg over a motorcycle for a good cause."

Last year, the riders raised $12,000 while . Their goal is to kick dirt in the face of breast cancer and celebrate life along the way, but they couldn't do it without donors and supporters like Rick Fairless, who owns Strokers Ice House.


"It's important to me because I'm born and raised right here in Dallas, Texas and I believe this is a good cause because I believe you have to give back to their community," he said.


Every dollar raised goes towards research and treatment, and riders can join the Conga Line all the way to Cheyenne.

"Oh, until you've done it, you just can't appreciate it," said Sara Holbrook, another member, of what its like to ride. "Talk about getting the cobwebs out of the brain."


Those who would like to donate to the the group or those who may know someone WFAA could feature on "Our Neighbor" can contact Izaguirre atcizzy@wfaa.com.