At the fishing lodge cabins in Van Buren, MO, getting ready to head out.
Check out this great shot Brenda took of the bikes heading out in the fog. And pointing backwards no less...
We broke off from our KS group at Carthage, MO as we wanted to make a couple of stops and didn't want to hold everybody else up.
Of course, we had to have our "The End" shot...
And away they went, into the sunset. Ok, it wasn't quite sunset yet, and they were heading North at this point, but you get the idea. We spent the night in Andover on 8/25, and finally made it home the next day.
We got our coins in the mail a few days later:
And that's pretty much it for this year's Legacy Run. It was a great time again, and we look forward to Milwaukee in 2010. Only 11 months to go!
Rule #1 for today: Repeat after me. We are not having another party tonight. We are not having another party tonight.
Today is the Legion Parade in downtown Louisville. While we were out cleaning up the bikes, Brenda decided that we should actually do some type of sightseeing activity since we were in a place we hadn't ever been. So we decided to go across the river to the LST 325, the last operational LST (Landing Ship-Tank) remaining from WWII. She took part in the Normandy invasion.
The Legion Parade was a bit of a letdown, as it was utter chaos getting there and we were, um, less than uniform in our riding formation. More like a herd of, well, hogs. On top of that, there was no ceremony afterwards where we were presented with our "full route" coins by the Commander. I guess we were spoiled last year. I hear they'll be mailed to us.
So we got back to the hotel, and decided we wanted to go for steak, rather than have a party. (See Rule #1 above.) We asked the bartender at the hotel bar where a good, close steakhouse was. She gave us a list and recommended a place called Z's Steakhouse and Oyster Bar. Sounds good, right? We call the hotel front desk and arrange for a shuttle to take us over, so we don't have to worry about riding. We get there, walk in, and...uh oh. Nice place. REALLLY Nice Place. The hostess is in a white formal dress. No one else in the place is wearing jeans, let alone leathers. We go ahead and sit down, and take a look at the menu. Uh oh. The cheapest steak is $32.95. They have a Porterhouse for $60.95. Creamed Corn for $6.95. (It MUST have been really good, right?) After some discussion, we decided that wasn't the place for us and...left. I got out the gps that I had stuck in my vest and dialed up "Restaurants". Great, there's a Lone Star just 0.3 miles away.
Remember the "rain riding" exercise in the pool in Phoenix last year? Well, we decided that we needed more practice in keeping intervals this year, so... So we head out - round the corner, we can see the place...and...it's...closed. Great. Wait, is that a Chili's across the very busy arterial street? Yup. Is it open? Check. Fantastic, let's head over there. Great food, great service, and it didn't cost $600. We finish dinner, and call the hotel for the shuttle back. Um, he's at the airport - it'll be 30 minutes. Ok, let's head to the parking lot and wait. Sure enough, 30 minutes later the driver and van show up. (He agreed that $32.95 for a steak ala carte' was ridiculous.) The rest of the evening was spent getting things packed for the trip home, and no party. Whew!
Ok, ok, ok. So much for staying up on the blog. Mea Culpa.
So, Day 5 was a chance to sleep in (especially after the Kansas Party I), rest a bit, and have a little more leisurely day. After goofing around way too long, we went to the convention center and attended the annual Legion Riders national meeting.
We presented the $200 we collected at the Kansas Party I. (We told everyone we were recouping expenses for throwing the party, when in actuality we were extracting more $ from them for the Legacy Fund. Insert evil laugh here.)
Then it was off to Joe's Crab Shack on the river. Aren't the bibs cute?
Then Brenda had the bright idea to go for a ride in a horse drawn carriage. Of course, Brenda rode up front with the driver and his dog, while the six of us had to cram in the back. You can't say we're not a close bunch.
After that, we headed back to the hotel. We decided that since we still had some barley pop left, we should have another little gathering at the hotel. Of course, we were out of certain other liquid components, so we had to make another stop at the Liquor Barn. They had cigars too, so I was able to get some Excaliburs too (my new favorite cigar, thanks to Jeff).
We did NOT buy this:
Back to the hotel, where we found out the hotel was letting us use one of their meeting rooms for free, and Bob was getting his sound system set up again.
What's more, we had an overhead door that opened up on the parking lot, so we could have a indoor/outdoor party.
So the Kansas Party II was on, and it was bigger and better than the first night.
Today was much shorter in terms of miles, but we had the usual stress of getting through a major city at rush hour. Other than one bike getting dropped - while stopped on the on the interstate no less, there were no incidents. We got into the Holiday Inn Hurstborne, and after getting settled into our rooms, set about making the preparations for the 2nd annual pool party. This year, we had a tremendous amount of help and support. Bob Couch brought his sound system and DJ'ed for us, and the staff of the Holiday Inn was great, especially Ron the maintenance guy. (He can also sing karaoke pretty well.) Bob always closes the night with the playing of taps and then Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA", and everyone stands in a circle and holds hands. Not a dry eye in the house.
Starting out in the rain...
Kentucky!
Looking back along the road somewhere in KY...
At a gas stop...
The parking lot at post 201 in Louisville - with 251 bikes...
Group J - Dennis McDonough from Mulvane was Road Captain, T from Wichita was ARC, and yours truly was the Tailgunner.
Here is the Kansas delegation presenting over $46,000 to National Commander Rehbein.
Sooner or later, you've gotta do some laundry...
Back to the hotel to host the Kansas party...
Even Elvis showed up!
A good time was had by all. Tomorrow night I'll post more pics from the ALR meeting on Saturday, Sunday's parade and our visit to the last operational WWII LST.
Had a good ride from Charleston - a little rain to start the day, but it ended quickly and the rest of the ride was great. Arrived at Post 253 in Louisville with 251 motorcycles. For some reason I'm having trouble getting pictures to post - will look at that later. Today is the ALR meeting at the convention center. and some sightseeing.
We had a great day Wednesday - the Flight 93 memorial being the high point of course. Today was a mixture of interstate and the kind of curvy, twisty, two lane that I and many others on the ride enjoy. We were treated to a fantastic breakfast at Post 53 in Front Royal, then Lynchburg Post 16 treated us to lunch at Glen Maury Park in VA. We then headed for Charleston via US 60. Had a great ride through the mtns, and after the usual stressful ide though town, got to the hotel about 6pm.
Early Thursday morning - Group J is ready to ride!
On the road...
That'll have to do it for today...see you tomorrow!
The Bad - from Dayton to Columbus Ohio. Thought we were going to see someone go down more than once, but by the grace of God we got through it. The Ugly - Any of us after all day in the eastern humidity. The Good - The people of eastern Ohio and West Virginia that lined the overpasses on the interstate and the streets of Wheeling as we came in. Truly awesome and it made the trials of he day all worth it in spades.
Not much typing tonight - it was a long day and we have another long day tomorrow.
From early this morning: Just some of the people that were waiting on the overpasses:
We got through the rider training with hardly a scratch. Denny had a little issue, but I'll let him tell the story. Nothing too tough, just a quick stop exercise from 20 mph, a swerve exercise, and practicing picking up a dropped bike. Had the main rider's meeting at Post 64, with Uncle Dick and National Commander Rehbein addressing the troops. Both were very good, and reminded everyone of what we're here for. Commander Rehbein will be riding with us for the first two days, on one of the trikes.
Our KS group is planning to stage at 0430 and leave the hotel at 0500, so this will be short. Tomorrow will be a long day - our last gas stop is at 1830 hours, so we won't be in the hotel in Wheeling WV until after that.
The registration table. Exciting, yes?
At the post before heading to the rider training grounds. Dave looks positively giddy, doesn't he?
The bikes and the training grounds in the background.
After the training. T and Denny are plum tuckered out.
The group assignments! Where am I?
Back at the post before heading out to find a better mic for my CB. And when I say "find", I mean go on a wild goose chase. What I have will just have to do.
That's it for today. Tomorrow the run starts! Wheeling, here we come!
We're here, and we're finally in our rooms. No, seriously, we were beginning to wonder. The day started out great - got out of Greenville pretty close to our intended time, had a great ride through the Illinois countryside under bright clear skies,and arrived at the hotel right at 1pm. We figured hey, we're here really early, but surely they'll have our rooms ready so we can get our stuff in the rooms and unpacked, then we'll head over to the Legion post.
No. Rooms weren't ready. Ok, when with they be ready? Don't know, said the one person they had at the counter. (One person at the counter, and hundreds of bikers are about to descend on the place?) Ok, well...let's head next door to the restaurant, get a beer and have some lunch. At 2:00 we decided to call and see if the rooms are ready. Nope. Ok, when do you suppose thy might be ready? Oh, maybe 15 minutes. Ok, we'll call back. Had another beer. Called back 20 minutes later. Are the rooms ready? Nope. No, wait. Two of the rooms are ready. (Not OUR room, mind you, but what the heck. Some of us are going to get into a room.) How long till our room is ready? 15 minutes. (See a pattern developing here?) Housekeeping is in that area. Ok, great. We'll just walk on over. Since Dave's room is close to ours, we'll just stash our stuff in his room so we can go to the post. Things are looking up. Did I mention that when I made the hotel reservations - in February - that I made all of them at once so that we would have our rooms close together? That worked out well.
Got to Dave's room, and the door is open. Not a good sign. We peer in, because we're not sure what we'll see. Not much, over than an unmade room. Turns out Denny and T's room wasn't ready either. The housekeeper (bless her heart) comes scurrying in trying to get the room made up. Turns out they had three housekeepers for the whole hotel. So, we stand around in the hall trying to stay out of the way while she finishes the room. As she finished I asked if she could move to the room that's supposed to be ours? No problem. So I go back to the front desk, get the keys, and before you know it, we're in our room. At 3:30. No problem, got to expect little snags along the way, right?
So we clean up a little bit and head over to Wayne Post 64, the headquarters post for the Legacy Run.
Exchanged post tags, which they made a really big deal out of. Had the Post Commander, the SAL Commander, and the Riders Director all come over to get our pictures taken. They happened to be having a big celebration of the Post's 50th birthday with lots of people, food, music, etc.
Had a meeting with the Road Captains (RCs), Assistant RCs, and Tailgunners (TGs). Turns out tomorrow we'll undergo advanced rider training with the Indianapolis ABATE chapter. Cool. Significant chance of dropping the bike in front of a couple dozen very experienced riders. No problem, I've done that before.
We finish the meeting, get some forms to fill out and a very cool ALLR Tailgunner sign to put on the windshield.
Headed back to the hotel to walk next door for dinner. Lunch was great, and since it's right next to the hotel, it'll be convenient in case someone has a little too much to drink. Bad choice. Dinner was terrible, and the service wasn't much better, although our server seemed to think he was great. T picked up dinner, but I felt like they should have discounted it a lot more than they did. Oh well.
All in all a good day with a few minor aggravations. Stuff to talk about later, I guess.
Here's a few more pics: Lined up and looking pretty in front of the hotel in Greenville.
On the road - look at that nice tight formation!
Here's a little video from the ride today. It's bumpy, and the sound stinks, but you get the idea.
That's about it for today. Tomorrow we have the previously mentioned rider training, and the rally at the Post. Check back tomorrow night for more.
Yes, Ilinois. 595 miles. Dave is a harsh taskmaster. But the bright side is that we'll have only 200 miles tomorrow. Since we have to be at Post 64 in Indy for meetings at 3:00 Eastern, it's a good thing. Getting ready to leave from the house at 7:45am.
Several members of Post 180 escorted us to McPherson where we met up with Dave Schoonover from Hutchinson. (pictured below).
The mode of operation for the day was: 1-Ride. 2-Stop for Gas. 3-Repeat.
Missouri!
Illinois!
On the road in Illinois...
Greenville! It was a good first day. Temps got to 95 in St Louis, but otherwise stayed under 90. Traffic was heavy but not bad.
I have an observation: Riders in Missouri and Illinois wave more than KS riders.
