Day 3 Washington, DC

Another beautiful morning for a ride. We saddled up and met at the gas station in Harpers Ferry to start the ride to D.C. Sue said traffic would be heavy if we didn't leave by 6:00 A.M. No time for coffee before we left but the air was brisk and woke me up. The ride went smoothly as we traveled East to the American Legion in Maryland. When we arrived their were several hundred bikes already there. We took our place toward the front of the line and headed in for breakfast. The Legion puts on a nice spread for $5.00. After breakfast we walked around and checked out the bikes while awaiting our escorts to head out. At 8:45 A.M. we headed out for the ride to D.C. Under police escort we rode with approximately 600 bikes to D.C. What a feeling having the parkway to yourselves as we made our journey. Every entrance was blocked by police and cars were told to pull over and wait. At the pace we were moving I'm sure there were some upset drivers. We entered D.C. and were escorted to the Potomac river park by the Jefferson monument. We parked and Bob and I headed for Thunder Alley to get our t-shirts and pins. Tracy stayed behind because the walk was about a mile and a half and her feet were hurting. Bob and I made good time to Thunder Alley and we purchased our shirts immediately. We walked (or bumped) around and headed back in about 45 minutes. The parade started and miles of bikes rode through the capitol. Bikes continued to flow through the streets for hours. Around 2:30 P.M. we decided to head back to the Legion. We left, and shortly into the ride, we were separated from half of our 9 that left with us. We hooked back up several miles down the highway but we were missing Tom. When we got to our exit everyone went to the Legion for dinner while Bob Tracy and I headed for the hotel to check in. We were concerned about Tom and no one had his cell number. Tracy and I stayed at the hotel to wait for Tom and Bob went to the Legion. We figured he has been here enough that he would find his way to one of the to places. About an hour and a half later I called Bob and he told me he just saw Tom ride by the Legion. We felt relief that he was ok and canceled the Amber Alert and A.P.B. Tracy and I remained at the hotel and ate Wendy's burgers for dinner. I loaded the photo's from this weekend and burned discs for everyone. Our total mileage for today was a short 122 miles. We hope you enjoy the pictures so far. It has been fun keeping everyone up to date on our adventure. Next stop, Carry N.C. to see my brother and his family. Stay tuned........