I JUST WANT 2 RIDE!!

In August we attended the Wild and Wonderful Harly Owners Group (HOG) regional rally centered in Charleston, West Virginia. If this was your first HOG rally, I am afraid it may have been your last as well.  If it was not your first it was disappointing when compared to other HOG rallies.

Now do not get me wrong, the rides, the main reason you go to one of these events, were great.  The guides, on the guided rides, were good and made changes on the fly to adjust to the group. 

We participated in in 3 of the guided rides:

           Black Mountain/Dragon Slayer – A 10-hour day and I loved it 90% ride.  That 10% of nearly hate was when we got behind a DOT road painting crew on the down slope side of the mountain. We really missed out on some very twisty mountain roads fun. 

           About halfway though, we stopped in Lynch, KY at the Dragon Slayer shop. The shop, with very friendly staff, has some neat souvenirs, a few of which we purchased.  

           Butcher Hollow Ride – Another day long but enjoyable ride. The destination for this ride was the childhood home of county singer Loretta Lynn, the coal miner’s daughter. 

           The visit to her home was very interesting, reminded both my wife and I of where we grew up. 

           Interesting side note: Loretta Lynn was big into motorcycling.  So much so that when she made it big and bought her big money home, she bought enough land to create a motorcross racing facility.  To this day amateur racers still compete at the “Loretta Lynn Amateur Championship.  ALSO…. She is in the AMA Motorcycling Hall of Fame!

           Moonshine Ride – This ride was only a high day.  Hitting the back roads is goal was to visit the Appalachian Distillery and the Hatfield Family Distillery. As a guy that enjoys a good ‘Shine, commercial or not, I was pleased with both our destinations.

           Interesting side note:  The Hatfield Family Distillery is run by a descendant of “Devil Anse” Hatfield and uses the family recipe going back to the time of the “Hatfield’s and McCoy” feud. 

So, what was my problems with the rally?

 I did not feel it was well organized. I never felt like I was at a rally, based on my previous HOG experiences. Why:

           There was no central location/HQ for the event.

           The opening night was on Brewer’s Row, you chose which Brewery to visit. No opening ceremony.

           With one exception, there was no solid nightly get togethers.

           The nearest dealership did not really have much going on, beyond demo’s, to lure us in. We visited twice, once it was closed and the other, we were in and out in 15 minutes.

           The claim was that there were over 1000 bikes at the event and I have no reason to push back.  But, I never got a feeling that there were more than a few hundred at most.

It was a motorcycle rally that just did not feel like a rally.

If this was your first HOG rally, please do not judge, most are a lot more fun.