Ride of the Patriots / Rolling Thunder 2009 (exe) Ride of the Patriots / Rolling Thunder 2009 (zip)

Custom Motorcycles 2008 (exe) Custom Motorcycles 2008 (zip) MountainFest 2008 (exe) MountainFest 2008 (zip)

Ride of the Patriots 2008 (exe) Ride of the Patriots 2008 (zip) MountainFest 2007 (exe) MountainFest 2007 (zip)

* West Virginia Red Ride, starts from just SW of Beckley WV and ends in nearby Sandy Springs (Date TBD)

* Maryland and Delaware Orange Ride, starts and ends in Frederick City, MD (Date TBD)

* The Crooked Road Ride, in southern Virginia (Date TBD)

* Visit to Orange County Choppers, in Newburgh, NY (Date TBD); this is a 2-day activity, as it's about 315 miles north of Springfield, VA.

The WORMS made their presence known at the motorcycle show in Washington DC today and you could just smell the admiration from the crowd as we walked through the entrance. Or maybe Allen stepped in something, I don't know. Anyway, we arrived before lunchtime via the Metro station at Dunn Loring and proceeded to have a great time checking out the custom and production bikes that are the highlights of the show. Our group included Emmett and his wife Claudia, Mike, Rose, Jim, Sandra and Allen. I think we spent most of our time checking out the Harley-Davidson bikes but the Victory motorcycles were beautiful to see and touch also. Emmett loved the new 2010 Goldwing while Mike was focused on the H-D touring bikes. Jim is just about ready to try one of the choppers with the ape hanger handle bars (blue one in the pictures below) and we all liked the P-40 chopper that is in our group picture. Last year we sat on a few motorcycles but this year I think Rose took the crown - just check out all the bikes she sat on. Oh that pink bike? She got on it after a double-dog dare from Allen. Being humbled by her quick response, Allen agreed to do the same.

I hope everyone had a most excellent New Year's Eve last night. Sandra & Allen went out for dinner with Sandra's folks and then came home to ring in the new year with some wine and 20-year old tawny port. But wait a minute - Patriot Harley-Davidson's HOG had a ride planned for the following morning (yes, today) and here we were drinking and staying up to midnight. Not to worry. Allen woke up on auto pilot around 7:30AM and after a quick check of the weather (no ice in the driveway but it was 33 F outside) he decided to make a go of it. Sandra elected to stay in the warm waterbed but Allen rode the Fatboy over to Bob Evan's restaurant in Springfield around 9AM in time to make the start of the ride at 10AM.

The Patriot H-D HOG group is very open and they welcome everyone so Allen had no trouble finding a place to sit with the group. We enjoyed a hot breakfast and coffee before it was time to hit the road in two groups. Now we were not told the route ahead of time but it turned out to be one of Allen's favorite rides - up the George Washington Parkway along the Potomac River. We did two legs - that was the first one and we ended up near the Tyson's Corner area at a McDonalds for a rest break. The second leg took us along the Old Dominion Drive (heading west) over to Georgetown Pike and there are some beautiful homes on those roads. Did I mention snow? Yes, there was still plenty of the cold stuff around and lots of water on the road but we didn't encounter any ice (just the dirt they dropped on the road). We came back south along Hunter Mill Road and ended the ride at Patriot Harley-Davidson which was closed for New Year's Day. Everyone had a good time and the temperature warmed up to the mid-forty's by the time Allen got home to Springfield. Picture wise, Allen didn't get into any of our photos but he is in the pictures taken by the Patriot group so maybe he'll end up in a Patriot H-D HOG newsletter soon.