Saturday, July 1st, 2006 The Tampa Bay Chapter of the Defenders Motorcycle Club held its first official ride. The Club and Friends rode to Winter Haven, Florida for Lunch. Later some of the Members and Guests continued on to Plant City for their Monthly Bike Night.

Saint met up with some friends from St. Petersburg and after a liesurely breakfast at Bob Evans they rode to the  Assembly area in Tampa.  The Pinellas Riders were Ken Hoover and his wife, Jody and Big Bob McGann. These guys are members of the American Legion Riders Post 104 in Pinellas Park. Post 104 is very active in local veteran's activities and Patriot Guard Riders Missions. Ken and Jody are retired law enforcement officers. Jody was an Air Police in the Air Force and Ken a Police Officer from upstate New York.
The Pinellas County Riders met with the Hillsborough group at the Steak and Shake parking lot in East Tampa. Introductions were made and everyone got to know each other. We took care of final business before starting the run. President Gunner introduced the guests to the Defenders M/C, then Samson gave a safety briefing.

After all the speechifying and lecturing was over everybody saddled up and we took off for our first stop. We rode about 70 miles and met up with the Lakeland riders.