Which one will Blue choose?

Whichever one he chooses to rent the ride will be memorable.

Time for a tune up

Sunny and warm is today's forecast. Getting an oil change and some general maintenance done and then a little riding to complete the day. This is going to be a good trip. Turns out the bike needs a couple of things repaired in addition to fresh oil. Nothing major but glad it was discovered before we leave rather than on the road. Bike is back home after some serious riding today handled well and I'm ready to go.

Only 29 days left before departure

It's hard to believe that in less than one month we will be putting kickstands up and departing for Rolling Thunder with an internationl contingent of veterans. We will also see a reunion of the cast of characters that rode over 6,000 miles together to the Pacific Northwest and back in 2010. Blue will be riding with us this time on a Harley instead of in Ralph's truck. He will be accompanied by Tamara who will be linking up with him here in Detroit as she arrives from Australia and Blue flies in from England. Jim Mulanix will be riding north out of Florida and we're hoping Ralph will come up from South Carolina to link up with us in DC to complete the reunion of the "gang of four". If Ralph can't make it we will link up with him in Summerville, SC. While in DC we'll link up with Bill Brown, another submarine veteran, and hopefully David Rivera and the crew of Capitol Base SSMC who were such great hosts in 2011 when Jim and I made our first Rolling Thunder ride. Art has gotten his motorcycle rebuilt and with a few more adjustments it will be ready for his first visit to the Wall and also his first long range motorcycle ride. This trip will be somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 miles depending on how many side trips we take in places like DC, Charleston SC area, Smokey Mountains and along the way in West Virginia. We've even added the USS Cod and an overnight stay aboard the boat in Cleveland, Ohio. Ralph Luther and his lovely wife, Sharon will be our hosts for a few days in South Carolina, Bob and Pat Mazurkiewicz will be our hosts in Blountville, Tennessee. Bob (Zerk) and I served together aboard USS Skipjack SSN 585 in the middle '60's. Paul Farace will be our host when we arrive in Cleveland to tour the Cod and enjoy some good old fashioned "diesel boat" hospitality. The only thing remaining is for the weather to finally turn "springlike" and for the rain to end. Maybe I'll have to contact my friend and shipmate, Walt Specht, and see if he can get the "Georgia sorceress" to lift the rain hex on us. More to come and lots of photos when we get underway

52 Days until departure

Time to crank up the countdown calendar and wrap up the plans for this trip. My old shipmate, "Zerk",has offered to help arrange accommodations for the "Tail of the Dragon" segment so I'll be contacting him this week. Next thing to do is get the bike ready by getting it off the lift and start getting the winter cobwebs cleaned off. Spring looks like it might show up this week so it's time to get cracking.