Hi!
Oh oh oh! My feet hurt at the end of the afternoon. I felt like I could hardly walk! But don't you feel sorry for me. If you read the rest of this, you'll see I paid a small price!
Where did we go?
We went to a huge H-D dealership! I was amazed! Big as a warehouse at a port! I think it had two stories (floors) but we never got to the second. The salesroom on the first floor had what I first thought were a hundred Harley-Davidson motorcycles, but when I tried to count them, I revised the number down to fifty or so. There was an enormous (to me) waiting room for customers and passengers. The waiting room had plush chairs, and tables of motorcycling magazines and Harley-Davidson propaganda. And a window through which you could watch the mechanics work!
Fun? I reckon! We went to another huge H-D dealer, Hal's, with another street fair going on. Someone cleaned Lindy's glasses so neither dirt, dust, nor sweat could affect them. People were building saddles customized for H-D rider's butts & bikes. A lady was taking orders for tailored vests, jackets, chaps, & halters. You could get prescription goggles. You could pick almost any kind of ready-made leathers. There were custom wheels & special tires & I don't remember what all, and that was outside the dealership!
Inside was a huge shop so clean that you'd be hard pressed to believe the mechanics worked with grease & oil & gasoline! The workbenches looked frighteningly tidy. In the showroom, 50 or so H-Ds waited for you to fall in love with one or more of them. Maybe a kazillion leather clothes items lured you, as did a gazillion cloth clothes items & a merzillion mementos, gadgets, & oh yes, parts.
Then we went to a factory where H-D assembles engines. On my! If you appreciate tooling, or automation, or good workmanship, take that tour of the Capitol facility! My my my! We walked & stood & walked again for an hour or more, and I grinned damn near as much as while riding!
One of the things I liked best about the factory was how many women worked there.
At those two locations, we saw H-D T-shirts from Capetown (South Africa), the Rhine Valley, Japan, the best little Harley house in Georgia, 100s of WI H-D dealers, WA, SD, SC, FL, & probably others.
What did I love today? Everywhere we went today we saw oceans of H-Ds & H-D riders, men & women. Milwaukee really organized itself to support this event. Special lanes were set aside for H-Ds. Cops were friendly or at least not hostile. Truck drivers accommodated H-D riders. It was wonderful!
What did I love 2nd most? The clothes! Especially those worn by H-D riders & tneir passengers.
One outfit baffled me. A lady wore a leather halter, a do-rag (kinda like a bandanna), and a long skirt. I could have sworn she was a rider or a passenger, but how do you ride in an ankle-length skirt? It *did* have snaps along one side from its hem up to about her hip, but still! How does one ride with all that?
So what I loved second most was all the self-expression in the clothes of the H-D riders & their passengers.
What did I love most? what I loved most was all the self-expression in the hair & beards of the H-D riders & their passengers.
Wow! What a marvelous day!
Intrusion from 2024
Here are links to the other pages from 2003 or thereabouts.
Pieces of The Trip:
- The Trip
- Reverie - The Trip
Please proceed.