Today was a free day for the most part. I got up early and worked out in a very nice fitness room. I needed to work out the kinks...I think I feel better. After showering and getting dressed, my roommate and I headed down to the restaurant to see about the breakfast buffet...probably the best breakfast I've had on the trip so far but it cost about $12! I guess you get what you pay for. I didn't mind paying that much for a good breakfast, besides I figured I wouldn't be hungry for lunch...which came true.
After breakfast we all decided to head over to one of the local Harley-Davidson dealerships in the area...they put on an all-day party with food and vendors of all sorts. My roommate had to return to the dealership we visited yesterday so they could work on his bike with spare parts one of the tech guys was bringing from home. Apparently it worked because it was fixed in a couple of hours. I haven't seen him since about 9:30am when he needed a push in the parking lot so he could pop the clutch and get it started.
Back to the HD dealership. With our Road Captain off getting his bike fixed, I inherited the leadership role...along with my GPS...and that started an interesting morning. As I began the ride to the dealership, one of the guys rode up beside me and said he needed gas so I immediately ignored my GPS and turned the opposite direction to find a gas station...bad idea. That turn turned into an hour long detour taking us through some beautiful neighborhoods along one of the rivers...pretty sure it was the Potomac. We drove north along the river for about 10 miles...past Regan National...into Washington. At one point...when I finally found a nice pullout...we stopped to compare GPS's and to find the closest gas station. Two or three of the GPS's...I think just about everyone has one now as they bought out the local Wal-Mart on a sale of Garmins...agreed that the closest station was .58 miles away. The only problem was that was a direct line due east across the river. Once we plugged the station into the GPS and got a route, it was more like 2.5 miles...once again through interesting neighborhoods on the outskirts of downtown DC.
The station we stopped at actually still had full service pumps and did car repairs. Now, when was the last time you saw that? The lady at the cash register said it was because there were so many elderly people living in the area that it was about the only way they could get gas.
We fueled up and headed to the dealership. After driving at least 20 miles...the original distance from the hotel was 7.7 miles...we arrived to find a real zoo. There were motorcycles parked everywhere...must have been 10,000...and that's not an exaggeration in the least. I suggested that we agree on a time to meet back at the motorcycles if we got separated...which we did almost immediately. We agreed on 1:00pm and that worked out pretty well.
I got a call from our friend who had to go to get repairs about 12:00. I gave him directions to the dealership but 30 minutes later I got another call. He had missed the turn somehow...it's hard to miss because it would have been the one where all the other motorcycles were turning. Anyway, I stopped a police officer and asked her if my directions to him had been accurate and she said they had been. I told my friend to turn around, go back towards the hotel for about 7 miles or so and then stop at a gas station to ask directions.
The husband and wife traveling with us wanted to go out to Dulles International and see the relatively new addition to the Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum...and so did I...and we didn't want to wait for the guy to show up. We finally got someone to wait for him so the couple and I took off...once again using my GPS.
Let me tell you something...GPS's do not like navigating in Washington DC...that's a fact. It appeared to be about 35 miles away...sort of back the way we had come in yesterday...but the actual route my GPS took us was in no way similar to the route we took coming in. However, it was a nice drive. We saw the Washington Monument and the Mall...again...Georgetown, the Kennedy Center...for about the 4th time...and several other interesting spots. At one point...following the GPS's instructions traveling parallel with the street we were actually supposed to be on...we needed to get on the Key Bridge to get over to the Interstate but we kept running into dead ends...literally. It was a bit humorous. Eventually, we got on the right highway and 30 minutes later we found the museum.
We're back in the hotel now, resting. We'll head out to dinner in a few minutes. Part of the group is downtown so the day has been a "do your own thing" type of day for everyone. I was supposed to go to a meeting tonight regarding our assigned task of parking on Sunday but I wasn't back from the museum yet and besides we decided that if we helped with parking we wouldn't get to have the experience of the ride, and since the majority of our group are first-timers, that just wouldn't do. The Chapter 2 President said he would get some extra parking stickers for us...very nice of him.
The plan is to meet Chapter 2...and 2 of our guys...at their hotel in Crystal City at 6:30am and then head down to the Pentagon together. It's going to be a long day since the actual ride doesn't start until 12:00.
If anything exciting happens tonight, I'll add a part 2 to Day 6. Otherwise, my next post will be after the ride. I'll try to take a lot of pictures. My guess is that the procession will be moving so slowly that I'll have plenty of opportunities to snap a picture.
After breakfast we all decided to head over to one of the local Harley-Davidson dealerships in the area...they put on an all-day party with food and vendors of all sorts. My roommate had to return to the dealership we visited yesterday so they could work on his bike with spare parts one of the tech guys was bringing from home. Apparently it worked because it was fixed in a couple of hours. I haven't seen him since about 9:30am when he needed a push in the parking lot so he could pop the clutch and get it started.
Back to the HD dealership. With our Road Captain off getting his bike fixed, I inherited the leadership role...along with my GPS...and that started an interesting morning. As I began the ride to the dealership, one of the guys rode up beside me and said he needed gas so I immediately ignored my GPS and turned the opposite direction to find a gas station...bad idea. That turn turned into an hour long detour taking us through some beautiful neighborhoods along one of the rivers...pretty sure it was the Potomac. We drove north along the river for about 10 miles...past Regan National...into Washington. At one point...when I finally found a nice pullout...we stopped to compare GPS's and to find the closest gas station. Two or three of the GPS's...I think just about everyone has one now as they bought out the local Wal-Mart on a sale of Garmins...agreed that the closest station was .58 miles away. The only problem was that was a direct line due east across the river. Once we plugged the station into the GPS and got a route, it was more like 2.5 miles...once again through interesting neighborhoods on the outskirts of downtown DC.
The station we stopped at actually still had full service pumps and did car repairs. Now, when was the last time you saw that? The lady at the cash register said it was because there were so many elderly people living in the area that it was about the only way they could get gas.
We fueled up and headed to the dealership. After driving at least 20 miles...the original distance from the hotel was 7.7 miles...we arrived to find a real zoo. There were motorcycles parked everywhere...must have been 10,000...and that's not an exaggeration in the least. I suggested that we agree on a time to meet back at the motorcycles if we got separated...which we did almost immediately. We agreed on 1:00pm and that worked out pretty well.
I got a call from our friend who had to go to get repairs about 12:00. I gave him directions to the dealership but 30 minutes later I got another call. He had missed the turn somehow...it's hard to miss because it would have been the one where all the other motorcycles were turning. Anyway, I stopped a police officer and asked her if my directions to him had been accurate and she said they had been. I told my friend to turn around, go back towards the hotel for about 7 miles or so and then stop at a gas station to ask directions.
The husband and wife traveling with us wanted to go out to Dulles International and see the relatively new addition to the Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum...and so did I...and we didn't want to wait for the guy to show up. We finally got someone to wait for him so the couple and I took off...once again using my GPS.
Let me tell you something...GPS's do not like navigating in Washington DC...that's a fact. It appeared to be about 35 miles away...sort of back the way we had come in yesterday...but the actual route my GPS took us was in no way similar to the route we took coming in. However, it was a nice drive. We saw the Washington Monument and the Mall...again...Georgetown, the Kennedy Center...for about the 4th time...and several other interesting spots. At one point...following the GPS's instructions traveling parallel with the street we were actually supposed to be on...we needed to get on the Key Bridge to get over to the Interstate but we kept running into dead ends...literally. It was a bit humorous. Eventually, we got on the right highway and 30 minutes later we found the museum.
We're back in the hotel now, resting. We'll head out to dinner in a few minutes. Part of the group is downtown so the day has been a "do your own thing" type of day for everyone. I was supposed to go to a meeting tonight regarding our assigned task of parking on Sunday but I wasn't back from the museum yet and besides we decided that if we helped with parking we wouldn't get to have the experience of the ride, and since the majority of our group are first-timers, that just wouldn't do. The Chapter 2 President said he would get some extra parking stickers for us...very nice of him.
The plan is to meet Chapter 2...and 2 of our guys...at their hotel in Crystal City at 6:30am and then head down to the Pentagon together. It's going to be a long day since the actual ride doesn't start until 12:00.
If anything exciting happens tonight, I'll add a part 2 to Day 6. Otherwise, my next post will be after the ride. I'll try to take a lot of pictures. My guess is that the procession will be moving so slowly that I'll have plenty of opportunities to snap a picture.
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