Annual Cartwheel Ride - 16th June 2018

This year, the Cartwheel Ride was held on a Saturday to take advantage of the great location that Warwick had on offer for the event. It was a rural property location and a good many brave souls decided to camp overnight (Feathers was our only one brave enough to give it a go).

We all met at our usual spot at RT Edwards at Browns Plains on a very chilly morning. I made the mistake of bringing just my fingerless gloves thinking it would warm up during the ride. I was very wrong.

We had a brilliant turn out for a Saturday – Waffles, Chuckles & Pony, GT & Di, Digit, Stoney (Happy Feet was in NZ), Splat, Feathers, She-Devil, Scott & Barb, Frk R We & Blush, Cackles & Mr Do Bee, Colleen (the branch’s old, not old, Secretary) and some new comers, Aaron & Vanessa.

The Cartwheel Committee wanted each branch to host a Poker Run or similar so I opted for a dice game. We had 5 die (plural for dice, in case you didn’t know) in a container and at each stop, each participant would shake the container and I would add the numbers. Once we got to the end, we gave out some prizes. The cost was $5 per hand. A few quick calculations and 1st would get $36, 2nd $24, 3rd $12 and last place got their money back ($5).

First roll – Chuckles & GT in the lead with 24. Frk R We bringing up the rear with 14.

We also ran our normal $1 raffle which was won by yours truly which is why you are getting the rundown from me.

Mr Do Bee – Ride Leader and Splat - Tail-End -Charlie.

We headed off down the Mount Lindesay Highway about 15 minutes late cause I was just chit-chatting. Thanks to newcomer, Aaron for pointing out the time otherwise we would never have left.

Turned off at Middle Road, across to Springfield, onto the Centenary Highway headed towards Amberley. Just before Yamanto, we got some cars flashing us, so we knew something was up and there certainly was. A 4WD towing a horse float had the float pop off its hitch. The mother and daughter had their hands full, each holding a horse – looking like they were in a bit of a predicament. Thanks to Cackles who was paying more attention than I was because she said that the mother was asking for help.

We pulled over as a group with the boys helping to get the float back on the back of the 4WD. In with the horses and off they went. Good deed done for the day.

We regrouped and then headed onto the Cunningham Highway. A small detour just past the Amberley turn-off had us heading out to Mount Walker for a bit of a more scenic route than straight down the Cunningham. Great riding but I was shivering the whole way. It was freezing. Lots of envy for bikes with heated seats, heated grips and a screen.

The detour brought us out at Warrill View and the rest of the journey to Aratula was done via Cunningham Highway. We were meant to meet Grumpy at Aratula but he had an emergency at the Bowls Club, so he was unable to make it.

A brief coffee break and another roll of the die.

Second Roll – Cackles raced to the lead with 42 (combined) and our new loser was Waffles with 29.

From Aratula, we headed up to Cunningham’s Gap with a quick break at Gladfield for another roll.

Third Roll – Much of the same, Cackles maintained a small lead from the pack with 61 with Waffles keeping his form with 48.

My original plan was to head over to Allora for the next stop but time was getting away form us so we decided to just head straight to the Cartwheel grounds and we would complete the multiple roll there.

We headed through Warwick and out towards the location which was on the Cunningham Highway at Allan. We probably would have missed the location, if they didn’t have a bloke on a car waving us down to turn into the property.

Fourth Roll – New leaders, Di & Barbara on 84 with last place still with Waffles.

Last Roll – We had a tie for 1st & 3rd places, so we needed to have a roll off. The tie for 1st was between Di & Debbie on 103. Di rolled more so she claimed 1st place. Debbie lost and got 2nd. We also had a tie for 3rd with Cackles & Frk R We on 100. Cackles came out on top and claimed 3rd place. Out of the blue, Digit took out last place with a miserable final total of 83 (25 die at an average of 3.32).

We all parked in the shade and headed over to something to eat and drink. The food was great. Foggy (Ulysses Lockyer) was assisting to play some games to keep the masses entertained and separate them from their hard earned $2 coins. The game was to toss your $2 coin to get as close to a bottle on Jim Beam (if I remember correctly). Closest won the bottle.

Splat told us that his grandmother was in the area and that he would get in trouble if he didn’t pay her a visit while he was here. We had instructions to call him by 2pm if he wasn’t back so he had an excuse to leave if he got stuck there.

Once the raffles were done, Splat had returned and we had sat in the sun to warm up, we decided to head home. We said our goodbyes to Feathers who was going to stay for the late night entertainment and the expected negative 2 degrees expected temperatures.

We headed back to Aratula for our ice-cream stop, hugs and hand-shakes and we all headed home eventually.

Thanks to Splat for TEC duties. Thanks to everyone who turned up. Fantastic to have a returning member, Colleen and some new-comers, Aaron & Vanessa. I hope you had a great time and we would love to see you again very shortly.

Mr Do Bee