Yesterday which was Sunday we decided to head in the opposite direction from where we live since we had been through Gettysburg the day before we decided to head to Lancaster, which is always a good ride. Since I had my camera in hand the duck next door was making so much ruckus I had to take a look, it was in the very small pond so I took a photo, it’s almost bigger than the pond, I didn’t see the smaller black one, but usually they get in there together to wash and cool off.

We headed to Long’s Park in Lancaster because we like to watch people, usually during the Summer they have live music and different events going, but yesterday was just families having picnics and strolling around the pond. All over the park they have signs like the one below that clearly states not to feed the water fowl, but in the next photo 3 little kids armed with 2 bags of bread and their parents totally ignore the signs as did many others as we watched.

Before loading up I took a photo of Bill and the trike so you could see what a good job he did adding my passenger armrests. The day looked perfect and sunny so we headed toward The Buck because the countryside is so beautiful and there are usually a lot of Amish buggy’s going back and forth and I wanted to take some pictures. I had intended to have Bill pull over when I saw a great view and get some photo’s, but dark ugly storm clouds started rolling in and we were trying to outrun them.

I managed to snap a few photo’s as we sped past and really couldn’t tell if I had taken any real pictures. My camera isn’t the best so I was really surprised that I captured anything. We were lucky and Bill was speeding for the most part, all we got were a few drops and it was so weird because the sun was shining bright on one side and the dark clouds were on the other. We had planned to stop at Mac’s Drive-in and have a fresh strawberry sundae, but we were in a hurry by then, all in all it was another great day.

We had a really nice weekend, Saturday we rode 55 miles for a motorcycle open house in Chambersburg, PA and were considering getting a dream catcher put on the trike, but the artist was too expensive for us right now it cost 800 dollars. I snapped a couple photo’s of his bike because I thought it was cool. There weren’t as many bikers there as other open houses we’ve been to and very few vendors, but we totally enjoyed the ride and got to check out quite a few trikes, we put over 100 miles on the trike.

We enjoyed our day and time together and later last night we took the Suzuki and scooter for a spin around 9 in the evening so we had a full day of riding, since we had a free meal at the open house we decided to snack on crab legs and steamed shrimp. The day was excellent and I didn’t get much done in my virtual online world, but that’s okay because the real world on the weekends are much more important. Weekdays when Bill is working gives me plenty of time online, so weekends are for us. Tomorrow I’ll post about our ride today to Lancaster.

What a long weekend and it turned out very nice for riding the trike, we put a lot of miles on it. I think I mentioned that we had gel inlays sewn into the seat of the trike, mine is very comfortable now, but Bill says his feels the same as before which is weird because his is double. We had to use the sheep skin on his seat  yesterday so his tale bone wouldn’t hurt so bad. He was going to buy those gel pads that you just lay on your seats to relieve pressure points until we saw Mike at this one motorcycle event we stopped at.

We watched Mike do it right on the spot and it only took about 30 minutes to take the seat apart and insert the gel. This guy travels to a lot of motorcycle events all over and I took one of his cards so I could check out his web site which is Real Deal Customs. I told him I’d leave a comment about how well I liked it, which I really do, but I don’t want to leave a negative comment about Bill’s part till we get it looked at. We might have to take a ride down to Cecil County in Maryland to see if there’s something Mike can do.

It would be a nice ride and if we take I-83 the Google map says we’ll get there in an hour and 45 minutes, but we’ll take the GPS just encase we get lost. We’ve been known to ride around in circles and we’re both good at getting lost so that Gps really comes in handy for us. We need to get a mount for the motorcycle though because I don’t want to hold it all the way down. I was so happy that Bill was able to come up with another way to mount my passenger arm rests on the trike now I feel like I could ride for hours.

What more could an old broad ask for, gel for her butt, all kicked back with her arm rests which has a cup holder for her water and the man she loves cruising along enjoying God’s country, almost heaven. He jokingly said he’d strap a DVD player to his helmet so I can watch movies on those long trips, I prefer looking at scenery though so that’s out. Seriously though I’m quite happy with this setup and I feel more secure as I get older riding on this trike instead of the Harley Softail we use to have or the Harley Dresser we traded in.

We had a great ride today on the trike, it was hot and sunny and I made sure I had sunblock on because last year I didn’t and got totally burnt up and under my eyes didn’t get sun and I looked like a raccoon all year except I had white all around my eyes instead of dark circles. I am so happy with the trike and I feel more secure now even though Bill has always been a very safe rider and we never take chances, but still because of a lot of friends wrecking I of course worried.

Bill’s been riding for 45 years and he’s a very safe and cautious rider and I feel totally at ease when I ride behind him. When they stopped the helmet law, I decided not to wear one and so did he for awhile, but then he felt he was sending a bad signal to his son who also rides so he decided to wear his helmet again. He worries a lot about his son, even though he’s in his 30’s and a very safe rider himself because Bill taught him.

When I was younger and rode with my friends I don’t remember ever seeing the bikers acknowledging each other with a hand gesture as they do now, but Bill tells me he and his Dad always have. It seems that bikers have grown into a more respectful and courteous bunch than the biker gangs of old and just because you ride a bike now it doesn’t mean you are a rebel looking for trouble. People from all walks of life enjoy this past time.

The Vietnam Vet really took to this and every year there is a motorcycle ride to visit The Wall in Washington. I have never been on this ride, but I’m sure it would be an exhilarating experience, but from what I’ve heard from those that have made the run is that it’s slow going once you get there and it’s hard on the bikes with all the idling and gear changes, but it’s a respectful thing to do with all your brothers to honor those that didn’t make it back.

Bill and I have been together six years and I love riding behind him and that’s when I first noticed the greeting he always gave to other bikers. I didn’t ask him about it because I didn’t want him to think I was stupid so I simply watched and observed. I have never seen him give the wave or nod to crotch rockets or mopeds unless it’s an older gentleman and it’s done out of respect, it’s funny now that we have the trike every time we pass one he gives a big thumbs up.

I have no clue if it’s an equality thing or not, like since you ride the same thing as I do you have my full respect therefore I salute you or if it’s simply showing respect for the freedom to ride and enjoying the same thing. I have seen Bill use the arm extended down with 1 finger pointed out, the arm extended 2 finger flip, arm extended with palm out, fingers extended from the handle bar and a nod of the head.

He always laughs when someone puts their hand up in the air and waves, I have heard this called the geek wave and I’m sure there are many other names for it. Bikers sometimes get offended when they make a gesture and it isn’t returned, like when he started wearing his helmet again and he would make the hand gesture to someone who wasn’t and if they didn’t return the same he thought they thought he was a wimp for wearing his helmet or maybe he just said that to make me laugh.

I ordered my passenger arm rests from J&P cycles online they were a bit expensive, but then anything you buy any more has an inflated price especially accessories for a Harley even the after market products are high that’s why we love swap meets sometimes we have found some really good deals. I was so excited to get them and it only took 3 days, I opened the box and stared at the chrome and imagined them already on the bike and traveling in luxury with my cup holder attached.

I was horrified when we tried to put them on last night and the darn things didn’t fit. The instructions they sent also sucked so I went online to see if I could find better ones, I found it funny when I typed in “passenger arm rests for champion trikes” and my blog was first on the search list. When we ordered them we hadn’t really thought about maybe they wouldn’t be usable for a trike because I’ve seen them on trikes before. Bill tried every position possible and even raised the tour pack because there wasn’t much space to add them.

If we still had the 2 wheel Harley dresser they would have been a piece of cake to add, talk about frustration and my vision of luxury and comfort going down the drain. Bill said this morning that he may be able to modify it with a length of steel attached under the tour pack so he could extend the holes out further and make it possible for me to have these, if anyone can come up with an idea that will work it’s Bill and not destroy the trike in the process or make it look dorky.

The thought of repacking my beautiful passenger arm rests and sending them back feels me with dread. At any rate I hope everyone has a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend with sunny skys we’re suppose to have rain all weekend, but that’s subject to change although it doesn’t look very promising right now.

We are trikeless at the moment we had to take it to Laugerman Harley Davidson because the belt is too tight and riding it like it is could mess up the bearings and it could possibly snap while riding. Of course we didn’t have any reason to check that when we bought it 2 weeks ago, luckily we went to a Champion trike kit dealer because we were looking for hand grips for it and the guy decided to pick it apart because we hadn’t waited and purchased one from him.

At least we found out about that before we did some real damage so hopefully it will be fixed by the weekend so we can ride. Bill also decided to have the Screaming Eagle stage 1 kit added so it’ll get better performance, but we’ll lose gas mileage. He really liked that in the Harley Dresser we traded in. This makes 2 things so far that haven’t been right since we bought it. The first was the voltage regulator 4 days after we had it, I certainly hope we don’t find any more things wrong.

In the near future Bill is going to get these armrests for me since I don’t have the hand rails or whatever they’re called it should make it a lot more comfortable on long trips and they swing out so they don’t interfere when you mount and dismount. Last week he moved the tour pack back about an inch because it was pressing into my back and now it’s so much more comfortable to ride. I’m really glad we got the trike and even Bill is happy with it we even ride more now because it’s easier in traffic. Bill still says he feels like a sissy sometimes.

I heard on the news last night that the Harley Plant in York may be closing down and moving elsewhere now that would be a real shame. They’ve already laid off quite a few and so many other companies in our area have shut down. Even Bill’s company has put their employee’s on part time it’s getting really scary. Bill’s Son works at a place that makes metal skids for Harley and there are only 3 left in his division. He said his company might move him out of state, I certainly hope it doesn’t come to that.

I spent the morning outside doing yard work and my back is starting to pull so I need to go soak it. I’ll try to get some other stuff done online a bit later so you all have a great one.