Ever wonder what riders do on the last day of the year? Wind therapy day to see who shows up and from where. The Last Ride of the Year Stagecoach XVIII Tuesday, December 30, 2014 Stagecoach Cafe 52860 Hwy 59 Stockton, AL “The Annual Last Ride of the Year” at the Stagecoach Café in Stockton, Alabama The Annual Last Ride of the Year - Stagecoach XVII will celebrate our 18 year tradition of inviting riders from around the country to reunite with old friends, meet new ones, and enjoy a great southern country style buffet lunch. Riders typically start showing up throughout the morning and fill up the parking lot by noon. Most years the lot will be almost empty again by 1:30 or 2:00 pm as riders head home to complete their last ride of the year. In addition to the traditional lunch buffet, the gracious staff at the Café will serve a breakfast buffet for early arrivals. Early risers should be able to start enjoying coffee and breakfast around 8:00 am. We are also continuing the tradition of giving out a few awards at the RTE. There will be a sign in sheet at the door and you must register to qualify for the awards. We want to encourage long distance riding, because that is what we do and that is how The Annual Last Ride of the Year got started, so we will have an award for the longest distance ridden to the event. Be prepared to back up your claim with Iron Butt style receipts if asked. We want to encourage new riders to enjoy what motorcycling has to offer, so we have an award for the youngest licensed rider to ride their motorcycle to the event. We had to exclude passengers a few years ago, because some folks were getting pretty competitive and we did not want to eventually see someone pulling up with an infant seat strapped on the back of a bike. JJ We want to encourage older riders to continue to ride, so we have an award for the oldest rider that rides their motorcycle to the event. Please note that trikes are welcome at the Stagecoach, but they do not qualify for awards. We also like vintage motorcycles and want to encourage riders to keep older bikes running and providing their riders with open road enjoyment, so we have an award for the oldest bike ridden from the rider’s home to the event. We hope you will make plans to help us celebrate our 18th year of good food and good fun by attending the 2014 version of The Annual Last Ride of the Year - Stagecoach XVIII in Stockton, Alabama to enjoy some southern hospitality at its finest … and hopefully add The Annual Last Ride of the Year to your list of “must do” riding traditions. We’re trying to expand our archive of photographs from previous Stagecoach RTEs. Please contact us at harrison@ironbutt if you would like to link your photos to the site. A brief history of “The Annual Last Ride of the Year” at the Stagecoach Café in Stockton, Alabama I took over the host duties for the Stagecoach RTE, “The Annual Last Ride of the Year”, a few years ago at the request of my friend and the originator of the event, Ray Fagan. At some point along the way, I asked Ray to write down some of the early history of the RTE. What follows was taken from the info that Ray provided to me. Many years ago, Ray Fagan and his friend Giff Ormes used to roam around the countryside almost everyday on their motorcycles. The old original location of the Stagecoach Café became one of our favorite lunch stops. Pats Sweet Magnolia Cafe in Richton, MS was another of their regular haunts and according to Ray, it was almost chosen to be the location for “The Annual Last Ride of the Year”. Ray recalled that it must have been around 1996 that he attended the first ride-to-eat that he had ever heard about. A guy on the Wings-on-the- Internet list offered free coffee to anyone who showed up, plus a free meal to whomever rode the farthest. Ray said that he planned to claim that free meal and so he rode his 82 Wing to San Antonio, Texas. According to Ray: “Unfortunately, some idiot rode in from New Jersey, in February!” and he did not get his free meal, but he did get “hooked” on the RTE idea. Ray decided that he had to try hosting something like that in his local area. The old Stagecoach Café location was a small building a short distance from the current, much larger, Café location in Stockton, Alabama. There was a little back room area available for groups, along with good food, nice surroundings, and an out-of-the-way atmosphere. It seemed to be a good choice to Ray, so he sent email invitations to some of the early motorcycle lists and internet boards that were just getting started back then. He really didnt expect very many folks to actually show up. Ray related to me that Giff thought he was nuts and just setting himself up for a big let down. But Ray recalls being happily surprised when something like thirty-three folks showed up on a December 30th for the first RTE at the Stagecoach Café. As more motorcycle email lists and forums developed, Ray made sure they got invitations and the rest is history. The traditional date of December 30th was chosen to allow riders to have time to enjoy Christmas with their families and loved ones, attend the RTE, and get back home in time for New Year’s Eve festivities. Giff was there when Ray’s plan was first hatched and he was also given the honor of being the first winner of the Long Distance Award. Later, the self proclaimed “Mayor of Reed’s Landing”, Corky Reed, was added to the host roster. He was a true character and became a fixture at Ray’s RTE, even though Ray said “He never had much to do with planning or operating the thing, but he was a good friend.” Corky was a retired college professor, in addition to being a world traveler on both motorcycles and sailboats, and he loved telling stories about his adventures. Ray noted that a couple of other guys came and went as co-hosts, but they mostly just helped him out on the day of the event. Over the years, Ray noted that he had several opportunities to turn the RTE into a for profit event, or move it to another location, or change the time of year, but he never did. He is satisfied that “The Annual Last Ride of the Year” at the Stagecoach Café “sort of has a life of its own” and has become an end-of-the-year tradition, even a reunion of sorts, for many riders. The current version of “The Annual Last Ride of the Year” at the Stagecoach Café in Stockton, Alabama When Ray turned the reins of “The Annual Last Ride of the Year” RTE over to me several years ago, he told me I could do whatever I wanted to with it. After some thought and consideration, I decided that the event that Ray had established was fine just like it was. Like Ray, I felt that there still needs to be an event where riders can enjoy riding to a place to meet for good food and fellowship without having to pay a fee or deal with overpriced vendors or a greedy sales pitch. So the RTE has remained much as Ray originally envisioned it. Riders just show up, visit with old friends and make new ones, enjoy some southern country cooking, pay for your meal and remember to tip the waitresses, get a few awards, visit some more, and then head home. I should also mention that the brand or style of motorcycle you ride does not matter to us, as long as you ride. We have lots of riders on highly farkled Iron Butt rally bikes show up with big miles on the odometers, auxiliary fuel cells, custom seats, multiple GPS units, and huge driving lights. We have lots of riders on cruisers with beautiful custom paint and tons of chrome. We have riders on sport bikes decked out with lightweight billet parts and carbon fiber. We have riders on well loved and well ridden vintage bikes, some meticulously restored to museum standards and some that tell the story of the miles of pleasure they have provided via worn paint and oil stained parts. We have a hard core dual sport rider contingent on adventure bikes with knobby tires, roll charts, and tall seats. We also have riders on touring bikes and even a few on sidecars and trikes. All are welcome at the “Annual Last Ride of the Year” at the Stagecoach Café. I have also continued Ray’s tradition of giving out a few awards at the RTE. We want to encourage long distance riding, because that is what we do and that is how the whole thing got started, so we have an award for the longest distance ridden to arrive at the event. Doug Graves from the state of Washington has braved the frozen Rocky Mountain passes and traveled well over 2000 miles each way to join us and collect this award several times over the past few years. We want to encourage new riders to come into the sport and enjoy what motorcycling has to offer, so we have an award for the youngest licensed rider to ride their motorcycle to the event. We had to exclude passengers a few years ago, because some folks were getting pretty competitive and we did not want to eventually see someone pulling up with an infant seat strapped on the back of a bike just for a plaque. We want to encourage older riders to continue to ride (Corky was still riding motorcycles well into his 80’s), so we have an award for the oldest rider that rides their motorcycle to the event. We also like vintage motorcycles and want to encourage riders to keep older bikes running and providing their riders with open road enjoyment, so we have an award for the oldest bike ridden to the event. Note that we would not consider trailering a bike to a nearby parking lot, unloading it, and then riding to the Stagecoach to qualify as “riding” to the event. Some years, when the weather is good and the traditional date of the 30th of December falls on a Saturday, we have had over 600 bikes show up and completely fill the parking lot, the adjacent field, the gas station parking across the street, plus some other vacant areas across the street. It is quite an impressive sight to see. Somehow, the gracious staff of the Café always handles our big crowd just fine. They work hard to keep the food coming and the glasses filled, all with down home, southern hospitality. Some years it is rather chilly, or misting rain, or the 30th of December falls on a weekday, or some combination of those conditions conspire together and the attendance will drop down to about 250 to 300 bikes. Either way, the riders that show up always seem to have a smile on their faces and enjoy the food and tire kicking and story telling. We hope you will make plans to attend “The Annual Last Ride of the Year” at the Stagecoach Café in Stockton, Alabama to enjoy some southern hospitality at its finest ... and hopefully add it to your list of annual “must do” riding traditions too. John IBA#203 Host of the “Annual Last Ride of the Year” at the Stagecoach Café 😃The Flower Garden Lady always strolling or rolling the roads today😃
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 12:59:00 +0000
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