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Published: October 8th 2008
Midway Best Western
Home for the next few days.This set of blogs is another Group Vacation. Our 2008 trip was from KC up and around Lake Superior into Canada and then a slight detour to Milwaukee for a few days for the 25th and 105th celebrations for HOG and Harley Davidson. The blogs are broken into sections, each being a day in the trip. The first blog of this trip is here
08 Group Vacation Day 1 - to Iowa THURSDAY - 28 AUG 08
Before I really get into the days adventure I have to say that Milwaukee is great. Everywhere there are welcome signs, cars are really being great with all the bikes around and everywhere there is free parking for motorcycles. Even no parking zones have special signs up for Motorcycle parking. Everyone is helpful and friendly. Milwaukee is the best yet for a location, it beats Chattanooga all to hell. MoCo has a special phone number to call if you break down they are paying for all transportation to the repair shop. But I have not seen any broke bikes so either they are getting them pretty quick or just no problems yet. The only problem is thing are all over the city. Miles apart from one another. So there
Hals HD
Man this Dealer had a ton of vendors. T-shirts were cheap, funny everyone has the same designs and about the same price. There are as many vendors located behind me as what is pictured here. are 5 or 6 major areas of activity and they are close to each other. Maybe if they could bring it all together. I heard there are 75K motorcycles here. I know I have had my fill of loud pipes already.
Day 1 of 3 - Actually today isn’t the 105th but the 25th. Today is the HOG (Harley Owners Group) 25th birthday celebration. The HOG festivities were down at Miller park. But first our group was going to the dealer that is down the street from our hotel. We were slow starting this morning though, our bathroom was all clogged up. Looked like the toilet was backing up into the bathtub. Kind of gross you know. We had to wait for another room so showers could be had. We are now in yet another room, we figure it is some VIP floor. You have to use the room key to get the elevator to this floor. There is a TV in the bathroom, just like home. J
We were over an hour late leaving this morning because of the bathtub thing then seemed I was running late the rest of the morning. The plan was to meet
The Juneau Factory Picture Ops
This is a replica of the shed that Harley Davidson Motor Co started in. It is on the corner and they have anyone that wants to run down the sidewalk for this op up at the Hal’s HD dealer and go through all the vendor booths there. Marcia and Melanie are into the dealer charms so we try to hit as many dealers as we can. Hal’s has a great selection of venders. In many ways this was actually the best location of the whole 105th. We all separated at the dealership then leaving we were separated again when we were getting out of the dealer. I wanted to stop and get some pain killer, my knee had been hurting. I waited at the Walgreens to see if any other showed up there then headed down to the HOG party and Miller Arena. I tried 3 times to get in but the traffic just wasn’t worth it. All 3 times I was sitting on the highway with 100s of other Harley’s cooking in the heat, thinking why am I doing this?? All 3 times I decided to go find something else to do. .
The rest of the group did make it into Miller Park and were stuck there for the rest of the day. I found out I didn’t really miss anything. The dealer had better vendors and it was hot,
Cutaway motor
Many of the displays at Harley University were really interesting. hot on that asphalt all day. Kid Rock was playing the concert tonight. I didn’t go to that either. Prices were out sight as they were paying $5 for a hotdog.
The advantage of the HOG thing being in one spot and all day long is that the other areas were not nearly as busy as they will be the next 2 days. So I thought I would just mosey to those areas and see what is to be seen. First time I quit the HOG line I decided to head to the Juneau HD offices. They were offering souvenir pictures and tours of the HD University. I found it and yes there were 2 photo opportunities. One in front of the big logo with the water tower in the background, I asked the guy to take 2, one as an ABC photo and one without the magazine just Effie and I. While I was getting the bike ready for the picture the guy behind me asked if I was the one that won the ABCs a couple years ago. Unreal. The next photo stop was at a replica of the original shed that HD started in. There they
Buell Lab
Another Lab at Harley University were offering to take pictures and download them on a 1Gig jump drive for $5. I figured the jump drive was worth that so I went for it. The guy took a couple good pics. To get to these ops we were guided on the sidewalk. It was kind of funny seeing the bikes all parked along the sidewalk. I followed the photo ops with the self guided tour of HD University. It was very interesting. We followed a route through all the classrooms of the university. This is the school that the HD mechanics come to learn the latest. All the bays were filled with bikes. There was a performance lab, a dyno room, a Buell lab, an engine classroom, lots of motors with cutaway walls so the internal workings could be seen. I took lots of pictures and had a fine time.
The next time I decided to head down to the Woman’s Pavilion at the Main Street celebration at Veterans Park. They promised a free gift as long as supplies last. Scored some sunscreen lip balm they also offered Henna tattoos and stickers but also at the Black Pavilion which was giving away hats. The vendors
Boat Anchor Lab
Again at Harley U were okay, I signed up to commit to safe riding at the Miller tent. Harley had a big tent there and HUGE 105th birthday card, requesting everyone sign it, today being the day before the birthday party was supposed to start for the 105th, I was surprised to see the card almost full.
After checking out the Main Street booths and venders I decided to move on down the beach and headed to Discovery World and the HD Exhibit. This was the only time that I got any good out of the 105th ticket that I purchased for $60. the exhibit was awesome, my friend Roger Donley would have liked it. It reminded me of his work. The exhibit was just mock ups of new model Harleys that had either just been released or were going to be released. One was the Vrod Muscle bike, that was awesome. Another bike was the XR1200 that is the Sportster crotch rocket that HD is selling in Europe. It was interesting to see the clay mock up parts on the older model version. The XR1200 mock up was a little different than the finished bike. As you exited the exhibit the production
The XR 1200 Prototype
this one is a mock up. Not a working model, it is used ot show the styling changes. versions of the bikes were on display. Very interesting exhibit.
I was hot, hungry and thirsty. The HD exhibit was in huge tent that had been set up along side the Discovery World building so I headed into the building and found a water fountain. Refilling my Camelback with that cold water at the fountain saved me about $30 in bottled water for the day. I learned later that by this time at the HOG party, all the food venders were out of food and people were waiting in 2.5 hour lines for a beer or bottle of water. Glad I missed it. Hunger issue was next there was a small sandwich shop in the museum and I went in. They had simple ham and turkey sandwiches for $6 so I got a turkey and swiss, going for a coke I found they were $3 for 20 oz fountain drink so I passed. The museum had a glass hallway/café area that joins 2 buildings of the museum. The hallway had great views of Lake Michigan and the ducks that were swimming there. I took up an empty table, got my postcards out and the sandwich and enjoyed an hour
The XR 1200 Production Unit
Harley's answer for the crotch rocket crowd. Its only available in Europe. But it was one of the exhibits in Discovery World's HD exhibit. or more of sitting, relaxing, watching the ducks, watching the people and this wave machine thing, while eating my sandwich, drinking my water and filling out my postcards. It was nice to be in the air conditioning.
During my rest break I get a call from Marcia telling me their plans and letting me know when we were going to meet up. The plan had been to do our laundry Thursday evening so we did not need to worry about it again for the rest of the trip. We had already packed our dirty laundry and had been carrying it with us all day. The previous evening I had used the internet to find the address of a 24 hour coin laundry on Bluemound Ave. We found the coin laundry fine and next door there was a George Webb. George Webb is best described as a more upscale Waffle House. Only slightly more upscale, but it was also a 24 hour café. The staff there were so nice. We really had a great chat and they were way more that just accommodating. They even sautéed the onions for my cheeseburger. After laundry we headed back to the hotel where
The Muscle
The newly styled V-Rod was also an exhibit at Discovery World we made plans to go to the Harley Capital Drive factory on Friday, first thing in the morning to beat the crowd.
Here are links to all the blogs for this trip:
1.
08 Group Vacation Day 1 - to Iowa 2.
08 Group Vacation Day 2 - John Wayne, Albert the Bull and Freedom Rock 3.
08 Group Vacation Day 3 - Buddy Holly, SPAM and the Joint 4.
08 Group Vacation Day 4 - Aerostitch and Canada 5.
08 Group Vacation Day 5 - Canada and Mackinac Bridge 6.
08 Group Vacation Day 6 - Yoppers, Pasties and outa gas John 7.
08 Group Vacation Day 7 - HOG 25th are you kidding me?? 8.
08 Group Vacation Day 8 - Vinnie and Cody from American Chopper 9.
08 Group Vacation Day 9 - Last day of the 105th Anniversary Party 10.
08 Group Vacation Day 10 - Heading Home 11.
08 Group Vacation Day 11 - Snake Alley, Worldest Largest Pecan
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