This day was earlier than usual.  It was up at 5:30 to be at the other motel for a 7:00 departure time.  We have about 420 miles to go and we lose another hour with the time change.  The first 110 mile fuel run was a bit chilly. We have 11 bikes with us as Gene, another Motor Company executive in charge of Sales for North America, joined us on his new Screaming Eagle Harley. After a few cups of coffee and hot coco were downed we continued on to our next fuel stop.  The terrain offered us a vast contrast of high dessert and very colorful rock formations that took centuries to be molded into the smooth shapes that we see today.  The interstate took us along the southern boundary of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, shortly after entering North Dakota. We were beginning to warm up a bit after feeling the sun’s effects.  Our lunch stop found us in Dickinson, at a quaint soda fountain type of restaurant. Some of us even felt brave enough to have shakes!  More fuel and we did our last leg of the day as we entered Bismarck and went to our respective motels.  

Noel & Yvette gave me the Holiday Inn Express phone number in the morning so I booked a room there.  I followed them to the motel where we all checked in and took off to the Harley shop for the planned festivities. We were ushered around the side of the building to park and I kept going around till I got to the tables of people and food and found my ‘special’ parking spot, right in the middle of everything.  The bike was very popular right away.  As soon as I got off the bike, a gal who works at the dealership came running up to me from the crowd yelling, “Milo, it’s great to see you again”, and gave me a big hug.  She had a smile on her face from ear to ear. Her name tag said Nancy so I called her by name and pretended that I knew her and went along with it.  As I was hugging her in front of a large audience, I asked her, “Do you want to tell me or do I have to ask”. She told me that an Englishman (Tony) was through there in the morning and told her to set me up!  I handled it pretty good as everyone in the crowd thought that we had known each other for a long time.  I also met Mike who told me he was one of the original founders of the ‘Run for the Wall’.  I talked to quite a few people there and made a lot of new friends.  A guy nicknamed Pappy used to live in Cottage Groove, Oregon 45 miles north of Roseburg.  He told me that he had been seeing me and my rat bike at a lot of runs for a long time.  Ron Hutchinson, the H-D V.P., took the microphone after he was introduced and delivered a very good talk about the ‘Harley family’, and all the benefits that go along with being involved.  He did a great job and the rest of the Harley Exec.’s that we are riding with were introduced as well.  Noel, Yvette and I left to go back to the motel for the night and said goodbye to everyone. This was a very good stop for the PR involved.  The closer that we get to Milwaukee, the more involved and interactive the crowd seems to be.  W e will have two groups leaving in the morning as there is a new dealership that needs to be attended to, so I’m leaving with the early group and will put about 80 extra miles on over the planned route.  It’s already 10:00 here so…….