Posts Tagged ‘motorcycle riding in pennsylvania’

Harley Owners Group Rolling Rally: History in the Hills Day 3

Posted: June 20, 2016 in custom motorcycle, Motorcycle, Motorcycle Rides, motorcycle touring, Rally, Uncategorized
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larDay three actually started at dinner because I was able to pass on the crazy hillbilly hat.  It was an ambush style pass off and was a lot of fun for everyone around, except Larry, Larry was not very happy.

ijustwant2ride.comThe next day started with an early 5:30 morning rise with the intent to be on the road by 6:45.  The reason for the early rise is that the Emmitsburg, Md Fire Department (Vigilant Hose Company) was providing the ride with a pancake breakfast.  This Fire Department started in 1757 and it was an honor to be associated with them!

ijustwant2ride.comAfter the breakfast stop we rode about a mile or so to the National Firefighters Memorial. The memorial was quite sobering. The names of all the firefighters killed on duty are engraved on pavers and there is a special section dedicated to NYFD killed on duty including those killed during 9/11.  The oldest documented casualty that I noticed was from the late 1700’s.

From there we were to ride to Groves Harley Davidson in Winchester, VA for lunch.  But, Debbie and I had a slight change of plans, we ran by our home to drop off dirty clothes and pack some clean clothes.  This was one of the benefits of a ride that is less than 20 minutes from your home. Groves had BBQ ready for us when we arrived and boy was it good.

From there we rode to the Luray Caverns.  Even though it is not far from home we had never been there before.  The cave tour came with a free pass to their car museum we had a good time.  The 54 degree cave was a pleasant break from the 85 degree temps outside.  If you decided to try the caverns please note that it is 1.2 mile trek with about a 160 foot elevation change….if you go down you got to come back up 🙂

Leaving Luray we traveled up a mountain with a lot of great twists and turns. Dropping down the other side we were just a few miles from our hotel, a shower and dinner.  It was another good day of travel, sites and riding!

Harley Owners Group Rolling Rally: History in the Hills Day 2

Posted: June 18, 2016 in Motorcycle Rides, motorcycle touring, Rally, Uncategorized
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Day 2 started with breakfast in the Hotel (Gettysburg Country Inn and Suites).  The eggs were……weird, all uniformly round and the same thickness. It was if they had come out of one of those automatic pancake machines.  The taste???…well with the three scopes of salsa I applied they were barley ok (Debbie did not like them at all). 

Our ride around the Gettysburg area started with a trip to the Jennie Wade house. ijustwant2ride.com Jennie was the only civilian who was killed during the battle.  She was shot dead while baking bread for the Union soldiers encamped around the home.  It was a stray shot that went through two doors and killed her instantly.  Her story was quite inspiring during and after the war, I highly recommend you take a few minutes to check it out.  

After our docent led tour of the Jennie Wade house we rode back to the Seminary Ridge Museum.  We did not get a chance to see the entire museum on day one and wanted to finish the tour.  There was a lot of neat history on display. 

Debbie wanted to have taco pizza for lunch but the local Pizza Hut does not make that kind of pizza so she was quite disappointed.  Subway was her second choice so that is where we went. 

ijustwant2ride.comAfter lunch we rolled out to Mr. Ed’s Elephant Museum.  If there is an elephant toy, figurine, picture, painting of any size it is likely in Mr. Ed’s collection.  In addition to the elephant museum, Mr. Ed’s is also a candy store with a large selection of old school and newer candy as well as homemade fudge. 

From Mr. Ed’s we decided to ride to Jack’s Mountain Bridge. It is your typically ijustwant2ride.comstandard covered bridge but, the ride up and over the mountain was a lot of fun.  Nice cruiser style riding with sweeping turns and quick elevation changes.  It was short but a lot of fun, we rode it twice! Make sure to check out the video of our ride over Jack’s Mountain.  

Oh and I got a lot of comments about my hat from day one.  I was able to come up with a selection of statements for anyone that mentioned the hat (all in good fun), such as: 

Be careful or I will let the flying monkeys loose!

I have my eye out for my replacement.

I am a big believer in equal rights, there is a good chance a women will get the hat!

Whomever gets the hat next will have a hard time looking this good!

The highlight of the evening was being able to get rid of the hat! 

 

To see what happened on day one check out that post!

Harley Owners Group Rolling Rally: History in the Hills Day 1

Posted: June 18, 2016 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle Rides, motorcycle touring
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Ijustwant2ride.com

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.