The weather on the weekend of September 20-21 was probably the best we have seen this entire year. You could not have ordered better temperatures, less humidity, or fewer clouds that what we had on tap. As such, most WORMS found it hard to concentrate on cutting their lawns, washing the cars, and anything else that might be considered as "labor-intensive". The cure? A nice ride on your bike - and since Patriot H-D was hosting their open house on Saturday.....

Anyway, Allen managed to get the chopper fired up and headed over to Patriot around 1300 to check out the scene. There were tons of bikes there and live music too. Do you remember that pirate chopper from our last Rolling Thunder ride (Memorial Day weekend 2008)? The owner was there with his bike and we talked a bit about building and maintaining choppers. It's a labor of love you know. Anyway, he has invested over $60K in that pirate chopper but he has also won lots of trophies and the bike was in four motorcycle magazines. But we both agreed that the best part of owner a chopper is being able to ride it to bike events such as this open house. Who is the next WORM to buy a chopper???

Five WORMS supported the Rattle the Runway Ride on September 14th. This annual ride starts at the rear of the National Air and Space Museum-Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center with the opening ceremonies at 0900. The WORMS met at our official Chantilly meeting location - Starbucks at Union Mill at...get ready....0630!!! We left the official WORMS Starbucks at 0645 to head over to another Starbucks across from Devil Dawg's in Chantilly because a few WORMS were confused about where to meet. Anyway, after a sip of espresso we basically rode across the street to Devil Dawg's (on Lee Road, just south of Route 50 at 14512 Lee Road, Unit E in Chantilly, VA 20151). We lined up at Devil Dawg's as a group and took some pictures while sipping more Starbucks coffee and eating bagels. Then the whole Devil Dawg's group rode over to the Motorcycle staging area and opening ceremonies location at the National Air and Space Museum - Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center on Route 28 (maybe a 3-4 miles up the road) from 8:00AM to about 8:30AM.

We enjoyed a police-escorted ride up to and around the terminal at Dulles Airport and then we rode down to the Pentagon where closing ceremonies took place in the North Parking Lot. We were not allowed to ride over to the South Parking Lot to see the Pentagon Memorial because they were taking down bleachers :-( But we made up for that by riding over to a Mexican restaurant near Jim and Rose's place in Arlington, VA. After we stuffed ourselves on chips and salsa, we rode over to Patriot Harley-Davidson and saw the new 2009 Harleys on display. They even took that new VROD out into the parking lot where Woody had a chance to sit on it. He started drooling again so we promptly got him off the bike...

The WORMS supported the Big Daddy Leather Open House on September 13th – well, at least one WORM was able to attend. Several WORMS members either had their bikes in the shop or other events kept them from riding over to BDL. Anyway, the ride down to Fredericksburg VA was decent because the recent rains were gone and there's nothing like a September morning ride down Route 1 before the traffic comes out to play. The WORMS wanted to help BDL celebrate their 3rd year doing business and serving the bike community at the Fredericksburg location. This event slipped from 6 September due to the hurricane Hanna that rolled through on that day. Who knows when hurricane Ike will make it's appearance on our coast.