Thursday, August 30, 2018

Day 10 - 115th Anniversary of Harley Davidson - Celebrating with Friends

It was an easy laid-back morning.   No set meet times.  Everyone on their own, at their own pace.
I got up and went for a walk, took care of a few email items, and then took a conference call for the Board of Pharmacy.  Torrey was relaxing in the room. 

We gathered for a brief meeting to review options available for the day and desires for said activities.  About the time we put together a loose plan, we received word our friend Jack from Colorado was arriving.  Jack's been out riding as well, making a trip to Madawaska, Maine and venturing through Canada on his way back to Milwaukee.  Last year at Christmas he asked if we would be interested in meeting him in Milwaukee in August for a fish fry.  More on that tomorrow.

With Jack in and getting settled the rest of us found our way to Hal's HD, now called Iron Town HD.  It is one of 7 Milwaukee area Harley Dealerships. Each one throwing their own celebration party for the 115th.  Not only was Hal's the closest to our hotel, but its service department also came highly recommended by my Uncle Bill Chopski that lived in Milwaukee for years. After the fuse/wiring problems the Lowrider was having yesterday, we wanted to get it in and checked before we head back home.  Torrey and Rudy had looked at the bike this morning and it was still not functioning properly, but they were unable to see an obvious reason why. 


When I called Hal's to see about an appointment, they were polite but said, "it's first come, first served and there's currently 19 bikes in line for service".  So off we went to get the bike in line. Hal's was hopping when we got there.  We were waived through by parking lot attendants to a lot on the back side of the store as the other parking lots were full.  There were vendors set up on 3 sides of the buildings with one side being all food, drinks and a live band.  We headed straight for service and then meandered through the offerings.  Rudy decided he couldn't stand his dirty bike any longer and put it in line to get washed. 


As we were standing near the service department where we dropped off the bikes Rick says, "Hey- Isn't that Will and Sandi Long?"  Sure enough.  What are the chances that we would run into them with so many people in town for the celebration.  We took a quick pic of our Pocatello group before scattering in a number of directions. 


We later met up for a snack to the listen to the band.  Jack joined us for a cold one too. 


About 3pm we decided it was time for happy hour and headed back to the hotel to share a few appetizers and drinks.  Will and Sandi stopped by too after their trip to Milwaukee HD. We talked shop about rides we've experienced and fun we've had along the way.  Hal's called to say the Lowrider was ready.  They had tweaked a number of little things on the bike, but overall found no major issues with the bike.  We decided to go get the bike and then head downtown to see what was happening a Veteran's Memorial Park, one of the main venues for the celebration. 

Veteran's Memorial Park is 13 miles due east of where we are staying.  It's a straight shot down I-94/I-794 to get there.  It's a muddy mess due to the recent rains.  We found parking fairly easily and fairly close.  We arrived about 35-40 minutes before Lee Brice took the stage.  This gave us a bit of time to look at the official 115th merchandise, find some food and a drink.  Cami and Torrey headed toward the Full Throttle Saloon that's set up on site.  On their way they found another friend of ours, Mike from California.

 
 

Lee Brice put on a good show and we were glad to have made the trip into town to see it.

Total miles today:30
Time to travel those miles: 11 hours
Total Cumulative miles: 2795

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