A little history behind this event.....

In 2005, over 30 Bikers from 6 States showed up for the first ever Moonshine Lunch Run.  1 Guy, Critter from Minnesota, rode 610 miles one way to attend.  A total of 6,800 miles round trip were ridden by 26 riders making the average per person 261 miles round trip.

In 2006, we had over 312 bikes and over 400 people show up.  We set the all time record of 712 hamburgers served in a single day.  We are even mentioned here.  There were 235 people signed up.  They rode a total of 57,680 miles one way to a town with a population of 2 to eat a Moonburger.  So, that means at least 115,360 miles were ridden round trip to Moonshine, IL.  An average of 491 miles were ridden round trip by each and every one that signed in.  We had 143 people ride over 130 miles one way.  21 people rode at least 610 miles this year one way.  We had 5 people ride over 1,000 miles one way to eat a Moonburger.  Jon Kohler was the grand prize winner at 1,124 miles one way.

I almost forgot about the most famous thing that happened this year.  Terry, our host, ran out of gas on his way to Moonshine!  If he tries to deny it, you can thank Putt for the pictures provided in the gallery.

T-shirts were also sold in 2006 for the first time.  Terry rounded the price off for the t-shirts.  The money left over was given to the Mexican mission fund through Willow Creek church.  He donated 2,031.00 on everybody's behalf who came to Moonshine.

In 2007, we got bigger and the weather got worse, but that didn't stop people from coming to little ole Moonshine, IL.  You can look at the banner above and see what the weather looked like.  We had 723 people sign up for the event.  A guy asked Terry, "What if we get bad weather?"  Terry just replied, "If it snows, 300 people will show up because these guys ride, no matter what!"   Terry was wrong!  400 hundred people still showed up at Moonshine.  This is also the year for Terry's famous words, "If you don't make it to Moonshine,,, you ain't a Motorcycle Rider,,, you're just a Motorcycle Owner!!!"  As I said, the event got bigger.  We started a webpage and the event actually got started on the Thursday before the Moonshine Lunch Run.

Thursday, there were 65 riders show up at Terry's for a cookout.  Those 65 people rode a total of 18,474 miles.  An average of 284.2 miles each one way.  I guess you have to ask Billy "Coop" Cooper why he rode 1184 miles to cookout at Terry's house.

Friday, at noon, we had 85 riders show up to eat Elephant ear sandwiches at Coles County Airport.  Afterwards, Tim Yow took us on a ride to Paris, IL to see a collection of stuff.  It was a collection of cars to gliders.  That night, one of my favorites of the event, we had dinner at Richards Farm.  Terry calculated 230 people showed up, but I think that is a conservative count.

Saturday, Terry and I looked at the weather map.  It hadn't started to rain, but as it did there were reports of ice and snow to follow.  One of my most memorable moments was when Terry opened an email from a guy asking him to reschedule the event since the weather was bad.  Terry stated that he would, but didn't know what he would tell the 300 people already here from Maine, Florida, Arizona and so on.  We ended up with pictures of license plates from 29 states.

At Moonshine, we had somewhere between 275 and 300 people show up.  There still were 410 Moonburgers served.  It wasn't a record, but it sure was an amazing number with the bad weather.  We had 10 people come over a 1,000 miles one way this year.  George Catt was the grand prize winner with 1,800 + miles one way coming all the way from Kingman, AZ.

Donations this year were tremendous.  2,500.00 went to the Mexican Mission, 500.00 to the local Crisis Center and 500.00 to the local food pantry.  On top of this, there were raffle tickets sold for a local person battling Cancer which raised 1,500.00.  Also, the winner of the raffle donated the money back.

Here are a couple links from riders that have come to the Moonshine Lunch Run:

Jim Sally in 2006

DavidLSI (Scroll down on this page, it has pictures of Friday afternoon lunch at Coles County Airport and ride.)

Here is a write up about Moonshine, Illinois written by John Dappert.

Now, the YouTube video.

So, there you have the history of the Moonshine Lunch Run.  Come and make it another great year!

Top        Back to Moonshine Lunch Run

Webmaster