The following article is in the January 2008 issue of Riding South magazine. A week or so before Christmas Robert Shearon, the editor/publisher and former Enfield owner, e-mailed and asked me to contribute a story to the magazine and suggested one about the ROMEOs. In the interest of full disclosure he did say he was needing a story to fill out the magazine and was in a bind. Always glad to help a riding buddy I hopped right on it after enlisting the help of my friend Richard who is the brains behind the ROMEOs. The Riding South website is: http://www.ridingsouthmagazine.com/index.html lots of good stuff on there if you poke around a bit. Below is the cover page and some of the other photos Robert used.
On Any Wednesday
Riding to eat, eating to ride
By Richard Kurtz and Leonard Williams
On any Wednesday You will find the ROMEOs (Retired Old Motorcyclist Eating Out) in an out of the way, off the beaten path, small Kansas town having lunch at the local eatery. We are a loosely formed group of motorcyclists, with the undocumented mission of helping little ma and pa cafes in Kansas towns of less than one thousand people. The official Kansas map lists all incorporated cities in the state. By count, there are 428 towns in that size category. These little places are generally well off the beaten path and are in desperate need of a pick me up to continue operating.
We get together every Wednesday, weather permitting, for lunch. The real beauty of this non-organization is that there are no meetings, no dues, no rules, no officers and no dry programs you have to sit through. Best of all, it’s FREE!
So what's the point, you say? Think about it! What better thing is there to do than just ride all over the state to little towns that struggle daily for their survival, meet with other cyclists just like you, have a great meal, visit with friends, check out a wide variety of bikes and continue on after the meal to explore more of the area or take a pilgrimage to some little known site all the while leaving any organizational work for the real clubs. Just show up at a destination either on your own or with a friend by a route of your own choosing and leave the same way. Simple, effective, enjoyable.
The usually lunch day looks like is: ride, meet and greet, kick tires, tell lies, eat lunch, kick more tires, tell more lies then ride home. Often some of the group will get together and go someplace for pie and ice cream before heading home. This all makes for some great rides, good food and camaraderie that is unique to the motorcycling community.
A ROMEO KIND OF PLACE
All it takes is one very dedicated person to find a cafe or restaurant that is willing to accommodate us and to get the word out to everyone. Richard Kurtz, a retired motel owner, from Lindsborg, KS and a board member on the Kansas Restaurant and Hospitality Association, is the ROMEOs dedicated person. Richard finds the place and arranges the scheduled rides giving the cafes close estimates on attendance so adequate food preparation will be available with minimal waste.
He then e-mails the one hundred eighty five names currently residing in the ROMEO address book. Each name has been added one at a time by a friend of a friend of the core group of riders who started joining for lunch back in 2003. These guys are from all over the state and most of them didn't even know one another before and today there are some great friendships.
Once you open the e-mail indicating the destination you can attend or ..... not. The group is open, you can bring someone along if you want. Ride what ever you want, two wheels or three. Heck, you don’t even have to be retired, or from Kansas for that matter, and the truth be known some people show up in their car. The cost is.....well, nothing. Just leave your burdens at home 'cause we're all about having a good day out riding and exploring the back roads of Kansas.
The numbers that attend vary from 5-50, depending on the weather and location. Out of fifty two weeks of the year, an average of forty-four have been suitable for scheduled rides. Rides cover the entire state in a circular pattern but the majority of members reside in the populated Eastern half of the state and consequently where the majority of destinations are scheduled. We have ventured west as far as LaCrosse, as far southeast as Galena, North near the Nebraska border and down Southwest to near Oklahoma. Some folks have questioned our sanity after hearing he miles we have ridden 'for lunch'. It's nothing for a few of us to have over 200 miles one way. Folks, that's dedication! We ride in sunshine, rain, hot weather and Cold. We draw the line at snow and ice however. You can do that on four wheels but not on two!
Most small town eating establishments are willing to take a chance on the numbers and many times will provide some sort of special. Being mostly retired the ROMEOs are a laid back bunch and if we have to eat in shifts or it takes a long time to get served no one get bent out of shape. One little cafe was using a George Foreman Grill to cook hamburgers, needless to say lunch was a long drawn out affair that day. A good turn out can help fill the coffers of these entrepreneurs that are so vital to the life blood of small communities. There have been many a destination that were it not for the ROMEOs, the luncheon crowd would have been rather dreary, No ROMEO is so foolish to believe this group is the savior of the small town cafe by any means but we have opened up the awareness factor of their plight and have been responsible for many a return visit to a place someone thought was very unique or special.
It would have been interesting to have captured the economic impact statistics of this great group but unfortunately it would require staff which is non existent, but a close estimate could be calculated from an average of thirty attendees per week each year riding an average of two hundred miles per day round trip spending an average of $8.00 per meal. All for the love of the sport of motorcycling.....and a bit of wonderful camaraderie.
YOU CAN'T BEAT a small town burger
While there are no rules, other than common courtesy, lately we have been keeping track of who shows up, their mileage and what they are riding. Richard sends out a Ride Report after every lunch and will acknowledge the long distance rider along with any other pertinent information like the quality of the food. As a rule the food is cheap and plentiful and the staff friendly and appreciative of the business.
The variety of machines to show up is always interesting, BMWs are well represented as are all brands of cruisers. Big scooters are also popular and there are a couple of guys that try to ride all dirt roads to lunch on their dual sports. Of course you are apt to see an antique daily rider or even a mini-bike just for the fun of it.
So how does a story about a bunch of motorcycle riding old coots from Kansas get into a magazine like Riding South? We do have our Southern ties. When ever there is a lunch ride near our southern border there will be some Oklahoma folks show up and the same when the destination is in the eastern part of the state and the Missouri motorcyclist join us. To further establish our southern connection this spring we will have our third overnight dinner and ride in Arkansas.
There you have it, the recipe for a non-club that provides good riding, good eating and good company. If you would care to join us when we have lunch within your riding range our schedule is posted on the Kansas Restaurant Hospitality Association’s web site, www.krha.org, just click on the calendar.
You can start your own ROMEO group, just give some other retired old motorcyclists a call and pick a spot.
I think Grandma herself was waiting tables and as it turned out she forgot all about Bob and I. Marty finally got his food and Bob and I just sat and waited. After I saw that four guys that arrived long after us were eating I inquired as to the possibility of ever getting something to eat. Grandma was very apologetic and we were soon served. The special was a giant chicken fried steak. Not a bad hunk of meat. By the time we finished eating the place had cleared out so I didn't get any bike pictures.
