The Puppy Dog Ride is a route maintained and popularized by the BMW Motorcycle Owners of Vermont. I’ve ridden is 3-4 times and this year, Heather and I were met with thunderstorms and decided to just show up for the dinner. This event, the ride, the food and the camping is all free for members of the MOV which is only $20 a year to join. This event and others make the membership a great deal for those who have time to join our rides & campouts.

Since I didn’t ride this year, I can only talk about the food and the people and let’s go out of order.

February of 2020 was the last time our club was face to face for the Winter breakfast. We had a nice time, it was attended well enough for a drive-in breakfast together. The board discussed if we should still have our annual awards banquet and auction and it was decided to hold off until we heard more about the pandemic that was just starting to feel real but still not on U.S. Soil.

That was it, then we had one more camp out later in the year for which 5 of us showed up but everything else our club was doing was cancelled.

The PDR weekend 2021 was the first time I had seen everyone in over a year.

There were a lot of hugs, a lot of stories about rides people had taken and even some faces of people who stepped away a few years ago and were back. The 4 hour evening spent was not enough time to catch up with everyone. I was really just HAPPY to see our wonderful members.

Riding brought us all together but the relationships, friendships and bonds we’ve formed on-road stay with us through a pandemic and at the camp site. I took a few photos below of everyone just having a wonderful time and I hope you can see the happiness in everyone’s faces.

Then, there was the food

Eric and others started cooking $700 worth of food a few days before the event. Smoking, prepping, grilling, seasoning. We had smoked Turkey & Pork loin, baked vegetables, Bratwurst with spicy mustard, hand cut fries with hollandaise, different soups and sauces and breads and even an ice cream dessert. Fantastic work by the volunteer cooking crew who took care of us and put a ton of time in to ensure we had a great day!

The next morning was our June Club Breakfast and it’s always the biggest turn out of the year. Thanks to Vermont’s vaccination rates & low COVID-19 cases, we were all finally together without a mask.

I have attended the PDR 4 years in a row with a skip year due to COVID-19 and it’s so great to finally be together again enjoying great food, riding our amazing roads and seeing old friends.