Talimena Rally Cruisin for St. Jude
May 27–29, 2027 · Arkansas Convention Center, 5200 Convention Plaza Drive, Texarkana, AR 71854 · Texarkana, Arkansas
About this event
The name points at a mountain road the rally is not based on. The Talimena Scenic Drive runs the ridge between Talihina in Oklahoma and Mena in Arkansas; this rally sleeps in Texarkana, a couple of hours east, and rides out to meet it.
Neil Jones started it in 2001. He was from Hooks, Texas, retired out of Coca-Cola, and he had ridden a bar-and-grill charity run through the Talimena country and reckoned he could build something of his own around it. For the first eleven years the money stayed local, going to children around Texarkana. Then he saw a St. Jude commercial and changed where it went. The rally has raised more than $814,000 since, and that figure is not a rounded boast — the organisers publish it to the cent.
Two escorted rides leave the convention centre each morning, one through the hills of Arkansas and one up to Queen Wilhelmina, the lodge on top of Rich Mountain at the Arkansas end of the drive. Evenings are dinner, a band and a silent auction.
What stays with you is what happens afterwards. The riders carry the money to Memphis themselves.
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