Loop For Life

Imagine, if you will..

You are walking on what seem to be a rather crowed a bridge that crosses the interstate loop around your city. For some reason, although you can’t put your finger on it, something just doesn’t look right... Then it hits you, there is no traffic in the counter clock wise direction, nothing, nada. As you look around trying to gather some reason for this oddity, lights begin to appear in the distance, breaking the heat induced water mirage with an alarming quantity. First a couple, then a dozen, hundred... thousands? Can’t be that many, you whisper to yourself. Then there is the ‘sound’, a low rumble as the first lights come into view. Again increasing in volume with the lights to a thunderous level that seems to be coming from everywhere. The thunder is broken only by the louder shriek of the occasional truck horn.

A sea of color, from black to white and every color of the rainbow and many with flags, American Flags. Waiving, fluttering, popping with the speed of their approaching and departing. The people around you are cheering, some are waving flags or their own, the riders below wave back and cheer, as those around you cheer even louder. Taken up in the moment, you wave and smile with civic pride. At that moment you step back from the edge, a small boy in a wheel chair has approached and holding a small American flag, asks you if he can see in front of you. As you turn to leave you hear, “Moma, look at all of them!! Are they the ones that helped us buy me this new chair?” “Yes dear, those are the ones”.

As quickly as they came, they leave. Thousands (yes thousands) of men and women on steel horses. The sparkle of the chrome, the shine of the colors, the pride in their flags, disappear into the distance and for a brief second there is a silence that is more deafening than any horn blast.

This is the Loop For Life, a one day, once a year event in Indianapolis when they actually close the inner, counter wise lanes of Interstate 465 to car and truck traffic and only motor cycles are allowed, the police block all of the ramps and escort us from the Marion County Fair Grounds around the 60+ miles back to the Fair Grounds. As a participant there is a free lunch, there are also vendor booths and a band plays for the rest of the day. It is a good time. Last year we raised about $100,000. This year the goal is $150,000.

If you have some time Saturday and are in Indy, stop by a I-465 bridge a little after noon and watch as the steel horses and their riders break the silence with a roar of thunder. And remember the children, the sick and the needy we ride to help.