My friend, Danni (inside joke) wasn't sure what he wanted to do on his birthday, he just knew that he didn't want to spend it with his girlfriend (of 15 years). That's a long story and not the point of this blog.
Some friends of his, and acquaintances of mine, invited me to the annual veteran's rally and ride. They're Harley riders and go every year as the husband, Johnny, is a vet and the wife, Jackie, is the daughter of a vet. I know Danni wanted to go to this as we're both veterans, it's actually where we met back in 1994.
But I had a memorial ride to go on first. Back in July, while I was in Florida, a local rider friend of mine, Gary, and a friend of his (Dave) were riding the Deckers Run when Dave crashed and died. No one knows the exact details of what happened to Dave: did his bike malfunction, did he hit something in the road, did he lose control? No one knows for sure.
Gary organized a memorial ride for his friend Dave the same morning and the veteran's rally, but luckily the two groups were taking the same route to Deckers and then it was nothing more than going to Cripple Creek while the memorial riders returned to Denver. I was able to fit both rides in!
We met at MoCo for an 8:30a KSU (kickstands up) but we didn't actually get kickstands up until about an hour later, which put me an hour behind the other riders. Arrgh! And the route wasn't the direct route, but rather a longer round-about route which put me even further behind the people going to the veteran's rally.
Quite annoying.
We rode down to Deckers and out of about 45 bikes one went down. He was behind me, but from what I understand he tried a dangerous pass inside a turn on a double solid line. When we arrived in Deckers at the traditional turn-around point, I noticed my other group wasn't there. Either they'd stopped and moved on after waiting for me, or they didn't stop. I said my good-byes and hauled ass south.
As I came into Woodland Park, right at my turn to Cripple Creek I see my friend on my old SV and his friends at a gas station. Apparently they had decided to stop for a bathroom break and it was taking much longer than they thought it would. Lucky for me.
We headed west as part of a very long line of motorcycles. I'd say miles and miles of Harleys interspaced with a few choppers, adventure tourers and very few sportbikes.
It was slow, but every single person on their bike was either a veteran like myself or related to one. We rode the last few miles to Cripple Creek, which would normally have taken me about 20 minutes, in a little more than an hour.
Riders riding in
A sweet ass custom U.S. Army themed ZX14r
The veteran's honor guard
The Pledge of Allegiance
The crowd at Cripple Creek
Patriot Guard Riders out of Kansas
Naked Liberty
More bikes
A little custom
The Monster's Inc. trike
Danni, Jackie, Johnny
An Indian
Ghost Rider is here?
More bikes
Antique
Memorial bike for a fallen soldier
A veteran needs a home. So, apparently this GSD served for 6 years in Afghanistan seeking bombs. His handler died and he lost a leg. When he came to the USA he was offered up for adoption. He still needs a home. If I had the room...
Phoenix
Air Force bomber-themed Harley
Me, on the SV
Danni and Me
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