We left home at 9:30AM on Thursday, headed for Lancaster to meet up with about 50 more riders. We were escorted to Gettysburg by 2 PA State MC police officers. Upon arriving at Gettysburg H-D, we had lunch and presented the dealership with a plague of appreciation for their work in helping the 9/11 ride.
Then about 300 of us set off through the battlefield and up into the mountains on our way to Shanksville. The mountains were beautiful and the ride was spectacular. The twists and turns through Rte. 30 really kept even the best of us on our toes. Through small towns and open fields, we even came upon a herd of bison. We all rode into Somerset and checked into our respective hotels. There was a ride to the Flight 93 crash site in Shanksville for a presentation and a moment of silence and reflection. Then back to Somerset for food and music.
The next morning, we met up at the Somerset H-D dealership at 6:30AM. Under heavily overcast skies, about 850 bikers left Somerset, rode through the crash site and headed for Cumberland, MD. And rain! Through the mountains south to Cumberland, the rain was off and on. But the countryside was beautiful. People were out on the streets in every small town, waving and cheering us on. In each town the local fire dept. had its trucks out on the street with lights and sirens saluting us as we passed. We stopped for a short rest in Cumberland while the smaller bikes fueled up. Then it was on to Hagerstown.
The ride to Hagerstown was wet, to say the least. At times, the rain was fairly heavy. Once again, the countryside was spectacular. I have to say, the world looks so much different form the seat of a motorcycle. Once in Hagerstown, we fueled all the bikes and had lunch.
We left Hagerstown and headed for Arlington, VA, which would be our final destination for the day. Along the way, we rode through a little town named Leesburg, VA. What a beautiful town. First, their fire engines lined the road and saluted us as we entered the town. Then, it seemed like every citizen was on Main Street with flags and banners cheering us through their town. It was very emotional. I don’t think there was a dry eye, either with the townspeople or the bikers. Its things like this that makes the ride so special. We arrived in Arlington, in the rain, and checked into our hotel. We had a dinner prepared for the riders and walked up to the local 7-11 for beer and wine.
At 6:30AM the next morning we all met in the parking lot of the Pentagon (the second crash site). Once we were all assembled (1200 bikes by this point) we left through DC and headed up through Maryland. Though it was somewhat overcast, it didn’t rain on us anymore. We stopped for fuel at the Maryland House rest stop and headed off for Mike’s Famous H-D in New Castle, DE. We arrived about 11:30 to cheering crowds.
We met up with some friends of mine and had a nice relaxing lunch. At about 1PM, 1500 motorcycles headed up over the DE Memorial Bridge into New Jersey and up 295. This was, without a doubt the longest and most difficult stretch of the ride. Several times, I was standing on my footboards taking the pressure off my ass. From 295 we got on Rte 1 and headed north to Linden, NJ. Once again, every town along the way was lined with well-wishers and fire trucks and police cars all cheering us on.
We got to Linden about 4PM where we fueled up before entering NYC. The organizers also had a second lunch set up for us. At about 5PM we headed for the Holland Tunnel. We had to stop at the entrance until all the riders were gathered. Once we were ready, we all headed into the tunnel. Everyone was gunning their engines. The noise level was unearthly! But beautiful music to a biker’s ears. We came up out of the tunnel to the Manhattan streets where city folk, tourists, police and fire companies cheering us into NYC. And there was the Statue of Liberty saluting us as we rode past. It took a while to get to the hotels as we had to snake our way through the streets past thousands of onlookers. We parked the bikes a couple of blocks from the hotel and checked in. We went out again to pick up wine and beer and fell asleep as soon as we got back to the room.
The next morning, we slept in. We got up, got packed and walked down to the bike. We rode to Ground Zero (the third crash sight). It’s funny watching the mingling of city people, tourists and bikers. Everyone was asking to have their picture taken with a police officer or a biker. We rode through Manhattan then headed back to the Holland Tunnel for the ride home. We took the NJ Turnpike to the PA Turnpike, finally getting home at 5:30PM.
830 miles and 6 states and DC in 4 days! It was fantastic! As the saying goes, it’s the only way to fly!