My Trip To Harley's 105th Anniversary

OK, I know I'm a little late Posting about my trip to Milwaukee, WI. for Harley's 105th anniversary. Better late then never I always say.

I've been very busy again. Detailing, eBay store and all that other good stuff, that takes up all my time. Not that I'm complaining, you know. I love it, love it, love it. It definitely beats pounding the pavement in an 18 wheeler. 40 years of pounding the pavement, that is.

So, lets get on with it. I left home about 9:30 Am Friday morning, after doing some finishing touches on a detailing job I had the night before. I rode over to Woodstock Harley to meet up with some people that I knew where riding over to Milwaukee, because I saw it on a poster in the store, last time I made a visit. I wanted to ride with a group, unfortunately, this was my second choice, because my friend couldn't go, he had a bad knee and could not ride for too long.

When I got there the parking lot was empty, so I thought I was early. I went inside and looked at the poster and saw I was late. The group left at 8:00 AM. Alright, I'm going myself I thought. Not the first time I did this.

So I made a pit stop and then talked to some friends that work here at Harley. I looked outside and saw some bikes riding into the parking lot. They looked like they were packing for a trip. I went outside and asked if they were going to Milwaukee? One guy said, "yes we are", so I asked if I could tag along. He said sure, but wanted me to know they were meeting up with a couple in Antioch, IL first. I said that's OK with me.

Now, I really want to apologize, I'm really bad at remembering names, I mean really bad. So my new friends, if you're all reading this, I apologize. I need to get a note book and jot down names of people I meet and make notes. I'm new at this Bloging thing you know.

I did forget to take photos of all of us at the Harley store. Anyway, off we went to meet the couple in Antioch. We rode for about twenty five minutes and arrived at a Walgreen's parking lot, where we waited for them to arrive. When they did arrive we did all the usual hand shaking and exchanging names. That did matter, as I said, I can't remember names for the life of me. Now this time I did take photos of the gang.

After everyone got their bottles of water, and other stuff, we got back on our rides and off to Milwaukee once again.

It was a beautiful day to ride. Not too hot, not too cool. We rode for a bit on Wisconsin's two lanes till we reached the freeway. Once we got on the freeway we saw motorcycles heading toward Milwaukee. I saw a sign that read 26 miles to Milwaukee. The further we rode the more bikes we saw. It was about ten bikes to one car.

Since I purchased my scoot, four years ago, I haven't had time to really take a long trip, so this was a real treat. I rode at the rear of our group, I saw the lead biker go off onto a ramp leading us to the festivities. When we got off the freeway, I felt something hitting my knee. I looked down and saw my horn cover and horn hanging only by two wires connected to the wire harness. I waved to one of the riders and pointed to the cover, we all pulled over, so I could check out the situation. Well, the bracket broke and I couldn't put it back together with out the proper tools.

The guy I met first this morning, said he could put it in his saddle bag till I decided to leave or could bring it over to my home later that weekend. I said OK, thanks. After this, we decided to go over to the Harley-Davidson Museum and see what was going on there.

It only took a few minutes to get there. I could see the big Harley-Davidson letters on the side of the museum building, from over a bridge we were on. We pulled down into the parking lot and there was no room, so they had us park in a grassy field behind the building. We got to a place where we could park our bikes and then walked around the grounds. We saw some really cool bikes and then looked for some food and drink.

We found a concession stand near the band shell. Boy, the music was so loud, I had to put my ear plugs back in. The stand had the usual food and drink, hot dogs, burgers, bratwurst, and pop.
I had a bratwurst. This was the first time I ever had a brat and it was pretty good. It was like a polish sausage and hot dog mix. We all sat down, listened to the music and talked to people at our table. I then went off and took some pictures.

After we ate, we took a walk, we stopped to look at some clothes that were for sale. One of the women bought a Harley sweat shirt. Then we decided to leave and take a ride around town and go over to the lake, where we heard a lot of bikers were parked over there. Traffic got pretty heavy going over there and the group decided to take a pass. I had plans to go to another town near by, so I asked if they wanted to come along. Vinnie from American Chopper fame was going to be at a Harley dealer's 105th party. It was about eighteen miles north of Milwaukee. They took a pass, so I got my horn cover, thanked them for letting me ride with them and I would talk to them soon. I gave a few of them my business card, hoping to detail one of their bikes in the future. Then I said my goodbyes and was on my way.

This concludes one leg of my trip. I'm going to write about the next leg in my next Post.

I'm going to leave the link to Harley's site above for a few more weeks. It has photos and videos of the celebration.

Below is a slide show I made.




Meaning Of The Day: Formation Ride - A motorcycle road event in which participants maintain their relative position in a group while riding down the road.

Now You Know, Biker Joe