The second day of our WORMS weekend was the big event - Patriot Harley-Davidson's 11th anniversary Ride of the Patriots and then Rolling Thunder. We all went to bed at a reasonable time the prior night (following the movie at the Arlington Draft House) and so we basically all arrived on time at the IHOP in Fairfax at 0700. The breakfast was great - even better when Woody said he was paying for the entire gang if we took care of the tip. Topping it off - the tip for the waitress was between $60-$70 because we were in a good mood. I bet that's the largest tip she ever received! At 0800 we rode over to Patriot Harley-Davidson and got in the line-up behind about 1,000 bikes that were already there. It's amazing how long this line gets each year. Last year they said it reached Route 123 which must be at least a mile down the road. We don't know how far it reached this year but there were about 3800 bikes at Patriot Harley-Davidson.

The line started rolling at 0900 following the ceremonies. There is nothing like the police blocking off intersections for us so we can just roll right on through, ignoring all traffic signals and traffic. Once we arrived near the Pentagon it got confusing and we ended up coming into the Pentagon parking lot via some unintended entrance but we got there without mishap. Woody and Mike got separated from our main group but they walked over to see us once we triangulated our coordinates via cell phones. At the Pentagon there were over 350 thousand bikes - way too many to count on your fingers. The weather was again beautiful - couldn't be better. It would eventually sprinkle just a tad once the gang had returned to Rose & Jim's place in Arlington after the ride through Washington DC. Woody and Mike were the only ones that got rained on while riding their bikes. We had a wonderful barbecue with hamburgers and hot dogs, beer and wine too. This was the WORMS largest Memorial Day weekend ever! A special thanks to Rose & Jim for hosting the WV gang (Mary, Stuart, Kevin, Bob, Sara, Kayla, and Rebecca) and doing the barbecue.
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The gang from WV, Rose & Jim, Liza & Mike, Woody and Allen arrived at the Patriot Harley-Davidson Open House around 2PM. Parking your bike was difficult because as you can see below there were a few bikes in their parking lot - but there's always room for a chopper! There was live music, plenty of food and even Hooter girls on hand for keeping the WORMS entertained. The weather was beautiful - couldn't be better.

Later on, around 6PM, we met over at Rose & Jim's place in Arlington VA and then we used a few cars to transport the gang to the Cinema Draft House, also in Arlington, to see a movie while eating dinner. The movie was called, "I Love You Man" and it was pretty funny - especially after a pitcher of beer!
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