After a three-decade run, a veteran advocacy group will hold its last motorcycle demonstration ride — called "Rolling Thunder" — in the U.S. capital this Memorial Day weekend...
Every year, hundreds of thousands of motorcyclists converge near the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., then rumble through the city's downtown.But next year's Memorial Day weekend will be a quiet one.
The main reason the organizers gave for calling it quits is financial; it costs them about $200,000 last year to hold the rally, WAMU's Mikaela Lefrak reports. A lot of that money went to the Pentagon for things like security, toilets and parking lot use, according to Rolling Thunder President Joe Bean...
Regardless, the ride's organizers have decided their money can be better spent.
"The amount of money that we put on for the one demonstration ride, we could probably ... help a lot more veterans with it," Doc Stewart further told NPR.
Stewart said next year, the group plans to hold smaller rides at its chapters across the United States.
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