Monday, August 17, 2009

Escorting the Wall


On Thursday, August 6Th Adventure Harley-Davidson was part of something AMAZING! We were involved in the escorting of the Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall.

The day started out with a ride from Adventure to Cambridge to meet up with the rest of the escorting bikes. We only anticipated 50 bikes for the ride to Cambridge, and we ended up having around 80 bikes! What a great turn out! In order to keep all of the bikes in one continuous line, Nicki had to use her tiny blue Ford Focus to block traffic on 39. That was quite a site to see! People were a little irritated at the momentary stop in traffic, but we didn't care. We were too excited to see all of the beautiful bikes in one large group and listening to the loud bikes zoom past us. After the line of bikes as out, we quickly hopped into Nicki's car and followed them. Bud was directly behind the bikes and sweeping the ride with the trailer. If a bike broke down, he would be there to put the bike in the trailer, and we would give the folks a ride in Nicki's car.

We made it to Cambridge safe and sound. I have never seen so many bikes in one place! there had to have been about 2,000 of them!! Nicki and I walked about the giant parking-lot and handed out free dealer t-shirt coupons to all of the bikers. It was a BEAUTIFUL day! Perfect for escorting the wall. A few hours passed and we were ready to hit the road. We also swept the big ride from Cambridge to Dennison.

Escorting the wall made me feel like a part of history. As we drove down the highway, people were standing on the overpasses with American flags and waving at the bikers. Nicki was honking the horn as we both had our hands out the windows waving at the people watching the ride. When we got to Uhrichsville and Dennison, we were part of a parade! We laughed because we looked so out of place. People were probably wondering how a little Ford Focus got mixed up in a parade of 2,000 motorcycles! I rolled my window down and waved like a beauty queen to the people on the sidewalks. Some people smiled and waved back, others gave me a confused look as if to say "Who are you?". I had a fun time pretending to be the Motorcycle Princess.
The entire experience was very heart-warming. Knowing that all of those men and women lost their lives for a greater cause made me even more proud to be an American. We live in a great country with dedicated patriots.

THANK YOU so much for everyone that came out for the ride! You were a part of history! And also, Thanks to everyone that watched our ride or worked the stands in Dennison.
Stop in a see us soon!

- Anna

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