Swinging Bridges Ride – 5/1/2022

Brad, Joe, and I were scheduled to ride the 2022 Swinging Bridges ride. This is an annual motorcycle ride celebrating the old swinging bridges in Missouri. Its a two day ride. On Friday night, Brad and I came out separately and were meeting part of the way to the final destination. I opted to tough out a tiny rain storm and got a bit wet. Brad stopped and put on his rain gear. We met at a gas station and continued the ride out to the hotel in Stanton, MO. Joe opted to meet us Saturday morning riding early to get to us.

Brad and I got dinner and played cards at the hotel Friday night. When I woke up early on Saturday morning, the rain was crazy. Joe texted that the rain was too much and headed back home. I snoozed the alarm due to the rain. I left the hotel around 9am and walked to McDonalds to get food and coffee. I brought it back to the hotel and woke Brad up. after some food, we packed up and were out of the room by 10 am. The rain storm had passed and we were looking forward to a great day of riding. Poor Joe missed the weather window 🙁

The first day is really just adventure riding and no bridges. Even leaving later than everybody else, we caught up to other riders during the day.  We did come across a really cool train bridge on the first day. One of the few things we took photos of.

Brad near the bridge.

And a group selfie by the bridge.

Saturday night we got to the host hotel, but it was a bit cold outside so we opted to spend most of our time in the room playing Cribbage. Its a family favorite for Brad and he was super patient teaching me how to play.

Happy part is seeing all of the different motorcycles at the hotel.

Day 2 is much less technical and seeing the different bridges. We took our time checking them out.

The bridge is closed. Not normal closed, but even barricaded against the motorcycle riders that often go around closed signs.

Brad hanging out under the bridge.

And me under the same bridge.

And video of riding across another bridge and Brad at Palmer Lake.

On our way home, we stopped for lunch. There, Brad had to show off his helmet lock since my bike doesn’t have one.

Hogan Haake