Memorial Day Ride - Part 1

Eastward, Hooo!!!


Wow!! So much has happened. Guess I’ll start at the beginning.

We met up at a McD’s on Indy southeast side about 9 am Wednesday morning. Google tells me it is 595 miles, Indy to DC. The more scenic route we took was closer to 700. South central and southeastern Ohio are beautiful country. We stopped at little rode side rest area for lunch and made Marietta Ohio about 7 pm.

A quick ciphering and you’ll notice that was 10 hours on the road… That’s 350 miles (about half way) in 10 hours… That’s an average of 35 miles per hour. OMG!!! Women’s tiny bladders and smokers be damned!!! We stopped about every 60 miles (less than an hour riding) to smoke, stretch our butts and pee.

We stopped in a little town called Mt Storm in Virginia for lunch Thursday. For about the billionth time, I was told ‘riding through these mountains on such a bald tire was crazy’, yet again my response was ‘there is tread on the sides and that is where you need it most when riding through the mountain turns and switch-backs’.

This discussion was going on at just about every stop and I was actually beginning to worry. One of the things I was honored to have been requested to do Sunday was escort Gold and/or Blue Star Mothers (mothers that have lost a child or have a child in service to our country) in the Rolling Thunder parade. I knew there was going to be an inspection and had not even thought about my tires. I had proof of insurance, registration, license endorsement, extra helmet, back rest and windshield… but never thought about looking at my tires.

Afraid I would get rejected for the bald tire, I decided I would try to get to a Harley store and get one. The next town, Winchester was about 75 miles away. A quick call to the service department and they said they had a tire but that I needed to be there by 5 to make their closing time. The manager also said that we were 2 to 2.5 hours away. Windy roads, small towns and all that. It was agreed that I would lead to set the pace since I had the ‘bald as a baby’s butt tire’. And oh yeah, while we were eating, it had started to rain… hard, AND it was 3:15 pm by the time we suited up and left.

Heh, I took off, dodging rain drops and pot holes. After about 10 minuets I looked in my mirrors and didn’t see any one… I was out running them all. I slowed and Hoss caught up and told me the others were headed to the hotel and we would go on to the HD store. We made it there by 4:30. (2.5 hours my a$$, heh!!)

We got to our Virginia hotel about 8 Thursday evening. The HD store was about 100 miles from the hotel.



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