Rolling Thunder 2017

[CDNRatMan]

 Kodos to you DC for attending, I did have to wonder if I put three big flags like that one fella did on his Wing, my porr 800 would not be able to move.....lol.....

[mittico68]

Amazing, really amazing!
I've always envied the strong patriotism of you Americans. Hats off!

[DC]

Last one.

[DC]

Some more notable shots.

[DC]

I attended Rolling Thunder in DC the other day.  It was the first time I attended this event, although I lived in DC and the local area many years ago.  Below is an excerpt that I sent to some friends that wanted an update.  So you'll see a lot of local references in it.

Let me say, I searched for any evidence of other Drifters at the event, but found none.  That's not to say there weren't others there.  It's just I could not check on all 800,000 to 900,000 bikes there.  I will say that the new Indians were well represented.  Apparently, it's become a big seller.

I've tried to edit the language and other colloquialisms for political correctness, but you'll forgive me if there's something that's a little this or that.

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I went to Rolling Thunder in DC.  It was MASSIVE.  I've never been to a bigger ride in my life.  It was a very long day and I could write a book about it.  I hooked up with one of my riding groups at a Wawa at 420 and MacDade.  This is the Delaware County Motorcycle Riders group I belong to.  I belong to a number of groups all over southeast PA.  So 8 of us headed down.  Two Can Am trikes, an HD trike, and the rest other V-twins.

We left the Wawa at 7:30am to head down to DC.  The ride leader chose a route to avoid most of 95.  We took 95 down to Delaware, then got on some back roads to 301 through Maryland, then took 50 West into DC.  This would not have been my first choice, as I'm pretty familiar with the area from living there.  The East side of DC is the "iffy" [edited] area.  Even though we were staying on what amounted to a highway-like road like the expressway in Philly, you are in the midst of all the "iffy" stuff.  So we were riding along there and some lunatic "iffy" guy comes flying up in a car, zigzagging everywhere, probably doing 80 and on crack, where the rest of the traffic was doing around 70.  He seemed irritated that we were riding in a group in the center lane, as he was trying to blow past everyone.  Finally, he had it and said phook it.  He pulled out from another car and tried to either crash into me or run me off the road.  I had to do some quick maneuvering to avoid wiping out on the road and having all the traffic run over me at 70 mph.  Somehow, I recovered the bike and avoided going down.  Afterward, our tailgunner on the ride came up to me later and said he was amazed at how I did a quick save and didn't wipe out from being run off the road.  Frankly, it happened so fast, I have no idea what I did.  It was all instinctive, I guess since I do a lot of motorcycle safety training and accident analysis.  Anyway, aside from that, the rest of the day was uneventful from an accident perspective.

We ended up in a ton of traffic in trying to get to the Pentagon parking lots, by going through the city.  Again, local boy that I am, I would have taken the 495 beltway south and entered the Pentagon area that way.  But you don't question a ride leader.  You just follow the prescribed route.  Not a big deal though.

We had one pit stop on the way down for gas and peeing.  So we didn't really waste any time in getting down there.  I'm guessing we were there by close to 11am, as we took the longer and slower way there, and of course got held up in city traffic.

There were 5 or 6 parking lots of bikes.  We were directed to the largest lot and the last one to fill up.  There were thousands of bikes in our lot.  How many?  I have no idea.  Really, too many to count.  After we parked, I went exploring some of the other lots around the Pentagon on foot.  I certainly got my walking exercise that day.  There were other activities and pre-ride tributes going on in the other lots.  I got a few pics.

So there are close to 900,000 bikes involved in this.  The first bikes are led by police escort across the Arlington Memorial Bridge into DC.  Check out the vids below.  All in all, it takes about 4 hours to stage all these bikes through the city in manageable groups.  Being the last lot, we didn't start our ride through the city until well after 3pm.

Now to set the stage, the weather had been reporting only about a 20% chance of rain.  Okay, no biggy.  Well, around noon, we start to get a few drops, then a few more, and so on.  It wasn't an all-out rain storm, just a light sprinkle.  When it was done, I got some paper towels and dried my bike off.  Some guy said to me you'd better wait and see if it doesn't rain some more.  I said, well, we got our 20% worth.  So it shouldn't rain anymore . . . . Famous last words!

From that point until 3 pm or so, it rained on and off.  Sometimes it was very heavy.  A bunch of us ran over to a bridge and went under it to escape the downpour.  Just then the Good Humor man sees us and thinks. . . Hmmm, captive audience..  So he pulls over under the bridge and proceeds to rake in the business.  Almost everyone got an ice cream from him.  So he made a killing, even though he wasn't allowed to sell on the Pentagon property.  After a while, the rain slowed down, but didn't stop.  We were already thoroughly drenched by then, so it didn't really matter.  Some people, who wisely planned had brought their rain gear.  I don't have rain gear per se, since I don't really plan to ride in the rain.  But in the world of riding, you have to have a contingency for everything.  Some people had regular riding suits, plastic ponchos, umbrellas, and even full sized tarps.

Finally, we get the message that our lot is being staged for the ride through DC.  It took about an hour just to empty our lot.  That's how many bikes there were.  The downpours were over, but it was a light rain / drizzle going on at that point.  So we headed out of the lot and over the bridge into DC.

It was so wonderful and encouraging seeing so many people along the ride route show their appreciation for our veterans, as they braved the wet weather all day long.  People were waving, shouting, and in general showing their support.  At the end of the formal ride, we pulled over in front of a hotel so our tailgunner, a Warriors Watch Rider, could roll up his 5 or 6 flags on his trike, before the ride home.

Finally, we headed back home via the same route.  There was super heavy traffic in the city when we were heading out.  We ended up going in circles for a while, but finally got headed back out again.  Then it started raining again.  Visibility was not good, and all I could do was try to focus on a yellow rain jacket blob in front of me on the road.  We pulled over for a pit stop past Annapolis.  In checking the weather radar, we were going to be in the rain all the way up back to PA.  So we resigned ourselves to that.  I was drenched and freezing for the rest of the ride.

Originally, we were going to stop and have dinner, but most of us voted to not lose the time in getting home.  So we made one more pit stop, then the rest of the ride was a straight shot.  By the time we were on 95 again in Delaware, traffic was pretty heavy for the holiday.  You had to be super alert, since people are very distracted in this kind of driving.  The rest of my group peeled off as we headed up the Blue Route, as I headed on back home.  It was starting to get dark, and I really wanted to avoid riding in the rain, AND in the dark.  I just made it home, as darkness fell.  Drenched and cold, I peeled everything off to settle in and get into dry clothes.

All in all, it was a great day, and I was honored to be part of the 30th Annual Rolling Thunder in 2017.  This was my first one and I plan to be part of it next year too, if possible.

https://youtu.be/tV9vlkxfihg

https://youtu.be/pSbqqweusNQ

https://youtu.be/ezv4GpdJQOs
I can't understand a bloody thing this guy is saying, but he has some great shots in his video below.

https://youtu.be/OKE5r5BLk24