Ride Journal
May 22, Day 10, Bridgeport to Washington, D.C.
It seemed like a normal enough morning for our last day on the road before pulling into DC. The riders meeting went smooth and just before it ended, I asked Lee to come up and tell of the experience that he and Steve shared together. More on that later.
Shortly after we left, Vito pulled off to the left with a rear flat tire. He was able to make it out of the pack safely and get it slowed down before it started to wash out from under him. Ray stopped and picked him up and took him to a bike shop. Vito said that at the price he had to pay for a new tire that he hopes nobody else needs one. The rest of us continued on for 95 miles more to the first fuel stop with about 85 bikes. The fuel stop was not a very good place for that many bikes and the pumps did not have credit card readers. That stop was a challenge. Slow pumps on top of the madness of trying to give a card to the gal inside to turn the pumps on, who was frazzled to say the least. We talked to a guy who blew up his engine and was waiting for another bike to be delivered to him (sound familiar about the engine?).
16 miles more got us to the Rocky Gap Veterans Cemetery. That is the home area for the Junior Marines, who spent a lot of time putting flags on EVERY grave in the beautiful place. There was another ceremony where our guys laid another wreath at the end of a long line of our riders on each side of the path. They were really glad that we continue to make that a regular stop on our mission. We cut the stop short because we needed to make sure we were at Arlington Cemetery for a very important wreath laying.
On the highway we were a long line of bikes in the slow lane and an 18 wheeler with a full grain trailer was passing us in the fast lane. When he got almost up to the front of the pack, a left tire blew out and stuff went flying EVERYWHERE! It happened right in front of Buzz and he and a lot of other riders saw the main part of the tire fly probably 50 feet in the air! He said that he was trying to time it for the position of the bikes for when it came down it would be safe. Bikes were rapidly weaving everywhere. From my point of view it looked like a bomb went off from all the debris and dust and dirt flying everywhere. I don’t know how it happened, but NO bikes went down! It was pure chaos for a while but we all got it together and back in formation again. A few miles later there was a quick fuel/lunch stop. Some people did not get their food fast enough and had to leave early because of our time factor.
We all took advantage of two Highway patrolmen blocking for us. Traffic was very heavy everywhere. The road guards took off way ahead of us to secure the way into Arlington Cemetery. Only problem was we saw them going in the opposite direction before we got to town. Headdog made a wrong turn and we got into a lot of traffic with no road guards. We pretended that they were there and just hoped that the cars and buses would respect us running red lights in the heavy traffic. We finally made it to the Cemetery entrance where Jerry and a few other riders had got there much earlier to secure parking and a shuttle for all of us. That worked out quite well, once we got there that is! We all got on the shuttles except the road guards, who were nowhere to be found yet. They finally made it for the wreath laying ceremony. We were able to watch the changing of the guard which happens every 1/2 hour on the 1/2 hour during daylight hours. After dark it happens every hour. The special wreath laying was our guys! Steve (Headdog) Moore, Jerry Conner, Paul (Buzz) Neeb, & Wylie Wilson were the wreath people. They said that it was the coolest thing to be able to do in the name of the National Veterans Awareness Organization. The very rigid Sergeant was instructing them on how and when to do it. That made us very proud of our guys and all of us to be in on that! The NVAR ride took care of the tour shuttle fees and the parking fees too for all of us! Thank you NVAR officers!
It was very confusing trying to get to the motel as we had no road and the traffic just wouldn't let us in. When it was time to go to the motel I waited beside the entrance of I-395 south to try to help people get there. I was hoping Lee & Steve would come along because I told them that I would get them to the Days Inn which is about 10 miles south of the all the main stuff in DC. After about 10 minutes or so a group of bikes were coming on the freeway. I pulled out ahead of them to lead them to the motel. When we got there I didn't see Steve or Lee. Wrayjean thanked me for waiting for her group to make sure they got there ok. I'm sure that they had people who already knew how to get there but I tried to make sure it was all good! Only one gal working the front desk and you can imagine what that was like!
Ray's cousin Ed and his friend, Kathy showed up to see us. They live around here in North Carolina I think. We went to a seafood house that we went to last year or the year before. Ray's brother, Jerry, joined us too. All during dinner I was wondering just what could be wrong with my motor because it started to make some metalic clunking noise from the lower end area. I checked the primary chain a couple of days ago and it was good and had plenty of oil in it. When we got back from dinner I drained the oil and was very relieved to find nothing metalic in it or the filter either! Great news! Next I took the primary cover off and I was so happy to find that my compensating sprocket had started to back off. Problem will be solved tomorrow when I ride to some ones shop and put an impact on it to tighten it back up. Before I left I only tightened it up with a ratchet and not an impact. Silly boy, next time I will remember to fix it right. My roommate, Al, just got back with the group who went to see the Marine Silent Drill Team perform. He said it was pretty cool to see all that happening with no one issuing orders. I will have to see that someday. It's now half past midnight......
