They were riding “High On the Hog” Thursday night in Hays Frontier Park.

The weather was perfect, unlike a week ago, when the popular  Big Brothers Big Sisters “Night in the Park with the Hays Harley Owners Group” had to be postponed because of rain.

“The date change may have kept down the number of our riders this year,” explained Nancy Jeter, BBBS Executive Director.  “We usually have about 15 kids here.”

Those who did attend were in hog heaven, with their choice of 13 Harley motorcycles to ride, carefully driven by HOG volunteers through the west park loop:

Lance Smith’s new 2014 CVO Limited bright blue bike,  was a “fun” ride for 11-year-old Avery.  “This is the first time I’ve ridden motorcycles,” she said.

Avery was there with her Big Sister Kim Stoecklein.  They’ve been matched for three years.  “We started in the school program when Avery was a Wilson second-grader,” said Stoecklein.  “Now we’re in the after-school BBBS and that gives us more time to get to know each other better.”

Smith is a road captain for the Hays HOG chapter.  “This is my sixth or seventh year to give rides to the kids,” he said.  “We’ve been doing this about 10 years now.”

Nobody remembers exactly when the program started, although Jeter recalls, the first year “the kids had sack races and three-legged races with the HOGs.”

One number Jeter is absolutely sure of–42 Littles are on the list waiting to be paired with their Bigs.