The History of the Ancient Riders
Monday, August 11, 2008
The Ancient Riders began originally as a Yahoo Group founded in 2003 as the "pagan_biker" list. It existed for some time in this form, and had fairly low participation. The founder and then moderator of the old pagan_biker list had little time to devote to it, and it began to slowly die out as activity waned.
Then sometime around the fall of 2005, Johnny Bongo and Harper both joined the list. Activity increased, and interest seemed to be on the rise. After several months, the then-owner of the pagan_biker list asked Johnny Bongo if he would like to take over as the moderator of the list. He accepted, and shortly after that the owner of the pagan_biker list disappeared all together.
This left the members of the list to strive forward on their own, and JB did his best to help. After some time however, it became clear that all though Johnny Bongo was a "moderator", he was not the "list owner" and as such was prevented from fully managing the group. As a result the group decided to abandon the old pagan_biker list, and create a new home for themselves at Yahoo called "ancientriders". And Lo! In February of 2007, the Ancient Riders were born. There was much rejoicing!
It was in August of that year that Johnny Bongo and Harper set out from Maine on the Pagan Tour 2007 - riding west to meet up with Clem & Blu, and RoZ in Illinois Then all rode south to Memphis and were joined by Jan from Memphis, and Balthor & FIreAngel. After some great ribs and great music in Memphis, everyone headed for home, with JB and Harper shooting the Dragon's Tail at Deal's Gap on the way back to Maine. The first ever Pagan Tour was a great success.
The next year, in August of 2008 Clem & Blu, RoZ and Vic rode east from the mid-west across Canada to Montreal where Johnny Bongo & Jingles, Harper and JC & Sue all rendezvoused together. What a time! Then everyone rode back down into Maine for a rendevous at Johnny Bongo & Jingles' house with Kissy, Shadow and Ben. Everyone hung out for a couple of days, taking a great day trip to the coast for some Maine Lobster before heading south again. Everyone rode together down to Clarksburg, Mass, where Clem & Blu headed south and shot the Dragon's Tail, Roz & Vic headed west, Kissy to New York, and JB and Harper back to Maine. Another Tour for the record books.
As of this writing, plans are being made for the first ever gathering of Ancient Riders - where members from all over the country and maybe even the world will come together in Sturgis, South Dakota during the second weekend in July for The Gathering 2009! |
