Sweet Home Chicago – 31 August 2008

Well it’s home for tonight after leaving Milwaukee this morning.

I must also note a correction to yesterday’s blog, there were over 7,500 bikes in the parade of flags, not 75,000, but that is still more than most of us can comprehend.

Today we also drop off the rental bikes here in Chicago and the Eaglerider shop is adjacent to the local Illinois Harley Davidson dealer.

You should note the “Historic Route 66″ signage in the Eaglerider picture.

Harlem Avenue where both the Eaglerider and Harley dealership are is also part of the original “Route 66″.

The Eaglerider shop was extremely busy with rentals being returned following the Harley celebrations in Milwaukee and new rentals being taken to tour Route 66.

Despite being busy, the guys at Eaglerider were handling the affair with a minimum of fuss and were getting both the returns and the new rentals underway in very reasonable time.

A quick check of the odometer showed that I had travelled 5,840 miles (miles, not kilometres) on this marvellous journey.

Across the parking lot at the Illinois dealership it was more of the treatment we had received at all the dealerships we called into, eager to ask questions and spend time listening to stories about our trip. 

Harley Davidson is now deeply entrenched into the American culture and anniversary celebrations like the 105th anniversary are embraced throughout the country, especially around their Milwaukee home and nearby Chicago.

Harley Davidson hold anniversary celebrations every 5 years and they get bigger each year – I’d better start saving for the 110th Anniversary in 2013.

Tomorrow I fly home, it has been a long and at times exhausting trip.

Before I sign off completely from this blog, I would like to thank my wife and family for being so understanding about me selfishly indulging myself with 5 weeks of  Harley riding around the USA.

A Little Ray Of Sunshine – 30 August 2008

There was more than a little ray of sunshine this morning, it was plain hot.

This morning was the “Anniversary Parade” and I was lucky enough to receive a “Parade Pass” to partake in the parade.

Assembly was at Miller Park for a 20 minute parade ride to the Lakefront, the setting for the 105th celebrations as seen in the picture and described in yesterday’s blog.

I had not even got into Miller Park at around 7.30 am, when we were told there were some 75,000 bikes (yes 75,000) expected to ride in the parade and that they had been assembling since 6.00 am.

Well that did it for this little black duck, so after a quick u-turn and some 45 minutes later, I was out of there and off to the “House of Harley” dealership.

The whole block was closed and lined with vendors stalls, bars and a very long queue to get into the actual dealership shop itself.

This alone was as big as Gold Coast Bike Week, I had to park 2 blocks away with the few thousand bikes.

Wouldn’t Gold Coast Harley love to have this many bikes in their dealership car park.

Again this exercise took a few hours of strolling in the hot sun, eating on the run, the obligatory dealership T-shirt and back to the hotel around 3.30 pm.

I have tickets for the Bruce Springsteen concert, which is at Veterans Park at 8.30 pm (finishing at midnight) and together with a couple of other Aussies staying at the hotel, we are contemplating either getting a cab to the concert or giving it a miss as we leave Milwaukee at 8.00 am tomorrow morning.

  

Start Me Up – 29 August 2008

Yesterday was about HOG, today was about Harley Davidson, 105 years of Harley Davidson.

All of the 105th celebrations are stretched out along the lakefront (Lake Michigan) over nearly 2 miles, from Veterans Park on the north down to the “Summerfest Grounds” on the south.

Now imagine a few hundred thousand Harley riders all together in this 2 mile stretch, it is like an Australian National HOG Rally multiplied by 100.

There are sponsor displays, Harley displays and retail outlets and concert venues everywhere, I counted 6 different stages, each with a different group playing.

There was HOG Island, where you could sit with a bite to eat and a cold drink and simply chill out, if you could find a seat.

 It really is all about Harley Davidson these few days and they do it very well, after all, this is their home.

Apart from the party atmosphere along the lakefront and over at the Harley Museum, there were also 4 separate”Street Parties” around Milwaukee, also part of the celebrations, together with the various cafes that also had live acts playing.

Sometimes you simply need to find somewhere else to chill out and that’s where the police came into the act.

Motorcycle police from throughout the USA are competing in skills competitions at the extreme southern end of Summerfest Grounds during the weekend and that’s where I caught up with TJ and Rita from the Gold Coast HOG Chapter.

Harley supply Road Kings to the various police departments and state troopers, these guys know how to ride and I was so impressed with the way they can throw their bikes  around that I ended up watching for nearly 3 hours.

By the time the police skills competition was finished, it was 6.00 pm and time to find my bike amongst the hundreds of thousands of other bikes and get back to the hotel for dinner, a few red wines and to fall into (onto) bed.

Happy Days – 28 August 2008

Even the “Fonze” would be impressed with his weekend of celebrations.

First stop this morning was the new Harley Davidson Museum here in Milwaukee, which is primarily open only to Harley riders throughout this weekend.

I spent 2 hours in the Museum itself (which is about the average) and was amazed.

The museum is over 2 levels with the upper level being about the history of Harley Davidson and they have a bike from each year since 1903 on display, together with bikes produced for specific purposes.

There are police department bikes, army bikes that mean business and bikes and trikes used by businesses to advertise, courier etc.

Downstairs is more about the early Harley racing, developments over the years, current developments, novelty bikes, videos and Harley information.

they even have a replica of the Captain America bike ridden in the Easy Rider movie.

From the Museum it was back down Canal Street to Miller Park, where the 25th HOG celebrations were under way.

I talked earlier in the blog about the number of bikes at Sturgis, well it looks like they are now all here in Milwaukee, there some 8 huge parking lots, each full of bikes and the bike traffic still waiting to get in stretched back along the surrounding roads and motorways.

I could not help but wonder what it would be like if you forgot which car park you had parked your bike in.

The festivities will go on well into tonight, with headline act, Kid Rock, starting at 9.00 pm and going through until around midnight.

Me, I think that i’ll go to bed early ready for another busy day following a late night last night.  

Route 66 (The Beginning) – 27 August 2008

I know that I used the song title “Route 66″ back in Vicksburg (14 August), but this really is the beginning and a little bit of history.

We made good time this morning and had intended to skirt around Chicago, until Kaz (our tour guide) received a call from her good Aussie friends from OZ HOG in Melbourne, Gaye and Paul Zazeryn, who suggested that we go into Chicago and grab lunch at “Lou Mitchell’s” on West Jackson Boulevard.

In the early 1920’s it was mooted to officially name a route of connecting highways west, so that commercial transport could use the route.

After much deliberation, it was finally agreed and the route was officially named “Route 66″ in 1926 and it commenced at 565 W. Jackson Boulevard.

Lou Mitchell had opened his diner in 1923 and was established when the “Route 66″ street name went up virtually outside his door.

This Diner is not only  nationally and internationally renown, it has played host to US Presidents, Mayors, Governors, Senators and dignitaries over the years and is known as being at the start of “Route 66″.

Together with the frequent use by commercial transport, inn’s and hotels sprang up along Route 66 and then after the Second World War, American families began vacationing by car and Route 66 was the main route west.

A little known musician travelled west on Route 66 to make his fame and fortune and although that did not happen, he wrote a song about the route.

That song was sung in local bars and I have it on good authority that it was recorded in the late 1950’s by the late Nat King Cole and later by the Rolling Stones, being the song that most of us know today.

As more modern and efficient interstates we built, the use of Route 66 slowed, many inns and service stations closed and it became generally used by those travellers wanting a slower more leisurely route from west to east, as seen in the sixties film “Easy Rider”.

Route 66 now has a “Hall of Fame” and Lou Mitchell’s was inducted into the “Route 66 – Hall of Fame” in 2002.

By early afternoon the throng of Harley’s all heading to Milwaukee was all around and as we rode into Milwaukee late in the afternoon, there were Harley’s to be seen everywhere, particularly at our hotel, where the majority of the riders appear to be, yes you guessed it, Australian.

 

Hold On, I’m Coming – 26 August 2008

We are now so close to the home of Harley Davidson, you can almost feel it.

We left Buffalo and travelled along Lake Erie towards Cleveland for some 170 miles.

Along the way we checked out the picturesque lakeside fishing and holiday villages, including one called “Geneva on the Lake”, where we found “Mary’s Kitchen” halfway down a lane way leading to the lake, obviously this was the place to have lunch.

When you order meals here in the USA, they ask what you want with the meal, consequently, you nnever to get eat the whole meal as it is just way to much food.

At Mary’s Kitchen, the salad before the meal was a meal in itself and the spaghetti and meat balls that I had was great, but I had leave half of it.

 We then skirted around Cleveland, through farming districts and quaint and tidy towns, heading towards Toledo, our stop for the night.

About half way to Toledo, at a town called Monroeville (Ohio), we see a Harley Davidson dealer sign and promptly pull in to check it out.

“Roeder Harley Davidson” was commenced over 35 years ago by George Roeder, who was already a race rider for Harley.

The Monroeville dealership is in the old barn style dealership building (Although they have a second more modern dealership in nearby Sandusky) and is still owned by the Roeder family.

Well once inside we bought the obligatory T-shirt, which I hope will draw appropriate comments back home, like where the hell is Monroeville.

We also saw the Harley Davidson that broke the World Speed Record at Bonneville (Utah) in the 750cc class back in 1965.

An amazing bike and well worth a mention and picture in this blog.

Continuing on we pulled into Toledo early evening, ready for a red wine and a bite to eat and to think about riding into Milwaukee tomorrow.

Take Me To The River – 25 August 2008

In this case it was the Niagara River and the series of five lakes between USA and Canada known as the “Great Lakes”.

We left Johnson City and headed north towards Lake Ontario, on the way passing through Mt. Morris, the birth Place of “Frank Bellamy”, who wrote the words for the American “Pledge of Allegiance”.

We reached Lake Ontario at Orlcott Beach New York (yes we are still in the State of New York), which as you can see had to be the spot for a photograph with the lake in the background, a bite for lunch at the local pub  and we were on our way.

Now, if I was going through Buffalo on the way to Milwaukee, I would stop at the Niagara River and have a look at the world famous falls, which we did.

I still can not fathom out why some people go on their ”honeymoon” to the Niagara Falls, but I’m sure some readers could offer feasible and practical reasons why.

 The falls themselves are very impressive, the sheer power of the water sends tingles up your spine (or was that the tourist next me), but this beauty of nature is totally surrounded by commercialisation, including hotels and casino’s.

Old Fort Niagara which is adjacent to the falls once controlled  all traffic on the Great Lakes and was the scene of several battles between the United States and the British in the early 1800’s.

Tonight in Buffalo, we went to dinner at the “Anchor Bar”, world famous for their chicken wings and visited by many celebrities and dignitaries over the years – a bit like Arthur Bryant’s in Kansas City and I do recommend it to anyone travelling through Buffalo.

Like riding into Sturgis at the beginning of August (it now seems like an eternity away) we are seeing more and more bikes on the road, making their way (home) to Milwaukee.

Tomorrow we again join the throng as we ride around Lake Erie, through Cleveland and on to Toledo. 

Running On Empty – 24 August 2008

We bid our farewell to New York this morning and I must tell you, that after two nights in New York, we were almost running on empty.

Fortunately being a Sunday morning, getting out of New York was easier that it had been getting into NY.

We primarily took scenic state highways instead of interstates, skirting around the fringe of the picturesque Catskill Mountains and It was a reasonably short run to Johnson City New York for our stop this evening.

Tomorrow is again a reasonably short ride to Buffalo and the Niagara Falls.

On Broadway (part two) – 23 August 2008

This is actually an add on blog regarding our group dinner and drinks.

At the beginning of this tour, I introduced you to the others that I am sharing this experience with, well four of them depart for Washington on Sunday to fly out from there to their respective destinations, whilst the rest of us continue to weave our way around to Milwaukee.

It was pointed out to me that I was remiss in not introducing Peter (Goldie) Horn’s partner into the blog, when she joined us in Birmingham.

Well, here it is – welcome Joanne (Jo) Kelly 

Jo is great and immediately fitted straight into the group and at brief times almost kept Goldie under control.

Sean and Jodi Lake, together with Goldie and Jo rode back to Washington today and we wish them a safe ride and will be exchanging emails in the future I have no doubt.

Des and Liz , myself and our tour guide Kaz have continued on our ride around to Milwaukee for the 25th HOG Anniversary and 105th Harley Anniversary celebrations at the end of the month.

On Broadway – 23 August 2008

Last night we caught the subway from 86th Street (corner of 86th and 4th Avenue) into Manhattan for dinner and a few drinks, propping for a while at the “Hogs and Heffers” bar where the film “Coyote Ugly” was actually shot, finally catching a cab back to the hotel at around 2.00 am.

OK, its Saturday and we are not feeling crash hot, but we catch the subway again, over to Battery Point on Manhattan.

Here we queue up with a zillion other people for a ferry over to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (where the immigrant’s were processed upon arriving in the USA back in the early 1900’s).

When I refer to a zillion people, the queues make the queues at Dreamworld look very, very small and this is to pay for the tickets to get on the ferry, then to get on the ferry and again to get off.

We blew a whole morning doing the Statue of Liberty bit, but at least I got a photo with the old girl.

We then had a look at “Ground Zero” where the World Trade Centre once stood and I will not post photo’s regarding this.

Now, Broadway is one enormous and busy street and it took us 40 minutes in a cab to get from the battery point end to the other end where “Times Square” and the “Empire State Building” are located.

A cab ride in New York at any time of day is a harrowing experience, the streets are generally one way, a few lanes wide without any lines actually marked on the ground, the traffic is thick and there do not appear to be any road rules as such, it is weave and tuck and dive as best you can, how there are not accidents all day long I will never know.

It was mid afternoon and we were starving, so hit what must be the world’s largest Hard Rock Cafe, where the resaurant part comprised 3 levels.

It was here that one our party told us that the queues for the Empire State Building were so long that it could take an hour and a half to get in and up to the top and it was already nearly 5.00 pm, so we caught a cab back to the hotel in Brooklyn to re-gather the troops and head out to a local Italian restaurant for a group dinner.