Memories of Memorial Day Weekend: Rolling With the Thunder

What a weekend this has been! Here is an “after-action brief” on the events of this weekend.

Friday:
Friday for me began with making last minute preparations to the motorcycle for the big Rolling Thunder XX (twenty) Rally in Washington DC. I checked all my gear, and made sure the ad-hoc uniform was straight. Then, for the evening, I took the bike out on the highway for a test run up I95. I took it up to Ashland and back: no problems – traffic was good, no problems with the bike, everything was ready.


Saturday:
Got up early and did some grocery shopping. The UCV cookout was Saturday at 1pm. It was great to see some very old friends come back to see us, and it was even better meeting new people. Saturday was hot and steamy with unusually high humidity for this time of year. But, the barbecue was great, the company was excellent, what more could I ask for?
What was the best part? The best part of the day had to be seeing Cargo Squid back at home with his family again. (The T-shirts he gave us weren’t bad either.)
Squid, one last time – WELCOME HOME BUDDY FROM A JOB WELL DONE!

After returning home, I wiped some of the stickiness off, and spent the rest of the day with Mrs. F22 ("The General") and “Small-bird” watching movies. Family time is great. Then, it was an early “turn-in” for the high-point of the weekend: Rolling Thunder.

Sunday:
Reveille was at 5am. I wanted to be on the road by 7am so I might miss the heavy traffic.
Being at a Rolling Thunder Rally in DC is something that can barely be described.
On the ride into town, there were fire trucks and firefighters and everyday people who were at the overpasses coming into DC that were waving at the bikers as we rode into town. Once we were there, there were people out in the streets who greeted the bikers as we came in. I quoted someone as describing “an ocean of bikes.” That is true. I tried to take a photo of the entire crowd and had to take four separate pictures to get the area where I was at – and that was just ONE parking lot! There were at least one full lot IN FRONT of us, and one full lot BEHIND us! By the time my area pulled off to participate in the parade portion of the event, we had been waiting for an hour and a half – think of how many bikes it took to cause that kind of delay time! There was so much more than this to show and explain, that I will do a section specifically on “R.D. Twenty” and post it to the web site.

Monday:
I spent the afternoon at the Virginia War Memorial. I didn’t see the ceremony there, but my intent was to come and spend some quiet time reflecting on, and saying thanks to all those who gave their life to protect and serve this country. It is humbling to see the names of those that are there, and all of the mementos that were left by loved ones for their fallen soldiers.
While there, I ran into an old friend of UCV; Hawgske from our local A.B.A.T.E. group.
He and some of his riding friends were there doing a poker run to some local spots and to some of the veteran cemeteries and war memorials. I followed them to The Dog House bar in Shockoe Bottom for a quick drink and conversation, then we all headed in our own directions. I’m looking forward to catching up with them and doing some roads with them one day. Polished the day off with another barbecue at home.

All together, it was a weekend that I will never forget. I did take pictures of the Rolling Thunder event and of the War Memorial. Those are to come soon.

--f22strike