The Ride on Center for Kids, The Show -April 11, 2026
I arrived at the venue with plenty of time to spare. I was supposed to be a surprise and I was thinking that surely there wouldn't be a crowd yet and could slip in unseen. I was wrong. It was packed! They started this party probably hours before.
Finally, I met up with Suzy and she took me to my starting point. From where I would begin, to where I would finish was a sea of people, but as I told her in the initial meeting, when they hear me and see me coming through, the crowds will part and they did.
I started out with a very slow piece just to get moving, kicked up the tempo a bit and then some more and then played what is called "The Military Set" consisting of the theme song for each branch of the military. I paused at the bar area for "Anchors Aweigh", made the turn into the arena and played the "Marine Corp Hymn" on my way to the dance floor stage. Now, I get a kind of tunnel vision while playing and trying to hit a specific mark, so I couldn't see for sure, but I could hear what sounded like chairs sliding and I'm fairly sure that every Marine in the place stood and came to attention during the song. I ended with that as I was in place, my apologies to The Coast Guard.
As planned, there were announcements etc followed by "Amazing Grace" which was requested by staff, more announcements and I get the nod to make my exit. I'm thinking at that moment that Chet Garner would kind of bounce out from hiding backstage, but what I saw was a bright red streak, a blur of movement. It was Chet, and he was bookin it to the stage... I had no idea he could move so fast.
He does a a little banter with the Co-Emcee, in which apparently there is a restraining order against him, and they call for the sheriff to escort him out, and it went on for a few moments. He had a short solo on his pipes, just a few squawks... the man really is an entertainer at heart. They got their business handled and I got a nod to leave for real this time. We exited to a tune called "Gary Owen " and now it was the Army's time to get up on their feet, Chet was right behind me for part of the way but what he was doing I couldn't see. And that was it, we were done.
I ran into Chet on my way back to the entrance and as at almost any event, people want to take photo's. I did get one of with him. I'm the one on the left.
If you'd like to see photo's of that event you can go to
ROCK's Facebook page, but I did pull one of the posts which include photos... naturally of... ME!