Our Sunday ride yesterday was replaced with the first leg of the "Ride for Rheumatoid" which goes from Monash Uni to Armidale for the 2025 Rally and raises funds for UCARF. Our sponsorship of arthritis research is focussed on the medical facility at Monash university so it was an appropriate point to start the ride. Congratulations to Rob Hunt from Geelong Branch for organising the whole ride. Well Done! The principle is that the ride wends its way through Victoria and NSW to Armidale stopping at various towns along the way for the week long ride. A member from each branch provides the ride leader and TEC for their section. I was leading from Monash to Geelong and "Gentle" Ron Howell from Geelong then took over to take the group on to Ballarat.

Of course it was pouring rain when I got up early all ready to lead the first leg of the ride from Monash to Geelong via Ardeer and Meredith. The ride leader has to go regardless of weather, so off I went to Monash arriving a bit after 8am to find the start was quite sensibly relocated to an underground carpark. As riders arrived we were joined by the Professor and various staff from Monash Uni to give us an appropriate send off. Steve Bailes agreed to perform Tail End Charlie duties as far as Geelong so we were all ready to go soon after 9am.

Into the rain and up Blackburn Road to the Monash Freeway we went, heading for our Ardeer start point to pick up some Melbourne Branch riders in case anyone else was silly enough to venture out on a bike in such weather. Les and Mike were waiting there so after a short break we headed off still in rain. The ride to Meredith along the usual route via Anakie and Steigitz was a bit slower than usual due to the weather and the fact that we had one Spider and a bike towing a trailer with us, but with a couple of stops to regroup all got there in one piece.

It was too wet to bother with a break at Meredith so we continued on to Geelong using a GPS route supplied to me by Geelong which was OK for a while but then got a bit confused and after a short stretch on gravel we found a dead end. U-turn practice was the order of the day so we found our way to the main road which got us to Geelong OK.

Geelong Branch were waiting at the Bell Post Hill shopping centre as arranged and after lunch they all headed off to Ballarat with the riders who were going all the way to Armidale in tow. All of us Melbourne guys decided we had had enough of the rain and headed off home, in the rain. I lost touch with the others but I continued to be drowned all the way up Geelong Road before the rain finally eased around Laverton. The weather meant really slow traffic so I spent the next half hour or so lane splitting until I got to the West Gate Bridge where traffic eased a bit. I was grateful to be riding my DR650 as its light weight and manoeuvrability was a plus in the heavy traffic.

Thanks to all who came on such a dreadful day and good luck to those riding on to Armidale, including Ralph from Melbourne who is giving his scooter a good workout on this trip. May the weather gods smile on you for the rest of the ride.