This year Debbie and I decided to try out the national Harley Davidson HOG Rolling Rally. It has been occurring for the last seven years and this year it is close to home. The theme for this year is “History in the Hills”.
The start of the rally is Gettysburg, PA and it end a week later in Oak Ridge, TN. In between there will be the chance to stop at numerous points to fulfill the title of “History in the Hills”.
Today was the rally registration sign in, a trip to a special event at the Seminary Ridge Museum and the kickoff diner. Our sign in point was Battlefield Harley Davison. It was well organized and took us know time to get signed in, collect our kit of items and talk with some of the folks who are participating in the ride.
I do have something negative to say about Battlefield HD. When have been here several times over the years and have always found the folks polite and friendly, willing to go give a hand. Today that promise of the past did not hold course. I had forgotten to check the preload on my motorcycles rear shocks and could use a pound or two of additional air to get a better ride. In the trip from the house to Gettysburg I realized that I needed the additional air and thought I would be able to borrow a pump to add the additional pressure. NOPE, the service representative said that someone had “borrowed” their pump in the past and did not bring it back thus they did not have a pump for me to use. Hummm, a complete service center did not have a pump to add air to a motorcycle shock.
After that we road over to our hotel to check-in. NOPE, the room is not read, come back after 3PM. Oh and do not park your motorcycle in front of the hotel. We reminded not to park out front at least 3 times. OK Country Inns and Suites of Gettysburg, I get it you don’t want us to park out front.
So onto Seminary Ridge and the museum. We have been to Gettysburg many times and have never been to this museum and plan to take the full tour on day two. Today the HOG folks (the tour is run my RUSH LLC) had arraigned a special presentation for the group. We were broke in 4 groups of about 40-50 people and had a round robin education on Civil War soldiers backgrounds and the 1st day of the battle, ambulance wagons, the Seminary itself and a demonstration of how Civil War soldiers formed and marched. It was quite nice.
After the presentation were over we rolled over to the Pike Restaurant for the welcome dinner. The food was good and the folks we shared our table with were awesome. We had two highlights during the dinner, I was chosen (because I pulled a small prank) to be the first to wear the “HAT”. The hat is the stereotypical “hillbilly” had from the comics and shows like “Hew Haw”. I was told that last year the hat was a lobster, so at least I do not have to wear seafood. I get to pass the hat on to someone else tomorrow….. Let’s see who that will be.
The other highlight was that we won a $25 Harley Davison gift certificate. All said we have had a great day and are looking forward to tomorrow’s events.
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- 27 States are represented at the rally.
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- This tree was present for the battle!
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- One of the presentations at the museum.
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- The kickoff dinner
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- The hat “o’ Fun”? I get to give it to someone new tonight!
I JUST WANT 2 RIDE!! 