Milwaukee Trip - Day 6 - Miller Park

I took quite a few shots while at Miller Park, especially in the stunt zone so will post some pics.

Bruce Rossmeyer's Ft Lauderdale Harley Davidson Drill Team

I didn't get a lot of good shots of these guys as they were the first stunt we watched. They were quite impressive however.




ILL Conduct

Have seen these guys before at American Eagle. They are pretty good and today blew up a lot of tires!







Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Motorcycle Drill Team

Another drill team, also very impressive.







Seattle Cossacks Stunt Team

This was the first time I have seen these guys. They were a lot of fun and very impressive, they didn't seem to follow their script at least not to the letter, and did not use communication devices other than a whistle and voice, no mics or headsets.











Bubba Blackwell

We've also seen Bubba Blackwell before, but here in front of a large Harley lovin' audience, it was clear he was having a lot of fun. He blew up a couple of tires too!

Milwaukee trip - Day 6

Its a little cooler at night in Wisconson than in Texas. As a 1/2 inch foam pad is not nearly as comfortable as a mattress, but we made it through the night. The American Legion is hosting a great breakfast every day and we will certainly take advantage of that.

We leave and decide to hit Milwaukee Harley Davidson on the way to Miller Park for the HOG 25th celebrations. On the way we see both the Pilgram Road and Capitol Drive facilities that we will want to stop at later.

There is a massive party at the Milwaukee HD and they are set up pretty good for what they have going on. Lots of vendor tents and sharing a parking lot with a strip club, they have also set up a couple of entertainment venues. Traffic and parking is crazy. We don't partipate in too much of craziness but have a look around, we see the "fighters" getting ready for the midget wrestling bouts, the Bikini bike wash, etc. Next to the strip club was the set up for Strip Club Choppers. We stop by and talk to the guys, I had asked when then were going to be in Digby, which was supposed to be this weekend, for the Wharf Rat Rally, but they couldn't get their paperwork and visas cleared in time so came here instead. It was actually an ideal venue for them.





Off to the Headquarters facility on Juneau Rd. Its an older but quite large facility. Then off to Miller Park for the party. We hung out for several hours, talked to lots of folks, had a lot of fun. Several other Eagles were there but we never saw any of them. We watched all the acts that performed in the Stunt Zone, they were very impressive, some we've seen before. We saw a couple of bands including Billy Bob Thorton and his band, Sugarland played, a couple of others and closing the night was Kid Rock. We watched a bit of that, it was actually quite a good show but it was jam packed. Throughout the day there were other Harley and HOG activies and speakers, including Willie G and we watched comedian Lewis Black for most of his act.

Anybody see a black harley????



Getting out of there and back to the campsite was actually surprisingly easy.

Milwaukee trip - Day 5

After several long days and some hard riding, we have a shorter day, only 250 miles or so...

We stopped at Kegel Harley Davidson in Rockfork, IL where there was another Welcome Home party in progress. This dealership had a little cafe built in so we had lunch there and got some directions to avoid the tolls and construction that was happening on the interstate. While we were eating we saw the group from Mexico that we met with in Jackson. We did not get a chance to talk to them but they looked much drier than previous.

Once we got into Wisconson we got onto some state highways, and let me tell you, in these parts, these higways are a lot differnet than in Texas. In TX, you go 70 mph, about every 20-30 miles or so, there is a small town you slow down slightly for. In these other states, the speed limit is typically 55-65 mph, with towns every few miles and slowing down in some towns as slow at 25 mph, which greatly extends travel time!

We stopped at the Buell plant in East Troy for an ABC pic, then arrived at the campground about 3:30 pm so only about 1/2 hour later than I had originally planned for. That was the closest to plan all trip!

Of course at the campground we had to wait to get registered, but thankfully Harley riders and are friendly bunch and offered up some of Milwaukee's premier exports for us to quench our thirst.




We got set up and spent what seemed like hours looking for Len, Lisa, Paul and Lisa and meeting and chatting to a great many folks from all over.



That night we watched Lynrd Skynrd and helped Lisa Mathiason look for her missing lens cap............

Milwaukee Trip - Day 4

Finally sunshine! Trip today will take us to Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, via Xenia, Ohio. Looked at the route and plugged it into my trusty Zumo (Emily) and the distance looked reasonable.

The ride to Xenia was via US 68, which again was a great ride, particularly in Kentucky. Another time zone over, Eastern, and after the three days riding we took our time getting on the road as we were going to "make up" that hour.... or so we thought.

As I am trying to figure out my route, and re-route, I realized something. There is a Normal in Indiana, woops! I make my correction, which now adds about an additional 120 miles to the day. Well that pretty much solidifies that after Xenia we will be riding interstate rest of the way! Including throught Indianapolis during rush hour... Thankfully this part of the trip went very well with virtually no slow down in Indianapolis.

Time for a break, so we stop at the Harley Davidson dealership in Urbana, IL where there was a huge ride home party going on. I was walking around and Darlene snapped a pic of Willie G and his entourage leaving the dealership for their next stop on her camera phone.





We arrive at our hotel after dark again, but just so.

Milwakee Trip - Day 3

Not showers today, but rain! Wasn't supposed to be this far north, should out run once you get into Kentucky, just an hour or so north....

The rain let up to a moderate pace when we got to the Kentucky border so we stopped for pics. The truckers and other drivers must have thought we were nuts. Actually when we were stopped we could see fairly well....



We took a couple of scenic roads and got off the interstate around Bowling Green. After a slight detour, which ended up not being so slight, to get a National Park sign, we eventually ventured up into Bourbon Country. Along the way, on KY 31E we drove through a small town where there was a barrel factory and there was a fantastic image of an open factory door with barrels stacked high, then further around the bend was an Evan Williams truck being loaded with barrels. It would have been a great picture but we were not prepared and it was still raining. We eventually got out of the rain when we stopped for gas in Bardstown.

In Bardstown we had a treat as there are a host of distillaries in the area, including my favorite bourbon, Makers Mark. So we took a detour, spent some time at the distillary then were back on our way to Lexington. We took some very rural roads, small one lane curvy paved roads, that were great to ride, rolling hills. Throughout the roads, tobacco was being harvested and hanging in barns to dry. It was very cool. Kentucky is my new favorite state to ride in!





Once we got to Lexington, we decided that was far enough as it had been a long wet day. Thankfully we got a large hotel room to hang our wet gear throughout.

Milwaukee trip - Day 2

Showers, oh joy. Fay has decided to provide us with a little precipitation and some moderate winds for our ride today. At breakfast and loading the bikes we has a brief chat with the group from Mexico. They looked somewhat underprepared for the rain as we watched one of the guys wrap his leather luggage in a green garbage bag. Some of the group appeared to have a fair amount of riding experience while some of the others did not. I think there were 6 - 8 bikes in their group. They were heading to Memphis, and I think they were looking at worse weather than we were.

Thankfully we were going to be riding the Trace for pretty much the whole day, another 355 miles or so in addition to the 100 or so we rode on Saturday. The rains were pretty constant for the first 250-300 miles, with a couple of breaks and some fairly significant downpours. The ride was great, with again, little to no traffic. We saw a little bit of wildlife, not nearly as much as I expected given that the route is pretty much wilderness. We did see a couple of deer, including a very small fawn, and quite a few turkeys, including one flock that we pretty much had to stop on the road for them to clear.






We continued on a few miles past Nashville and arrived at a hotel sometime after dark, making for a long day.

Milwaukee trip - Day 1

Day 1 started off with overcast skies and the threat of rain. We got off in a timely manner to a good start and had good weather all the way to Natchez with just a couple of small showers along the way. Somewhere between Natchez and Jackson though we hit rain and had to ride in the rain for the last hour or so. From Natchex to Jackson we were on the Trace. Fairly narrow road, slightly rolling, little to no traffic and gentle curves. Lots of history along this road and just off it though.b

When we arrived at the hotel there were other bikes already there. We came to find out they were a group up from Mexico on their way to Milwaukee.

States visited

I have updated my states visited map, from our Milwaukee trip, we rode through 14 states of which several we had not ridden before. These were Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Alabama, Wisconson and Iowa. We also got ABCs of Touring pics along the way and have a good start this year with both the states and Harley plants that we visited along with Xenia, OH ("X" city).



create your own personalized map of the USA
or write about it on the open travel guide

I still haven't figured out how to widen my blog page, I guess I should see if Ryan can help me.

HOGs from all over

Haven't seen any official attendance reports for the celebration but I did see published numbers as high as 125,000 for Saturday. Based on what we saw on Thursday and Friday, I would believe it. At the HOG 25th, one of the Harley executives stated that there was representation from 16 countries. I tried to capture Chapter rockers from the foreign countries that I saw, I missed a few but got several. We saw some foreign plates as well, but obviously a lot of folks used the Fly and Ride program. In addition to the shots below, we saw riders from Mexico, Argentina, Japan, Australia, Sweden and likely some others I am forgetting. We spoke with most of these folks where we were able to. Saw lots of Canadians too, but looking at my pics I didn't get many from Canada.

Welcome Home, and back again.

First the stats. HOG 25th anniversary, Harley Davidson 105th anniversary. Several ABCs of touring points.

3160 miles round trip, in 9 days. Slight change from original route, in that we did not spend 2 nights in Nashville, but added miles to our trip.

14 states including Texas. Included 8 states I have not travelled before on mortorcycle. We skipped Arkansas as we will be there later this year, and would have added even more time to a very long ride home

Day 1 - Home to Jackson, Mississippi - 492 miles some showers then rain the last hour or so

Day 2 - Jackson to Goodletsville, TN, just north of Nashville - 417 miles, rain for most of the Natchez Trace, probably about 1 hours south of Nashville.

Day 3 - Goodletsville to Lexington, KY - 250 miles short mileage but long day as we had rain, rain and more rain. Rain stopped just south of Bardstown, KY, bourbon central! Kentucky is officially my new favorite state to ride in!

Day 4 - finally no rain. Lexinton to Bloomington-Normal, IL, 469 miles the long route via Xenia, Ohio (for our X city in ABCs of Touring).

Day 5 - Normal to Campground in West Bend, WI - oops didn't record but original route was about 253 miles but we had a couple of small detours and parties along the way.

Days 6 and 7 - Milwaukee area - about 28 miles each way back and forth to the campground to party grounds.

Day 8 - return day one from West Bend to Jefferson City, MO, 561 miles

Day 9 - return day two from Jefferson City to HOME!!!! - 554 miles.

Three days arriving in dark, only really one day, the campground arrival did we arrive before supper.

Long days but lots of fun and lots of sights. Will post lots of pics as I sort through them. I shot about 600 or so, but there are a lot of bursts from the Stunt Zone.