Day 14 Harley Davidson Factory Tour

I had an appointment today with Pete. Pete is the son-in-law of my neighbor Jane. Pete has worked for Harley Davidson for over thirty year in the design department. He was once a world class AMA flat track racer. Pete gave me a personal tour of the main buildings of Harley Davidson and then I rode across town to the engine and drive train assembly plant. Thanks Pete for your time, you are very knowledgeable.This is the main building of Harley Davidson 3700 Juneau Ave.
The overhead bridge joins the two buildings
There is a Harley classic in the above picture. fourth one from this end

This is the visitors entrance of the engine and drive train plantThere is a classic in this picture also

Nice classic evolution engine, some people believe this is the engine that saved Harley DavidsonHarley Davidson offered me this bike so they could put my Road King in their museum, I politely refused, I didn't like the colorCut away, you could push a button and this model would rotate I got caught in a thunder storm leaving Milwaukee, so I pulled into a Quiznos sandwich shop had a late lunch and waited it out. After the rain let up a little I took off, rode for about 45 minutes in a light rain before it finally cleared up.

Made it into Davenport Iowa tonight, 300 miles

Day 13

Contrary to what my beautiful wife Debbie believes, I do have good conversations, all tho they are with myself they are good! As I've travel many miles there are many questions and maybe weird thoughts that go through my mind. One of those questions is, why are barns predominately red? Well, here is the answer I found on Google.

If you've ever driven through a rural area, it's likely that you've seen the red barns that speckle the farming landscape. There are several theories as to why barns are painted red.

Centuries ago, European farmers would seal the wood on their barns with an oil, often linseed oil -- a tawny-colored oil derived from the seed of the flax plant. They would paint their barns with a linseed-oil mixture, often consisting of additions such as milk and lime. The combination produced a long-lasting paint that dried and hardened quickly. (Today, linseed oil is sold in most home-improvement stores as a wood sealant.) Now, where does the red come from?

In historically accurate terms, "barn red" is not the bright, fire-engine red that we often see today, but more of a burnt-orange red. As to how the oil mixture became traditionally red, there are two predominant theories:

Wealthy farmers added blood from a recent slaughter to the oil mixture. As the paint dried, it turned from a bright red to a darker, burnt red.

Farmers added ferrous oxide, otherwise known as rust, to the oil mixture. Rust was plentiful on farms and is a poison to many fungi, including mold and moss, which were known to grown on barns. These fungi would trap moisture in the wood, increasing decay.

Regardless of how the farmer tinted his paint, having a red barn became a fashionable thing. They were a sharp contrast to the traditional white farmhouse.

As European settlers crossed over to America, they brought with them the tradition of red barns. In the mid to late 1800s, as paints began to be produced with chemical pigments, red paint was the most inexpensive to buy. Red was the color of favor until whitewash became cheaper, at which point white barns began to spring up.

Today, the color of barns can vary, often depending on what they are used for.

So there you have it.

Today was a travel day from Cleveland Ohio to Milwaukee Wisconsin, hot and humid. I much prefer the dry heat

Day 12 - York Pennsylvainia Factory Tour

This plant employees 3200 workersSweeeeeeeeet

They start with a flat piece of metal and press it into what resembles a fender and then they laser cut out the final productFender and gas tank, final product

At this plant they build the touring and softail models

They keep adding part

until they have the final product

A fully assembled bike takes two hours on the assembly line and a fully assembled bike is completed every 2 1/2 minutes.

Nice shiny RoadKing, like my buddy Tim says " All are nice, some more than others"These are all the current modelsTook this shot as I was wizzing by...This pic only shows about a third of the plant

Total miles for today 640, started in Herndon, Virginia and will spend the night in Norwalk, Ohio, about 30 miles west of Cleveland

Day 11 - Gettysburg Battle Fields

I visited Gettysburg today and took a two hour guided tour of the battle fieldsThese are original cannons from the war, their are many left all over the battle fields

Since the end of the Civil War there have been over 1400 monument erected in the battle field, all are erected precisely where the event happened

This is the group of us on the guided tour

This is the Pennsylvania Monument it is the largest of the monuments

This is an original building in the city of Gettysburg that was used as a headquarters for the Union. Click on the picture and you will be able to see the potholes that were left from bullets that hit the side of the building.

Cemetery Hill

Another monument overlooking one of the battlefields

Another monument

And another

Riding from Herndon, Virginia to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania I traveled through the state of Massachusetts and saw a lot of wonderful farms and houses


The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War, the Union victory in the summer of 1863 that ended General Robert E. Lee's second and most ambitious invasion of the North. Often referred to as the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy", it was the war's bloodiest battle with 51,000 casualties. It also provided President Abraham Lincoln with the setting for his most famous address.

The rest of the pics are here

Day 10 - The Wall

Rode down to "Patriot Harley Davidson" at around 0730 hrs and got in line. This harley shop is about 40 from D.C. I heard there were over 6000 bikes in this lineThese guys gave us a escort into the cityFrom every overpass and on/off ramp there were people cheering

These overpasses were 25-30 miles from the city

Even the local fire depts. where showing support

Washington Monument

World War II Memorial Pacific side

World War II Memorial Atlantic side

Arlington Cemetery

The Wall

The Wall

The Wall

The Wall

The Wall
Korean War Memorial

Korean War MemorialLincoln MemorialLincoln Memorial

It is expected that 350,000 - 400,000 biker and 550,000 - 600,000 people will be at the Wall this year.

While there is some question about the origins of Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, there is no doubt one of the first was celebrated in the South. In January 1866, women in Columbus, Georgia issued a public call for the graves of Confederate soldiers to be covered with flowers. The first Confederate Decoration Days were observed that year in April in Columbus, Mississippi; Columbus, Georgia; and Holly Springs, Mississippi. In 1868, commander-in-chief of the GAR, General John A. Logan, ordered the 30th of May be set aside as a Memorial Day for the purpose of honoring the dead of the Civil War. General James Garfield was the speaker at the first observance at Arlington National Cemetery on May 30, 1868. Over time, the day became one of remembrance for all who had given their life in battle for America.

All pictures are hosted here