Our Harleys Went Home!!

We are back in Bella Vista, safe and sound. Our trip to Milwaukee for the Harley 105th Anniversary celebration was stupendous!

We took 12 days to do 1,850 miles and we made the most of them. We left home early so we could stop and spend some time with our dear friends Doc and Dorothy in Vinton, Iowa. They took us to Cedar Rapids to see the devastation caused by the flooding on June 13th. Its hard to imagine 1,300 city blocks under water but that's what happened. Doc's sister has a home there and of course it is uninhabitable. Many families displaced and facing hardships that you don't consider unless this happens to you.

Our visit with them was lovely and went too fast. But they did get to teach us how to play cribbage! We are slow learners and we may have it licked by the time we see them again!! Anyone want to play cribbage with us?

On to Milwaukee and the VIP Reception at the new Harley Davidson Museum. (we are considered VIPs by virtue of our fundraising efforts for the Muscular Dystrophy Assn) It was great seeing so many people we had met over the years at the national telethon. It was a reunion of sorts for us and one we really enjoyed! And the honor of being able to visit the museum was way cooool. It is a fantastic collection of Harley's and motorcycling memorabilia and displayed in innovative ways. We were able to tour the archives and refurbishment areas which are off limits to the general public! If you have the chance to go, we highly recommend it.

The next day Harley Owner's Group (HOG) was celebrating their 25th Anniversary with a huge shindig at Miller Stadium. It was a lot of fun but disappointing as far as the facilities went. I think the crowd was more than expected and made for long lines for food and drink. An hour to stand in line for nachos is about 50 minutes too much! I was particularly excited about seeing Sugarland perform that evening. Luckily, we were invited to enter the MDA VIP area where we could see the jumbo tron.

Staying downtown was great as we could take shuttles, buses and cabs to the different venues for the Harley celebration and not worry about parking or safety issues. (meaning, we could drink!).

The highlight of the 105th for both of us had to be the Parade! We were at the front with other MDA fundraisers, right behind the Harley execs. Following us were the rest of the 7,500 motorcycles made up of Harley employees, Hog Chapter reps, and participants chosen by lottery. This was quite a humbling experience. Milwaukeeians (?) were lining the 7 mile parade route on both sides of the street waving and holding signs "Welcome Harley Riders", giving us thumbs up. I think they were as excited to be there as we were to be in the parade. Bob and I got to ride next to each other and at some point in the procession I noticed the crowd cheering a little louder on Bob's side of the street. Bob was egging them on (I know you are not surprised) by shouting "HELLO MILWAUKEE" and then cupping his ear and waiting for them to respond! Well, they just ate that up! The parade route took us 45 minutes to complete at about 10 miles an hour (a lot of clutching). And the last bikes rolled in about 4 hours after we did!

That evening Bruce Springsteen performed at Veteran's Park. We arrived there at 6 PM which we thought was early enough since the concert didn't start till 8:30 PM. Wrong! We were at the back of the lawn area and had purchased Harley ground sheets. They are plastic squares of sheeting with the 105th logo for the purpose of spreading on the ground. We planned on napping while waiting for Bruce as we had gotten up that morning at 3:45 AM for parade staging. Well, have you ever tried to sleep while thousands of partyers are surrounding you? Actually, many of them looked more exhausted than we were but we couldn't doze. We lasted through Bruce's 4th song and then headed for a cab. At our age, or I should say Bob's age, you really have to pick and choose what is important to you 'cuz you can't do it all. :) I heard the next day that Bruce played for 3 1/2 hours and was quite the entertainer!

We started for home on Sunday. Bob said that if we rode hard for two days we could get home on Monday. I asked him why since we had no appointments until Wednesday. He responded "Oh, yea, I thought I had to be at work on Tuesday". So I think retirement hasn't totally sunk in yet. Subconsciously, I believe Bob thinks he's on an extended vacation! That should end soon.

We had 12 days of dry weather until we got 20 miles from home. Then the heavens dropped out and we were soaked. That's OK-we couldn't have asked for anything better during our trip. It was quite the motorcycling adventure and I was thrilled to make it on my Harley!