Ride Journal
May 18, Day 6, Des Moines to Davenport, Iowa
As far as the PVA (Paralyzed Veterans of America) trying to give the donation money back to us for last night's dinner, we ended up giving it all back to them, as they would probably put it to better used than we would.
We got up at 5:40 again and we had a light breakfast at the motel. We then rode over to a fire hall for our morning meeting and more coffee and juice. Mike and his brother Tom were going to stay there for an extra day and let Mike's back have a break from riding. Jeff, from Cottage Grove, Oregon (45 minutes north of Roseburg) rode a little south of Des Moines last night and picked up his daughter, Tiffany, who is going to school in Iowa. When they got back I met her in the hallway. I shook her hand and they were freezing cold, probably the rest of her was too. I think that it's a great thing when family can get together, especially when they live so far apart. I think that Mike & Tom are going to take her back home today.
We rode over to a local school to greet kids who are in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC). We were told that there were 1,000 kids in the school and that 200 of them are in the JROTC. They did a small demonstration of presenting the colors and then they all intermingled with us and thanked us for being there.
It was yet another chilly morning as we headed up to Marshalltown to visit at the State Veterans home. The sun was just starting to peek out at us after we arrived. I asked about CY, a resident for quite a while. Last year he was 103 years young, and we all looked forward to seeing him every year. It seems that last year was our last time to see him. He did not make it to 104. There were at least a half dozen resident veterans who asked me if I still had the same engine that I had to replace last year. They may be old but they remembered my engine swap story from last year! They were very glad that we came back again. We gave out a lot of pins and buttons and cards for them to have. They had a very good lunch waiting for us during our hour and a half stay there. Rhonda gave me a cooler cup holder from Iowa that I put on as my left handle bar grip. The last one of them had worn away. Rhonda is a local rider from Des Moines who has a very good looking black, low, bagger with awesome deep blue flames and lots of chrome. She was handing out cookies to every one as we were preparing to depart. All the riders from Des Moines were very good to be around and they all liked to have fun riding too. Too bad that they couldn't join us for more of the trip. We said good bye to the residents and some of the other riders who rode a short way with us before going their own way.
The wind was really starting to pick up a LOT! We hit another fuel stop shortly after we got back on I-80. The bikes looked like they were trying to fall over while they were parked the wind was blowing that hard. Lon’s wife Mary B got off their bike and got in one of the support rigs as did Jackie too. The wind was blowing into us directly from the south, trying to push us into the fast lane. We rode another 55 miles to Iowa City where we were picked up by a police escort to the VAMC for another visit with the veterans. Aloha's front shifter spline stripped out as soon as we pulled in and he could not down shift. I tried to take the rear one off to put it up front but it was Loctited too hard. The allen head was trying to strip out. We showed him how to shift using the back one only and he headed off to the Harley shop for the 2nd time on the trip. They got him fixed up. I met the Chief of Staff of the hospital, John Cowdery. He is standing by my bike and shaking hands with me. He said that he has never saw a bike like mine before. He was a very easy guy to talk to. A just out of the service new guy to the hospital is Nigel, who is also shaking hands with me by my bike. Ed (Silvertop) asked Lee Paterson if he wanted to ride the missing man formation. Lee said sure and was getting schooled on what his duties were to be. A Welcome group donated a few boxes of apples and bananas to our ride.
We then headed off with a police escort to get to the windy highway again. 40 miles more we were picked up by two motor cop escorts who took us off the exit only to get right back on the highway again. We saw a lot of riders waiting at the truck stop for us to pass so they could ride with us into Davenport. They were probably another 40 more bikes for the last leg of the days journey.
The police escort took us through town with all the intersections taken care of by the police dept. into the Davenport All Veterans Memorial in the middle of a beautiful cemetery. I saw a lot of friends from past rides including Pam from the local HOG group. Frank and Mike are a couple of Marines who rode with us a couple of years ago. They were part of an awesome ceremony that was our pleasure to watch again. Everyone did an excellent job and Steve was presented a rose in Michelle's honor from the main gal doing the ceremony.
We rode off following the escort again to go to a new VFW Hall for dinner. We all had good conversation with old friends and we met new friends as well. Tim & Sandy are locals who we were sharing a table with. They were a nice couple to talk to. We then headed to the Clarion Hotel for the evening. Gary, Terry and I got into the hot tub which could have been hotter. We dove into the cold pool and then back into the hot tub and it felt hotter for a while. Time to go to the room for the night. Gary & Jeff have the room next to ours and the between door is open for conversation. More tomorrow............
