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Gregory Ormson

Writer, musician, yoga-loving motorcyclist.

Run to the Rez 2024 – story in December American Rider Magazine

 

Runnin’ Against The Wind

The 21st annual official Run to the Rez was held October 17-21 at the Apache Gold Casino and Resorts in San Carlos, Arizona. 2024 was the biggest yet, attracting 720 registered riders and many spectators and onlookers.

From the beginning, this motorcycle event has honored military veterans. Saturday’s program at Burdette Hall in San Carlos, following a group ride from the Apache Gold Casino to San Carlos, displays respect for all warriors and all Nations. As townspeople in San Carlos show up in large numbers to cheer bikers on, the throaty voice of rumbling bikes amplifies the celebration. Joining a large group of bikers on the way to Saturday morning’s program has always been fun, and townspeople enjoy bikers throwing candy to children as onlookers wave, take photos, and salute the riders.

“This run is all about honoring the veterans. It gets bigger and better every year,” said John Bush, one of the first few Geronimo Riders of that small group to hold a ride honoring Veterans nearly 30 years ago. Bush is still leading Run to the Rez but he said it’s not just him. “We couldn’t do it without the volunteers, and we had about 25.”

Burdette Hall’s program honored Gold Star Family members, and two veteran Grand Marshalls of the November 11 Veterans Day parade (Matt Hinton and Emerson Bayless). Each year the program honors a Viet Nam veteran, and this year it was combat veteran (Jonathan Victor). Honorees received lankets and donations along with a cash gift from the Rez Riders MC.… read more...

Pyramid Scheme: a date with Arizona’s mysterious pyramid tombs.

 

Hello Motorcycle friends. American Rider Magazine, the journal of the International Big Twin community, has published my story and many photos of an incredible mototour to Arizona’s three pyramid-tombs.  These pyramid-tombs, like the people inside, are mysterious, memorable, majestic, and located in Quartzsite, Florence, and Papago Park in Phoenix. The digital version of American Rider is available at American Rider (dot) com; you’ll see great stops along the way: Dateland Travel Oasis off I-8, The Readers’ Oasis Bookstore in Quartzsite, and The River Bottom Grill on why 79 between Phoenix and Tucson.

 

The specter of pyramids rising from the desert seems more Egyptian than Arizonan, yet for more than 100 years, three pyramids holding the bones of Arizona leaders, explorers, and visionaries have dotted the desert spaces of Arizona.  And even though the desert is a place fitter for camels than people, I jumped on my Harley Davidson to visit these pyramid tombs which for Arizona’s first Governor, George P. Hunt in Phoenix, Hi Jolly the camel herder in Quartzite, and Charles D. Poston (Arizona’s first Congressional Representative) in Florence.

 

Riders yearning to see tilted Americana or cruise the roads less traveled will find unique memorials in these structures of masonry, quartz, fieldstone, basalt, petrified wood, and mortar, and in Poston, fragments from an early Indigenous American structure. Visiting all three will take about 8 hours of riding time, but if you giddy-up on the fast track, the trip can be done with one overnight stay. Since I live in the Phoenix area, my pyramid trifecta began on Interstate 10 by going west into Arizona’s Outback.… read more...

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