Regional rallies are a great way to get the chance to ride in places of the country that you normally wouldn’t get to go, whether its due to distance or time, or both. If you have never attended a rally you are missing out on a lot of fun, great scenery, making new friends, and of course a lot of riding.
Recently a small group from the chapter attended the Battle Cry of Freedom regional HOG rally in Gettysburg PA. This included myself, Dave and Erika Hahn, Tim Meyer, Chuck Smick, and Rich Novak. The six of us headed out early Tuesday morning (August 15) mostly following a rout designed my our assistant director Ian, due to an injury he could not go with us. The ride was long but a lot of fun, especially riding through the mountains of western PA, the weather was good, and we were pretty tired by the time we got to our hotels.
Battlefield H-D was the host dealership for the week and they did a great job. There were of course vendor, food trucks, music (live bands on Friday and Saturday), and a demo truck with around 2 dozen different bikes to test ride. With plenty of rides to chose from, you could to either self-led rides or led rides, or both. And of courser there was the town of Gettysburg and the battlefield to tour so we were definitely spoiled for options.
Our plans were pretty loose with our plans, as long as we were all back to go to dinner as a group. Wednesday was spent mostly just hanging around the rally area, though each day Tim went off to do a group ride. Thursday five of us did a bus tour of the battlefield, and got to watch an impromptu air battle between a hawk and turkey vulture at Pickets Charge.
Friday Chuck and Tim went on a led ride and had a good time. Dave, Erika and Rich went into town and as for myself I did a self-led ride through PA and Maryland for a few hours and spent the remainder of the day doing test rides. The last day Tim, of course went on a group ride and the rest of us explored PA more and stopped at a few dealerships in the area.
Finally on Sunday it was time to say goodbye to Gettysburg and make the long ride home. All in all we had a great time, got to see some great history and ride some great roads.
