Kyle Petty Charity Ride: Off and riding across country (cont'd)

DAY 1: STEVENSON, WASH.

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Motorcycles are lined up and at the ready for an 11-stop tour from Washington state to North Carolina.

A young, clean-cut gentlemen leaned over and shouted to a grizzled, leather-clad man with long and curly hair. "Seems like it was just yesterday we were doing this," he said. "I can't believe it's time to ride again."

The pair was engaged in a heavy discussion about tire pressure and what the front wheel of a Harley-Davidson should carry. But the motorcycle talk didn't extinguish their understanding of the moment.

Kyle Petty mingled, laughing and snapping pictures on his digital camera -- in between Twitter updates, of course. Herschel Walker captured the conversation of his table near the front of the conference room. Harry Gant sat in the center of the room chatting with friends. Nobody clamored for autographs. It was more like a high-school reunion among motorcycle riders. It was the kickoff dinner for the 15th annual Kyle Petty Charity Ride in the tiny town of Stevenson, Wash. -- a town 45 miles west of Portland, Ore., with an estimated population of about 1,500, locals say.

"We really chose here because we have gone west to east so many times. And we've gone north to south," Petty said. "We've left Portland before and when we polled the people, they liked this area. We've been through Idaho a couple of times and the riders liked that area. We've been through Kansas, and they like the Kansas area. We go through Arkansas, and they all like that. They all like country music so they all wanted to go through Nashville. So when we did our survey and putting it together, it's not bad."

And Stevenson provides just the right touch to kick off the ride. Best example: Students from Stevenson Elementary created cards to place in each ride participant's hotel room upon check-in.

Call it the dream ride.

"That's kind of the way this ride came together," Petty said. "It wasn't like we sat down and said, OK ... Stevenson, Washington. There we go. It was a little bit more methodical than that. Most everybody enjoyed being up here. You start in Southern California and take off through Vegas, everything looks alike. It's just desert and we've done that before. So we decided to go back to our classic ride, West Coast to East Coast."

Stevenson sits on the southwest corner of Washington, directly on the Columbia River that serves as the state's border to Oregon. Any newcomer is bound to proclaim the area looks exactly like one would picture: green with mountains disappearing into the fog.

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Picturesque Stevenson is the backdrop for the start of the Kyle Petty Charity Ride.

The Charity Ride officially began Friday when Petty, a little congested from unloading bikes out of trailers in the pouring rain, rallied the bikers at 7 a.m. local time and pulled out. Next stop: Richland, Wash., just 186 miles east. It's a short ride on the opening day. But in this race, speed's not the goal.

"There are tons of race fans up here," Petty said. "It's been surprising, the people who have come out and stood in the parking lot all day long and talked to us and all the riders, just talking racing. That's been kind of amazing.

"When we started this 15 years ago we could have come up here and nobody would have known we were here. We went a lot of places 15 years ago where they didn't know a lot about racing. Now, there's not a city we go to or a place we stop where there's not race fans everywhere you go."

Friday began the 11-stop tour across the country.

From veterans who have made all 14 previous rides to young men and women making their first ride -- some of whom have little experience on a motorcycle at all -- to local politicians, there's an eclectic mix.

Stevenson's mayor, Dave McKenzie, is riding the first leg of the tour. Petty said it's proof of how the ride has evolved and been embraced in communities.

"If you go 15 years ago, the mayor would have put up roadblocks and wouldn't allow us in the city," he said. "Now, we go places where the mayors ride with us or city councilmen, and they want to be a part of it. The reputation the ride has built through the years is it's doing good. We're not a bunch of hellions coming to town. We come in and we're raising funds and raising awareness for children's illnesses and the Victory Junction Gang Camp. It's something that a lot of people across the country want to say, 'Yeah, I was a part of that.' It's pretty cool."