BIKERS SAVE BABY AT RALLY

Heavy rains made for a soggy and subdued Fire and Ice Motorcycle Rally in Grants, New Mexico on July 20-22.

But things livened up a bit the evening of the 21st.

A series of thunderstorms rolled in and put a damper on the rally, and gave a few bikers the opportunity to be heroes on Saturday night near dusk.

A woman toting a seven-month-old baby in a car seat lost her footing while walking alongside floodwaters. She dropped the car seat—with the baby in it—into the swiftly moving water. The baby and its newly christened boat were quickly swept away by the floodwaters and headed off down the seriously flooded street.

Downstream, a group of bikers noticed the frantic woman, saw the bobbing car seat, and quickly figured out what had happened. Several of the scary, leather-clad two-wheeled hellions put together a quick rescue mission and snatched the child from the raging waters, putting an end to what was surely the tyke’s first adventure.

They returned the child to the very distressed woman unharmed, and everyone lived happily ever after.

Neither the woman, the child, nor the bikers were identified.

All this is according to the New Mexico State Police, who were on hand in Grants for the 7th Annual route 66 Fire & Ice Motorcycle Rally.

In addition to sweeping away babies, the flooding rainwaters forced the closure of several roads in the area, and shut down many activities associated with the rally, Including a Saturday night concert scheduled for 9p.m. The show was cancelled due to the flooding, and everyone who hadn’t already left the area called it a night.

About two-dozen motorcycles were towed away from downtown grants due to damage caused by the flooding.

Reports indicate that a crowd of a few thousand riders desended on Grants Friday for the rally, which is slowly growing in recognition and popularity. Things were dry and happy, with a pretty good party brewing when the thunderstorms rolled in early Saturday afternoon. A second salvo of storms in the evening effectively shut things down, though small, sporadic parties popped up later Saturday night after the skies cleared somewhat and the floodwaters clamed down.