A Little About Us

A Little About Us
INTRODUCTION: First, allow me to introduce the members of this group...I'm Mike riding my 2003 Heritage Softail Springer...my wife Juju is on her 2015 Freewheeler...and Ed and Nancy are on their 2009 Heritage Softail. For the purposes of this trip we are referring to ourselves as H.A.R.P. HARP is a made-up name and it simply stands for Hogs And Retired People...and all that means is that we are members of HOG (Harley Owners Group) and we are...you guessed it...retired! The name came about when seven of us made a trip out west, but just the four of us this time. I've done blogs before, and this one will be for the same reason...to refresh our memories in our "Golden Years" (they say the memory is the second thing to go...and I can't remember what the first thing was). What is different this time is the blog is being shared by THUNDER ROADS PENNSYLVANIA MAGAZINE...Truly, an honor. This journey will be a round trip from, and to our home town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The plan is to travel to the Atlantic coast at Ocean City, Maryland for the "Official" start on U.S. Route 50. We will follow U.S. 50 west for over 3,000 miles to its terminus in Sacramento, California. From Sacramento, we will head a bit further west to the Pacific Ocean before we begin to travel south. California Highway 1 and U.S. Route 101, better known as the Pacific Coast Highway, will be the route for about 500 miles to Santa Monica. At the world famous Santa Monica Pier, we hop on Route 66...The "Mother Road". Travelling about 2,500 miles to the north east, we'll arrive at the end of 66 in Chicago, Illinois. The "Official" end of our journey. From Chicago, it's just another 450 miles and we're back in Pittsburgh. We've made very few lodging reservations, thus eliminating the pressure of trying to get somewhere by some deadline. The whole purpose of this ride to see this country and whatever piques our interest along the way...and we will be looking for that giant ball of yarn! So we invite you to ride along with us. We hope you will find it both entertaining and informative. Please feel free to leave your comments and share this with anyone you feel would have an interest.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Let's just call it day 4

Days without an incident - 1
Days without rain gear - 1

Now, this is what we signed up for!

A little before dawn showed his butt crack, we were on the road.

We met Ed and Nancy at the West Virginia welcome center on I-79, then headed down the road a piece and picked up where we left off over a week ago.

Again, thanks to Jim P and his staff at Z & M's service department, Ed's bike was just hummin' along.

Soon after getting back on U.S. 50, it turned into a four-lane highway.  Once we got to Chillicothe Ohio, the road turned into a beautiful two-lane with sweeping turns through farms and little towns.


Even though the day started with us wearing jackets, it ended with us peeling off layers as the temperatures soared above 90°.

For lunch, we stopped in the Vinton County town of McArthur.  A quick bite at McClure's Restaurant,
and we were back on the road headed for our hotel in Cincinnati.

Here, we met up with Ed and Nancy's daughter Elyse.  She graciously made burgers and beers for us while we were being thoroughly entertained by grandson David.  What a happy little guy he is!

Soon, we were back in the hotel for another early get-up and hopefully off to St.Louis tomorrow.
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