Today is the meeting day for the 6th annual LRLR. The meeting place is Richmond VA. The meeting time, is 5:00 pm. We'll see how well that works out.

I have arranged to meet up with the other riders (the Yankees) coming out of the northeast at 11 am in the Walt Whitman rest plaza on the NJ Turnpike. My brother Mike and my nephew Mike's son) Paul are going to ride with me to the rest plaza and then hopefully for a little longer before turning back. They have obligations that preclude them from doing the entire LRLR ride.

The weather is about as perfect as it gets this time of year. A few clouds and moderate temperatures. At the appointed hour we meet up with the rest of the Yankees ... Jim Niesel, Mark Heiser, Mike Cucciarre, Cris Dopher, Scott Henkels and Shelley Seifert and our old friend in the yellow suit, Wayne Rasmussen. The ride down the NJ Turnpike is uneventful if a little uninspiring.

Lunch was held at Mike's Famous Harley Davidson Shop in Wilmington. The food isn't the best in the world but they have lots of shiny stuff in the showroom. If you go I urge you to leave your wallet in the glove box in your car. Trust me on this.

After lunch we said our goodbyes to Mike and Paul and started out for Richmond. We were resigned to the fact that it was going to be I-95 all the way but we hoped to make the best of it. The group was split up at the toll booths for the Baltimore Tunnel. Several riders did not have EZ-passes so they had to wait their turn in the cash lanes. Wayne, Jim and I couldn't find a safe spot to wait so we had to leave the others behind. Other than hitting bad traffic in northern Virginia, we had no real difficulties. It was hot, though.

We met up with the rest of the gang (horde?) at the hotel and went off to dinner. The four bikes waylaid by the toll booth joined us in time to eat. Dinner was hosted by Chief Stephen Adkin and members of the Chickahominy. They laid out a very nice spread for us including several different methods of preparing venison. It was really good. (No, it does not taste like chicken).

After dinner Chief Adkin and his assistant Wayne gave a talk on the history of the Chickahominy people. It turns out that these people were the first to greet European settles in the area back in the early 1600's. Through a series of events that, like other Native American tribes, didn't turn out well for the Chickahominy, it seems that now, 400 years after greeting and sheltering the first settlers, the tribe still does not have Federal Government recognition. But they're working on it. For more information on the Chickahiminy, please visit their website

After dinner we reconvened at the hotel to discuss the details of riding together safely and what the next day's ride to Williamstown had in store.

This is the biggest group we've ever had and it's going to be interesting to see how well we do riding together. Past experience tells us that in a day or so we'll all be riding together like we've done it for years. It should be a lot of fun.

Oh. Wait. I almost forgot. This year we have something new and different with us. A bike with a side car. Jonathan Duell and Sheryl Sturgis brought their bright yellow side car. It's really cool.

Thanks for visiting our site. See you again tomorrow.

Bill

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