Who is riding on Sunday?

I will be for the first time.

I will just do the Patriot ride to Pentagon with Patriot Harley and once I get down to Pentagon, skip out and come back home.

Rolling Thunder takes too long and lot of standing around and tedious.

You should at least consider riding down with Patriot Harley to the Pentagon with us.  If you never done RT, you should at least experience it and do the RT at least once.

Bring plenty of water(freeze it overnight), sun tan lotion, something to shade yourself from the sun.  Some type of chair would be nice as well if you can swing it on the bike somehow.  
Don't overdress, the first year I did it with my daughter, Safety was my concern, we were both in full leather and full face helmet.  Man did it get hot.  Don't get me wrong, I still wear leather, but my perforated leather.
The ride in the morning can still be chilly, but by noon, you will be hot in leather.  not sure what type of bike you have, but if you don't have bag or luggage, bring some type of cargo net to hold your stuff.

LMK if you want to hook up together for the Patriot ride down.  I will probably bring my daughter in tow.

In September, consider riding the Rattle the Runway.  That one is fun too and you get typically get to go into Hdar Air and Space museum by yourself and it's not open to the general public yet .

I will be riding in from Whitts HD in Manassas.....doing the break off to go into DC and hang out.....have done the actual rolling thunder before and it is a lot of waiting around and getting hot....well worth it though for the experience

Bill

Thanks, Folks, for representing.

I'll meet up with a Brother from Massachusetts at The Wall Saturday,
where his eldest Brother's name is inscribed, along with 71 others from
"our" unit in Vietnam.... and of those, there are two still MIA..

at the risk of being trite, that has always been the reason for
ROLLING THUNDER.

Ride safely!

I might see you at the Wall on Saturday......CVMA is riding to the Wall and placing a wreath at about noon

Bill

Thanks for the offer, but I'm riding with a group from Arlington.  Already expecting the hurry up and wait, just like in the army.

Bike is a Kawasaki Vulcan 900 classic with bags on it,   have perforated gear, and was planning on some bungy cords to hold stuff on the rack if needed.

http://vid22.photobucket.com/albums/b323/fn111557/MyToys/Spyder/WP_20150523_16_32_00_Pro.mp4





 
 

Is that a single cylinder?  What size?

My daughter painted her nails for the ride



Here is my bike for the day:

Lumpy,

Sorry I somehow missed the part about you being down there today.  We rode down this morning to get some t-shirts and walk around before the big crowds tomorrow.

I'm the one on the left in the Army hat.

Sorry I missed out this time, VaF-
my pal never reached me-
maybe he didn't have my latest phone number.

another time.

Please remember to "sign out and back in" sometime
tomorrow...

and thanks for being there....

Just got back. Wife and I went. Now I am sun burnt and my ass hurts from the long ride.

There were some US Army SRT folks providing over-watch.

Making plans for next year.

I'm thankful if everybody made it back in one piece.  I rode in RT for 13 years way back when and it was one very dangerous ride.  There were people with zero group riding skills riding four abreast when we used to go down Penn Ave swing around and come back on Const. to the Wall before they changed the route.  You'd see speeds from 5mph to 50mph, brake hard, formation turn left and come hard down Const.  We had three years running where there were half a dozen folks that went down, a couple seriously injured (broken bones) simply because they were riding above their level.  Then the Park Service did their best to make it as difficult as possible with no parking on Const. Ave., forcing everyone to park a long way off and walk.  A lot of politics involved back then.

I had to stop riding due to medical reasons so I don't know what it's like now.

Folks also started forgetting what the ride was really about and considered it a party ride.  It is not.  It is and should be a solemn event to honor vets from all conflicts.  It's not an event to show off your bare ass in chaps which I did see one year by some girl who had no idea or understanding what we were doing there. Just my opinion.

it is sad that some have no real focus on the importance and true meaning
of the event...
I have yet to ride in Rolling Thunder, except on four wheels in a longbed
pickup to help some who broke down-
- missed the last three years due health and logistics circumstances beyond my control-
but maybe in coming years, will ride!!

Served in Vietnam 11 months of 1970.

Welcome Home!!

This was my third year doing it and it seemed to have gotten bigger since the first year and about the same as last. Took this panoramic shot from within the parking lot



This one made it to the Rolling Thunder FB page

With no experience riding in previous years, I think it is a bit better, but from what I heard there were still several accidents.  It is not the place for novice riders.  There was one guy in our group who was still on his learners permit and had only been riding street bikes 4 weeks.  He wisely decided to ride down to DC early, hang out on the mall and watch.

(1:30 / 3:28)

Those are actually Pentagon Force Protection Agency folks.