The best day of the year

Steffen standke elke bohn looks excitedly up the road to weibenbach. “Actually they had to be there since a few minutes”, says the senior manager of the forwarding agency of the same name in rupboden. “She” – this is a group of motorcyclists from the neighboring district of main-spessart who take people with disabilities from the mainfranken workshops on a rough day trip through the region every year. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the outing, they stopped by again at the bohns’ home.

Everything is ready for the reception at the forwarding agency’s depot. Sausages and meat cakes roasting on the grill; french fries bubbling in the heat bath. The drinks are chilled, the ice cream truck from schondra is put into operation. Elke bohn and her eleven, twelve helpers don’t have to wait much longer before they hear a honking and humming from weibenbach. Then the caravan rolls in: 40 to 50 motorcycles with and without sidecars, trikes (three-wheeled vehicles), (four-wheeled) quads, plus motorcycle sanitaters and an escort vehicle in the rear. The helmets of the mostly black-clad riders flash in the sun.

In the courtyard, the previously almost indistinguishable shapes turn into people. Down the helmets and away the protective, but now to warm suits. Some reveal themselves as weather-beaten bikers; others, mostly younger ones, as their co-drivers from the workshops. A total of about 80 people, 24 of them mentally or multiply handicapped.

Not seen for five years

Elke bohn heads for a driver, buries him with a rough “hello”. It’s jurgen meyer, one of the main organizers of the 180-kilometer ride. The two had already met five years ago in the same place, when the group was visiting for the first time.

At that time, a well-known bohns was looking for places where the excursionists could rest. Elke bohn was there right away. “I wanted to do something good for people with disabilities”, says the woman, who originally comes from burgsinn (main-spessart). This attitude perhaps also because there is a wheelchair user in the family and another member who had a fatal accident years ago.

Repetition desired

After bohn organized a snack five years ago, she said to the wife of the acquaintance last year: “i did it again.” The involved parties agreed that it would fit for the tenth anniversary of the outing. This time there were – according to the feeling – some more participants than five years ago. And also the imbiss turned out more roughly.

Roland franz went along as one of two supervisors of the handicapped people. The group leader at the mainfranken workshops reports that his proteges are always looking forward to their outing. “It makes a huge impression to ride through the area in a crowd. They rarely have the opportunity to do this.”

Franz not only takes care of the announcement for the trip and gets the riders motorcycle clothing. He organizes the final rest stop at the wernfeld destination, including coffee and cake. He reports that a young participant got scared in between on the motorcycle. He now prefers to ride in the escort vehicle. There is also a wheelchair, the owner of which is sitting in a sidecar.

Benjamin schumm from aura im sinngrund rides along for the third time. The 27-year-old works at the wernfeld workshops. Like the two times before, schumm was looking forward to the trip “because of the community, the motorcycling itself”. You can enjoy the landscape. “And the race with the people is also always already.”

However, this time the young man prefers the sidecar to a backseat. “I have problems in the curves. Out of fear I always instinctively lean in a different direction than I should.” The 27-year-old does not have the opportunity to ride a motorcycle in his everyday life.

In fact, bikers seldom ride for more than three quarters of an hour during their tour. Your proteges start to get restless at the latest then. Every now and then someone has to leave. So there was also a short break on the first stage via hammelburg, thulba, oberleichtersbach and modlos.

The motorcyclists put their helmets back on, start their bikes, and ride off one by one. The group moves on to hesse. The next rough stop is burgjob, where the owner of a carpenter’s workshop has invited to his new hall. The ride goes via zuntersbach, oberzell and sterbfritz, after the second rest stop it finally returns via aura, burgsinn, grafendorf and michelau to wernfeld, where it ends with the final rest stop. Elke bohn and her hard-working helpers stay behind alone. Until the next time, maybe in five years.

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