Homestead

Harley-Davidson!

Day 1

Hi!

Oh oh oh! My feet hurt at the end of the afternoon. I felt like I could hardly walk! But don't you feel sorry for me. If you read the rest of this, you'll see I paid a small price!

where did we go?

Fun? I reckon! We went to another huge H-D dealer, Hal's, with another street fair going on. Someone cleaned Lindy's glasses so neither dirt, dust, nor sweat could affect them. People were building saddles customized for H-D rider's butts & bikes. A lady was taking orders for tailored vests, jackets, chaps, & halters. You could get prescription goggles. You could pick almost any kind of ready-made leathers. There were custom wheels & special tires & I don't remember what all, and that was outside the dealership!

Inside was a huge shop so clean that you'd be hard pressed to believe the mechanics worked with grease & oil & gasoline! The workbenches looked frighteningly tidy. In the showroom, 50 or so H-Ds waited for you to fall in love with one or more of them. Maybe a kazillion leather clothes items lured you, as did a gazillion cloth clothes items & a merzillion mementos, gadgets, & oh yes, parts.

Then we went to a factory where H-D assembles engines. On my! If you appreciate tooling, or automation, or good workmanship, take that tour of the Capitol facility! My my my! We walked & stood & walked again for an hour or more, and I grinned damn near as much as while riding!

One of the things I liked best about the factory was how many women worked there.

At those two locations, we saw H-D T-shirts from Capetown (South Africa), the Rhine Valley, Japan, the best little Harley house in Georgia, 100s of WI H-D dealers, WA, SD, SC, FL, & probably others.

What did I love today? Everywhere we went today we saw oceans of H-Ds & H-D riders, men & women. Milwaukee really organized itself to support this event. Special lanes were set aside for H-Ds. Cops were friendly or at least not hostile. Truck drivers accomodated H-D riders. It was wonderful!

What did I love 2nd most? The clothes! Especially those worn by H-D riders & tneir passengers.

One outfit baffled me. A lady wore a leather halter, a do-rag (kinda like a bandanna), and a long skirt. I could have sworn she was a rider or a passenger, but how do you ride in an ankle-length skirt? It *did* have snaps along one side from its hem up to about her hip, but still! How does one ride with all that?

So what I loved second most was all the self-expression in the clothes of the H-D riders & their passengers.

What did I love most? what I loved most was all the self-expression in the hair & beards of the H-D riders & their passengers.

Wow! What a marvelous day!