Flood Run – Spring 2010

The Spring 2010 Flood Run was held on April 17. It originally started in 1965 as a charity event to respond to the river flooding by placing sandbags in Winona, MN. The flood of ‘65 was one of the worst floods of the Mississippi River in recent years. The river crested at 25 feet! It caused $200 million in damage and made 40,000 homeless. In response, Wisconsin senators created flood relief legislation in response to assist future flood victims.

This year the charity was the kid’s at Gillette Children's Hospital. Riders were encouraged to purchase a $10 wrist band with the proceeds going to the charity above. The wrist band provided many discounts including food and lodging, but many of the discounts seemed to be at bars.

Many of the bikes stopped in Maiden Rock, WI, but there were several other stops all up and down Mississippi River on WI-35 from Prescott to Fountain City and up MN-61 from Minnesota City to Hastings.

Vendors were setup on both sides of the railroad tracks. Trains went by about every 30 minutes.

The main road, WI-35, was packed with bikes for miles:

The day was filled with mostly Harleys and other cruisers:

Some sport bikes showed up:

Even a couple nice cars showed up:

Some vehicles didn’t seem to belong:

With a license plate of “H8WNTR”, this guy needs to get a Ural:


Indian was one of the vendors that showed up:

This one is for you Gary:


Video on Vimeo:

Video on Youtube:


NOTE: I'm not sure why I didn't post this earlier. I just found it in the drafts folder complete as of last April.