Completed the ride through the Ozarks on Friday but not before finding Religion

and reconnecting with friends Pat and Steve Wiggs.

Pat and Steve are charter members of the Douglas County Harley Chapter (not quite like first 9 in Sam Crow on Sons of Anarchy).  Earlier this year they acquired this toy hauler RV and hit the road.  Pat retiring full time and Steve semi-retired working from the RV wherever they are located.  They will be in the Ozarks for the reminder of this month and then heading south to Yuma Arizona for the Winter.

For those of you in the chapter that know Pat and Steve I would like you to know that in my opinion they are adjusting to their nomadic retirement lifestyle quite nicely.

Saturday’s ride consisted of traveling through the less than scenic areas of Oklahoma, Kansas and Eastern Colorado arriving home late in the day..

Plan to be at home for the next 3 -4 days to spend time with Kelley and replace the tires on the bike before heading out on the western portion of my journey.

Please stay tuned!

 

 

Honor Flight is a non-profit organization dedicated to transporting veterans to Washington DC to visit the many memorials representing their service to our country.  Currently World War II , Korean War and terminally ill vets from later wars are eligible to participate in this trip which is provided without any cost to the vets.

US World War II vets are dying at an estimated rate of 640 per day!

Kelley departed yesterday with the Denver Honor Flight escorting 12 WWII (including a female Navy Chief) and 16 Korean War Vets for a a 3 day visit to monuments created in their honor located in Washington DC.  This is Kelley’s 2nd trip this year as she was also selected as a guardian for a trip earlier this year.

During this trip these deserving veterans representing what is likely our county’s greatest generation are shown the dignity and respect they deserve throughout their visit.

TSA and the airlines provide priority screening and boarding.  The Baltimore airport fire department welcomes them with a water cannon salute over the arriving flight.  Active military and other veteran support groups greet both the fight arrival in Baltimore and and the return flight.

While visiting the monuments and Arlington Cemetery they are provided with VIP seating for all events occurring during their visit.

Veterans (red shirts) waiting for their departing flight.

Ceremony placing wreath at the Lone Sailor Statue.  In attendance and placing the wreath was retired Rear Admiral Robert Shumaker a Vietnam War POW for 8 years at the Hanoi Hilton.   He along with other POWs are credited with the development of a secret code POWs used to communicate through the thick walls of the Hanoi Hilton prison.  The book “Defiant” is based on the story of these POWs.

http://honorflight.org for additional information on Honor Flight.

While I am having a great ride Kelley and a lot of other people are taking care of what is really important in life.  THANKS ALL!

 

Day 18 of this trip and encountered the first rain soon after riding into the Ozarks region of Southern Missouri.  Between thunderstorms I encountered 3 of the bikes from the Motorcycle Cannonball when I stopped for fuel.  Their stop for the day was Springfield Missouri and they were doing some minor repairs to the bikes and monitoring the weather radar to determine how the storms might impact their ride.

1915 Harley

1913 Thor

This bike is almost 20 years too new to compete in this year’s run.  The rider did enter this bike in 2012 Cannonball and was just riding along this year with the bikes that were competing.

Others I encountered were during a heavy rain storm and they were struggling with both the climb up some of the grades and the rain and hail from the storm.  Extremely difficult to spot these bikes in the rain with the minimal lighting they have available.  Some teams have chase vehicles that follow them while others like the one pictured above is on his own with everything carried on the bike.

The Cannonball bikes continued towards Springfield Missouri and I rode south to West Plains Missouri.

 

 

 

 

Great ride today leaving Greensboro NC on 421 to Boone which is in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Northwest corner of the state.  421 continues into Tennessee and just past Mountain City for the next 22 – 28 miles is know by biker and sports car enthusiasts as the “The Snake”.

489 Curves, 3 Mountains and 1 Valley – according to local legend and Google.

Fantastic ride on this stretch of road today.  A few kids on crotch rockets and a couple of cages traveling in the the opposite direction, great weather and beautiful scenery.

There is a section of this one store that is located along the Snake where they sell T-Shirts and other Snake souvenirs.  Hanging on the walls in this section of the store are parts of wrecked motorcycles that were bitten by the Snake.

This was not my first adventure on the Snake.  Years ago while returning from a NASCAR night race we took this route back to Boone in a van with a naked guy as a hood ornament. I was not the naked guy nor the driver and yes alcohol was involved.  And to quote Forrest Gump “That’s all I have to say about that”.

Photo from the Snake route.

Continued on  the 421 then 58 route along the Virginia and Tennessee boarder to Cumberland Gap and on into Kentucky.  A great secondary roads ride for the entire day.

Started the ride heading West across Southern Pennsylvania on a couple of secondary roads providing minimal traffic and great scenery.  Rode through an area with an abundance of apple orchards and the apple harvest was in progress.

Headed South into the Eastern portion of West Virginia and then into Virginia picking up the Blue Ridge Parkway at Waynesboro following it 115 miles south to Roanoke.

Very few vehicles on the parkway making it a relaxing ride.

Leaves were just beginning to turn in some areas but was a little early for the fall colors.

Great views from different stops along the way.

Overall a beautiful ride but the 45 mph National Park speed limit for the 115 miles does take away from what it could be and therefore will probably take a pass on riding the southern portion of the Parkway.

 

 

 

Arrived in York yesterday a little too late to see the 2016 Motorcycle Cannonball riders depart from the parking lot where I am staying.  This year’s Cannonball is restricted to motorcycles at least 100 years old – 1916 and earlier bikes traveling from Atlantic City NJ to Carlsbad CA.  For my Colorado Harley followers it appears they will be traveling on US50 through Pueblo sometime this next weekend.  More information on this run at http://motorcyclecannonball.com

Stopped by the local Harley shop this morning to see if they could get my bike in for its 25K maintenance.  They not only got my bike right in they also gave me a lift to the Harley Factory located here in York which was the reason for my stopping here.

All Touring, Trikes, CVOs and most Softail models of the Harley line for the North American market are built here at the York plant.  The best word to describe the tour is AWESOME!

Giant metal presses forming fenders and gas tanks, laser cutters precision trimming the pressed assembles, frames completed with automated welding machines and the powder coating process to put the final finishes on the frames was great to observe.

It only got better with the assembly process.  The specific type of frame for a build is selected, the VIN number etched into the frame and then it is fastened to an automated build cart along with the build specifications.  The cart is then programmed to move through the necessary areas for the bike build to be completed.  As the cart arrives at different stations the assembly worker can move the height of the bike to the level and angle best suited for the worker and the work to be completed.

The bikes coming down an individual assembly line can be any of the models assembled at this plant, Softail followed by a Road King, next a CVO Street or any combination as it all depends on the build sheet.

When the assembly is complete the final stop is a run on the dyno for the overall check before it is released to shipping.

Would recommend this tour for anyone having the opportunity.  Most of the 10 -12 other people on the tour were not motorcycle enthusiasts but also thought the tour was great.

My bike back to where it where it was created last year.

Sorry no tour photos, they were very sensitive about photography in the plant.

Having the bike maintenance and plant tours completed during the same time gave me the opportunity to ride the back roads southeast of York and into Maryland during the afternoon.

 

 

 

After leaving Bar Harbor continued the day’s ride into New Hampshire.  My Fantasy Football draft was Friday night and wanted to get prepared for drafting a decent team.  Lucky for me my grandson Blake is partnering with me and was a lot more prepared which is why I left it to him to make the final decisions on who we drafted.  It appears we are in a good position to win our week 1 game and we both feel we have a good team.

Saturday’s ride was focused on getting through the highly traffic congested states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey on a hot day (low 90’s and high humidity)

Stopped by the office in Chelmsford but there was not anyone I knew around?

New York is getting a new bridge over the Hudson River.  On the tops of the bride towers are large are enclosures that resembled guard towers at a prison?  While riding by the movie Bridge Over the River Kwai came to mind.  No big deal however when I was channel surfing through the TV channels later that night one of the networks was airing Bridge Over the River Kwai.  This is an internet photo of the bride – riding over the Tappen Zee Bridge sandwiched between a bunch of New York and Jersey drivers is more of a survival adventure than a photo opportunity.

Today was a shorter more relaxing ride to Gettysburg with a stop in Hershey.

Not sure of exactly what this building is as Hershey has most the big buildings in town.  the tops of the street lights are different as they are shaped like Hershey Kisses.  Passed by the Chocolate Workers Union Building but did not get the photo.

Did not stay around long as Hershey has a large Amusement Park and Garden which were very popular with great weather on a Sunday so I moved on.

Spent a good portion of the day in Gettysburg.

The film, Cyclorama and Museum at the park are great and I would recommend a visit to anyone visiting the area.

Stopped by the local Harley Dealer before leaving town.

The have a “special” area for their Harley Owner Group Chapter

Staying in York PA tonight with plans to tour the Harley assembly plant tomorrow.

 

The day consisted of a scenic 400 mile ride for the entire day with great weather.  Riding through Lake Placid and out of the Adirondacks, across Vermont, through the White Mountains of New Hampshire and into Maine.

Encountered during the ride:

New York gas station convenience store selling craft beer to go.  Sunoco stations and according to the clerk only the A-Plus Sunoco stations.

Soon after crossing into Vermont I encountered 38 Cam-Am Spyders at a gas station pit stop on their journey to some type of Spyder rendezvous where they were anticipating 150+ Spyders.  Seemed like the leader of this group had his hands full getting them all together – kind of like herding cats.

Did the ride to the top of Mt. Washington to see how it compared to the Colorado Mt. Evans and Pike’s Peak roads to the summit rides.

Mt. Washington’s summit is at over 6K feet where Pike’s Peak and Mt. Evans are both over 14K.  However the ride up Mt. Washington was both scenic and challenging.  The landscape along Mt. Washington is very dense and scenic in the early portions of the ride and only gets scarce towards the top.

The drop-offs along the edge of the road are minimal compared to Pike’s Peak, however a rider going of the edge of Mt. Washington is most likely not going to survive the fall but it would be easier for the tow truck to recover what is left of the bike.

Have ridden about as far east as I care to ride, going to be heading south out of Bar Harbor.

 

 

Rode from South Bend Indiana on Monday ending the ride in the Western New York town of Batavia.  The midwest is encountering some record breaking temperatures making it a hot but dry ride (a little rain would have been welcome).  Encountered a vast number of wineries and vineyards along Lake Erie in Eastern Ohio, Northwest Pennsylvania and New York.

While working on a ride plan for today I reached out to one of my co-workers, Steve Lampke, who is from this area and rides to get any feedback on my route and any tips he might provide.

He first responded with a text of a barbecue place in Syracuse I should try then another text with a couple of towns to check out.  A few minutes later he called and offered to lead me on a ride of the Finger Lakes Region (Watkins Glen Raceway is in this area of New York).

When I arrived at our planned meeting place Steve was there waiting on his Softail S with the 110 and a nice sounding exhaust.

Steve also has a project bike that will utilize his 1938 Knuckle Head EL Engine.

He led us on a ride around Cayuga Lake on some great biking roads through hilly terrain providing great scenery of the lake, lush green landscape and many more wineries.

Made a couple of stops to view waterfalls.

Taughannock Falls – OK due to the dry summer very little water was coming over the falls but had to see if I could get the name right (copied it from a photo of a sign at the falls).  Don’t ask me to pronounce it…..

The water was doing better at Ithaca Falls but still a low flow due to the dry summer.

After the ride we did make it to the barbecue place he recommended in his first text.

If you ever make it to Syracuse this place is great!

After lunch Steve headed home and I rode North into the Adirondack mountains and ended the ride for the day in Tupper Lake (in the Lake Placid area).  First mountains encountered since the Black Hills on day one.

Continuing the ride East to the White Mountains in New Hampshire.  Have heard bikers from the Northeast talk about riding to the top of Mt. Washington.  Will see how it compares to the Colorado Pike’s Peak and Mt Evans rides.

 

 

The plan was to head North out to Milwaukee towards Michigan’s upper peninsula but after my 2nd cup of coffee decided to head East.

After getting Kelley checked in for her flight home I was on my way to Chicago which was an OK choice on Labor Day with great weather.  Traffic was not too painful and the city looked great on a good weather day.

Headed South off of Interstate 80 prior to it becoming a toll road onto the secondary roads.  Trying to figure out how Indiana can be charging tolls for a highway built in the 50s- 60s as part of the Interstate system?  Colorado does not charge for using  I70 through Glenwood Canyon which is probably the most beautiful ride of any Interstate Highway.

Rode through the small town of Kouts, Indiana while riding the back roads.  This is where my Mother was born and a place I have not visited in over 50 years.  Some of my memories of this town consist of:

• My Grandfather Harry brewing beer before it was the modern craze
• Taking a tractor ride with my Uncle Gordon (a Hog Farmer) to drop any piglets that died into the river (guessing the EPA would frown on this today)
• Visiting my Aunt Louise and Uncle Fritz who owned the local tavern and lived in a residence attached to the tavern.  Meals sometimes consisted of what was cooked on the tavern’s grill.  It was one of those cool old time taverns with the big jars of pickled pigs feet and hard boiled eggs on the bar.

 

Town is still a small town but they have updated the Town Hall sign

A lot more motorcycles were out riding these back roads but guessing this is what the locals have for riding on a nice weather day without mountains.

This section of road seemed to have more than its share of utility poles.

Maybe the utility workers background is in farming and they lined them up like corn?

Ended the day in South Bend just North of Notre Dame.  Kind of ironic since Notre Dame was the favorite going into their first game against Texas but lost in overtime and the hotel we stayed at in Milwaukee was overrun with LSU fans in for the game this past weekend. Number 1 rated LSU team against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field  which ended in a Wisconsin upset.  Thinking of riding to New England to see what havoc I can cause for the Patriots.