Contemplative Thought For The Day

We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.

Female Ride Day

In celebration of the growing presence of women in the sport, this Friday will be the second year of recognizing International Female Ride Day. The event celebrates women of all ages and experience levels who take life by the handlebars by encouraging them to ride. Getting into the act, Harley-Davidson will celebrate International Female Ride Day by providing special parking for all female riders and hosting Garage Parties in the afternoon for females interested in motorcycles. Garage Parties are a women’s only event held at dealerships to help women learn more about motorcycling and to meet others who are interested in riding. For more information about women rider activities or Garage Parties, visit your local dealership or log onto www.harley-davidson.com/womenriders.

Come on ladies, let your moto-diva show this week!

Biker Quote Of The Day

People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass rich women than bikers.

Best Western Loves Bikers

More than 1000 Best Western hotels have agreed to provide special services for bikers, including such things as motorcycle wash stations, wipe-down towels, tar remover and designated parking areas as the result of an agreement between Harley-Davidson and Best Western. Some hotels are even offering lip balm and sunscreen to bikers as part of the program. The program is available to all motorcyclists and offers a special reduced room rate if you book your room through a special link. To get the discounted biker rate (10% off standard rates), follow the link below.

http://dconnect.bestwestern.com/DirectConnectWeb/?partnerId=HOG

105 Ways To Party

Harley-Davidson's 105th anniversary party is coming up fast and being the resident local, I thought that I would report a bit on the preparations.

The main days of the celebration will be August 28-31. Bruce Springsteen has been scheduled to be the main headliner and tickets are pretty much sold out. Not to worry though. There will be lots of other bands and attractions to keep you busy. (Too bad Elton John won't be coming again. Joker could wear his pink chaps. LOL!) All the details can be found at www.harley-davidson.com/105th.

One of the neighboring cities, Waukesha, is also planning a large party for the same weekend. They are working hard on bringing in big name entertainment which will be free and the downtown traffic in Waukesha is supposed to be shut down except for bikes and pedestrians. So, if you don't like what's in Milwaukee just ride 20 minutes to Waukesha.

Now, if you don't have a room yet, you're pretty much SOL unless you don't mind paying $500 per night for the last few remaining rooms within 50 miles of Milwaukee. One alternative is camping at the Waukesha County Fairgrounds. They will have food, drink and entertainment on the fairgrounds. Showers will be available for a nominal charge and free parking available for support vehicles. Details are at http://www.camp105th.com/.

Another alternative is to check out Hal's Home Hospitality Network. Hal's Harley-Davidson has put together a web site which helps people who are looking for rooms hook up with people who have rooms. Log on to http://www.halshd.com/ and click on "105th Dealer Events," then "Lodging" to get started.

Sorry, all of you staying at my house is not an alternative.

Since a day hardly goes by around here without seeing something about the 105th party, please feel free to contact me if you think that I can help you out in any way.

So, who's coming?!?

A Public Reply To "Joker"

In my February 13th posting "What Is A Biker", Joker poured out his soul on what it means to be a biker. I thought that any man who was willing to put into words on a blog what he did deserved a reply. So, here goes...
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Joker,

I know what you're saying. I spent a lot of my life doing things for others because I thought that's what they wanted. I got pretty much straight A's in school because I thought that's what my parents expected. My mother was the master of the guilt-trip and getting you to do things that you really didn't want to. I was a cop for a while (my dad was a cop) because that's what I thought he wanted. I've been on city committees and run for political offices because I thought that's what people wanted from me. I've spent so much of my life doing what I thought others expected that I think after a while I started to lose a lot of myself.

That's why when I saw the quote, "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.", I just had to post it. It fit so good! I've come to realize that I am a biker down deep in my soul and in every crevice of my heart. It's who I am and I've learned to embrace it. It's what soothes my mind and makes me feel whole. It's what makes me a "soul rider". It's what makes me happy and free and nobody else is going to do that for me. I have to do it for myself and to hell with the rest of 'em. I'm sorry if I don't do what everybody else thinks I should but it's my life and I'm the one who has to live it.

My motorcycle "Dixie" is the one who made me realize all this. She's the one who has allowed me to truly be myself without judging me in return. She's the one who is always there to comfort me when I'm having a hard time. She's the one who has allowed me to break free from the chains in which I had imprisoned myself. That's why I always refer to her as "the love of my life".

Joker, my soul brother, I'm glad that you've found the path and brought yourself out of the dark as I have. Your story has touched my soul and I thank you. Ride free brother.

Please Rate Me!

In the bottom right hand corner are a bunch of little buttons to blog listings and catalogs that I'm listed on. Please take a few minutes to go there and rate/review my blog. It will help generate more traffic and friends for our group. Not all of the listings have a place to rate or review so please be patient.

Thought For The Day

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

Reunited And It Feels So Good

Fast pavement below and the sun on my back,
Forehead burned by the wind.
A friendly wave or a knowing nod,
Back with my own kind.
She twists and moves with my every touch,
Burning red hot inside.
It feels like an eternity since we made love on the road,
It's the road-mance we all call "the ride".
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*** YES!!! I finally pulled Dixie from her winter slumber on Friday night and spent all afternoon yesterday riding. Nowhere in particular, just riding. We explored every back-woods country farm road I could find. Then we turned east into Milwaukee and just kept going. If I had gone any futher, I would have ridden into Lake Michigan. It was our first really good weather day in months so everyone was out riding. After such a long winter, everyone had a smile on their faces. (Even the bad-ass hard-cores had less of a scowl on their faces.)

New Friends

I've added some new blogs to my blog roll that I thought you might want to check out: Harley-Davidson-Mystique, Keep The Rubber Side Down, Mimi's Motorcycle Journal and Road Grits Cafe. Some of these are pretty entertaining.

(And don't forget my old friends that have been on the blog roll for a while.)

** No, I don't have Dixie out of storage yet and running wild like she should be. The snow is finally melting and the weather forecast for this weekend is sunny and in the 50's. Sounds like my first ride of the season is only a couple of days away.