We awoke to a chilly morning with quite a bit of dew as well.  It’s a good thing that I took my pillow into the room last night.  We rode to the Harley shop and I went into the service dept and asked them for an oil pan.  He thought it was a strange request until he saw my bike.  He got me a pan and I started the oil draining and I went inside and purchased some oil.  It’s a good thing that I brought an oil filter with me cause they don’t stock the HD-1 that I needed.  I learned my lesson about buying oil first and getting turned down when I asked for an oil pan.  A lot of Harley shops will not allow me to change my oil in their parking lot.  The guys and gals here were great.  I had quite an audience for the oil change.  A large crowd was getting their bikes staged for a ride to Madison.  We waited for about 80-90 bikes to leave and we took off about a half hour later.

We had about 15 bikes this time.  It warmed up quite fast by the time we stopped for our first gas stop.  We were seeing a lot more bikes on the road the closer that we were getting to Milwaukee.  Ron & Maureen and Steve got off the freeway to go to their homes.  We kept going till we found a good place to get off for lunch.  Gary found a Thunder Bay Restaurant and we all had a good sandwich.  We got back on the road and followed Gary to his house, in Gurnee Illinois.  We were greeted by a smiling Nancy who was very glad to see us.  I proceeded to take the backpack off the back of my bike.  The sissy bar was broke on both sides and just hanging on by two bolts that I had welded on back in 1990 in Cody Wyoming.  That was the last time that it broke.  Gary got his little Lincoln wire feed welder set up for me, and I prepared the bar by grinding it and making some gussets for it.  After a couple of times of resetting the circuit breaker I got it all welded up nice and solid again.  I took a break and sat out back and we had some drinks and conversation.  Gary did some steaks and corn on the BBQ while Nancy made the rest of the dinner.  After dinner I put the back pack and all the rest of my stuff back on the bike and checked the primary.  I tightened the chain and added some oil.  It’s all good again.  I got my laundry out of the dryer that I had started earlier.  We are visiting while watching a little TV and will go to bed shortly to leave at 8:00 tomorrow morning to go to Miller Park for the HOG XXV party……