Official Day 1 of America's 9/11 Ride (Updated)

Update from the placeholder I had originally put in place.

Thanks to my wife for being sooo accommodating while I do these crazy things :)




Friday morning starts out early for the Pumper Team.  We group just down the road from the Harley dealer, on the outskirts of Somerset so we can get a quick jump out ahead of the pack. Our first destination is for a Sheetz station in Cumberland Maryland where we will take a short break and then leave a couple members of the team for any of the smaller bikes who may need fuel before Hagerstown, MD. One of the discussions amongst the team was whether to suit up for rain ...

Pumper Teams first stop in Cumberland. We had the opportunity to go through town with our police escort and were greeted by many folks who we're coming out early in preparation for the Ride coming through. As you can tell, the Pumper Team is not a small group. The ride to Cumberland as mostly along two lane country roads at a leisurely pace. Having the police escort made this ride very stress free as we moved through the countryside.

After a brief stop, we were off to Hagerstown. There the two teams manned up two different Sheets stations. Our team, Dr. Don's, were the smaller of the two teams and had the smaller Sheetz station. We were well ahead of the crowd and had plenty of time to plan how we would manager traffic in and out of the station and assign teams to each of the pumps. Our station had two pump sections and we took up one while leaving the other for normal business.

A Foundation truck appeared and in the back of the truck, were sandwiches, chips, and water from Jersey Mike's. Our lunch for this round. Everyone was able to grab lunch and then prepare for the arrival of the Ride.

The arrival of the Ride is preceded by siren's and the police escort arriving first to pump their bikes. The Motormen were routed to the pumps that we designated for credit cards unless they were paying cash. We prepped our pumps to be ready.

Dan and I had several issues getting our pump to zero out and start. It would accept my Sheetz card as advertised. I ran into the station and let them know, but they did seem to have much of an idea how to correct the issue for us. The shift manager came out to try and start the pump with no success. In the meantime Dan was having to route bikes away from our pump as another person came out from the station to help. After several minutes they were able to get the pump zeroed out for us and we were in the game and started rolling bikes.

Process was for Dan to roll the bike up near the pump and hand the person the nozzle to begin pumping. I would write down the starting dollar amount on my pad and once they handed the nozzle back to Dan, I would write down the ending amount, yell out what they owed and ask them to move forward so we could get another bike in and pumping. Over all the process worked well as most riders were prepared with small bills to pay of the rounded amounts due with the change going to the Foundation towards the funding raising  efforts. 

Once all the bikes where through and Dr. Don told us we were done, Dan secured the pump and I went inside to settle the bill with the station. Afterwards, we got the group together, providing Don with our receipts and as a group headed to the other Sheetz station to join up with the other team until it was time to depart.

The plan was that once the main group departed, that we would be positioned on the on ramp to the freeway. Once the escorts and VIP group passed, the main group would be slowed down so we could slip in behind the VIPs.

One of our motormen had locked their trunk up and the load had shifted which  had pinned the lock lever on the inside. A crew gathered to try and get the trunk opened. After several attempts at trying to shake the load loose, they were successful at popping the trunk open.

Lined up at the on ramp waiting for the main group to come by.

Dr. Don on his Indian ready for Leesburg and Arlington.

 Our ride out of Hagerstown took us along Interstate 70 to US 15 and then through the town of Leesburg, VA. Leesburg is always special as it is one of the co-founders of the Foundations home and it is always a good turn out as we ride right through downtown. An added bit of excitement for me this year was that as we were riding through the last couple of blocks of downtown I saw my wife Teri on the sidewalk taking pictures with her camera. I had been texting Teri with our status along the way and it just worked out for her to stop in Leesburg on her way home.

A view of my dash

Pumper team ready to join the Ride

Leaving Frederick MD, then crossing the Potomac River into  Virginia and heading down to Leesburg

Our greeting into Leesburg

If you blow this picture up, my wife Teri is in front of the pick-up truck on the left holding up her phone creating a video as the ride passes through town.

Rolling down the toll road towards Arlington and the host hotel for the night.

As we rolled down the toll road the group slowed down - to probably 35 mph or so. I found out later that this was done to get the group closed up as leaving Leesburg the group had become a bit spread, especially from the middle to the tail. Adding to this was the lack of support by the toll road authority in that traffic was not restricted as we went where in years past we had two full lanes to move the group through. Our ride to Arlington was just prior to traffic hour and in the opposite direction.

During this part of the ride, about half way to Arlington, I noticed my clutch starting to go. On the ride down I had not been using the clutch much but it was a hot and humid day and the slowdown made the heat worse. On a couple of occasions the clutch did not disengage and I ended up speed downshifting. Needless to say, I started to get nervous that the clutch would make it to the hotel and be able to handle parking in the underground garage. I was fortunate in that the clutch held, barely, and I was able to get the bike parked quickly at the Double Tree hotel.

Upon parking the bike, I unloaded and checked into my room. After getting settled in I went down to the bike and tested the clutch... it had returned to almost normal operation, confirming my suspicion that the hydraulic clutch fluid had overheated and as it cooled, the clutch would return to normal. I made decision at that time to take the bike home and not risk the following days ride to NY, after traffic had thinned down, and change out for the BMW. Leaving Arlington around 7pm I made the hour and twenty minute ride home through some drizzle and a thunderstorm.

Arriving home I finished buttoning up the BMW having installed a new trunk a week or so before. Once the BMW was buttoned up and wiped down, I was ready for my hour and twenty minute ride back to Arlington arriving back at the Double Tree around 11pm.

Heading down the driveway on the BMW