Run To The SHED - September 2006

10 days - almost 3000 miles - LOTS of Memories

Day One

The Woodlands to Pine Bluff, AR

We started with 17 folks on 10 bikes

Getting ready...

Headin' out...

Arriving at our hotel in Pine Bluff

Day Two

Pine Bluff to St. Louis, MO

On The Road Again...

Lunch Stop at Lambert's in Sikeston, MO

No more photos for this day - we had lots of rain and/or rain-soaked highways - didn't want to get the camera soaked.

Day Three

St. Louis to Milwaukee, WI

The group opts to take time out in Springfield, IL at Abraham Lincoln's home and poses on the back porch following an awesome tour...

In the Lincoln Museum...

The tour begins on the streets outside the house...

Our tour guide...

In the parlor..

and the entry...

and the family room

the doorbell

Abraham Lincoln really did sleep here...

and Mary could sleep in her own room, if she liked

the kids room

the maid's room

the kitchen...

Great looking Mercedes in the parking lot...

Passing the State Fair grounds...

We made a fuel and lunch stop. FIVE Illinois State Troopers on their Harleys came riding in. Three of them set up these shots. They all said they wished they were going with us...

Arriving in Mikwaukee, WI... at the House of Harley dealership

And a great dinner at The Prime Quarter - where every participant in the ride was given a HOG beret to wear to surprise Willy G. You cooked your own steak. It was awesome!

Day Four

In Milwaukee, WI

We arrive for a tour of the Capitol Drive Powertrain Plant

No camera were allowed on the tour... but, you could take photos in the entry area on some of the bikes....

After lunch, we got a tour of the Miller Brewing Company....

500,000 cases PER DAY are shipped...

In the caves where they used to store the brew...

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in at another dealership

That evening, we got to have dinner with Jim McCaslin, President & Chief Operating Officer of Harley-Davidson, along with five of the seven HOG Regional Managers.

Skip and Cindy pose with "Jim" - as he insisted on being called. Very nice, down-to-earth, guy.

Day Five

In Milwaukee, WI

We got to meet Willie G. Davidson. He cracked up when he came walking up and saw everyone with their berets on. He said, "Nice hats!"

Willie G. autographs our Chapter HOG flag

Willie G. is made an Honorary Member of The Woodlands HOG and is presented with a Chapter T-Shirt signed by everyone and a plaque from Neil.

From the photo op, we travelled to Franklin, WI and toured the Parts & Accessories Distribution Plant - we were the largest group ever to go through that tour, which is normally not open to the public. Again, no photos were allowed. A group shot was taken afterwards and I will post it here whenever I get a copy of it.

After the Franklin Tour, a few of us rode to Kenosha, WI and visited Uke's HD - the oldest HD dealer in Wisconsin

Day Six

Milwaukee, WI to Hannibal, MO

A beautiful day..

At our lunch stop, in El Paso, Illinois, a future HOG member climbed up on a bike with Karen. She loved it. When it came time to get off the bike, the little girl began crying....

Dinner that night was on board the Mark Twain Riverboat... a two hour cruise on the Mississippi

....and we got to help celebrate Alan's 65th... er, I mean, 45th birthday.

Day Seven

Hannibal, MO to St Louis and on to Branson, MO

It starts out to be an absolutely beautiful day... what's that old saying, "Red sky at morning, sailor take warning?"

We get into St. Louis and take the tour to the top of the Arch.

To get up top, you ride in these tiny, little pods that hold, amazingly, five adults.

630 feet up and there are observations windows

Shots out those windows...

At this point, we left St. Louis with 15 people on 8 bikes - The future TORNADO WARRIORS.

The battery went dead in our camera after that last shot. That's okay, though, because we spent the next 5 hours either in heavy rain, stopped in traffic due to major accidents or dodging a tornado. What? Yep. As we approach St. James, Mo, we begin experiencing light to moderate rain. About 1 mile from that town, I see tornadic activity in the clouds above us and notify everyone by radio to keep a watch and that we would seek shelter at the next exit. As we topped a hill, I saw a tornado on the ground crossing the interstate from our right to our left. I immediately told everyone (only 2 didn't have a radio in our group) "Tornado on the ground - everyone put on your emergency flashers, pull to the shoulder, get off your bike and get into the ditch." Other traffic was doing the same thing. Everyone managed to stop safely and we watched the tornado pass within ~100-200 yards south of the interstate moving east. We got back onto the bikes and got off about 1/2 mile at the exit... however, the entire area was wiped out, so we continued ~8 miles to the next exit and waited out another cell.

Pictured below is the National Weather Service map of the tornado path. That's I44 in the bold orange.