Factory tour and hanging out

Kansas City Harley-Davidson factory

Looks like I'm gonna have to back up a bit to catch y'all up.  I've been so busy riding and hanging out with my CVMA family that I just haven't had time to post.

Although this whole trip is centered around the National meeting for our organization, there are always other events besides the annual meeting going on as well.  The host hotel was just up the road from the Kansas City Harley-Davidson factory where they produce the Sportster, Dyna, Street and V-rod series of motorcycles, which provided a great excursion on Thursday.

Starry, Babycakes, Lucky Joe, Chief, Kickstand, Bonnie, Freebird and Body Slam

The factory was in a some type of transition, so we got to see some production out on the factory floor, but it wasn't the hub of activity we were hoping for.  Now that I will be in this area for a while, I'll have to go back and take the tour again once they are up and running with their new assembly lines.  It was still fascinating to learn about the point when a new Harley is considered a unique bike and no longer just parts being assembled.

Bonnie, Al, Jump Master, Freebird, Body Slam, Hooker and Princess

Pretty much the rest of the day was spent just hanging out and socializing.  This trip was the maiden voyage for Chief and Babycakes' new RV.  There were some vendor RVs staged out in the back parking lot, but Chief's was the only one out front.  He parked it on the edge of the parking lot so we were not only able to park our bikes next to it most of the time, but there was also a nice little side yard of grass for us to hang out on.  His bike trailer ended up doubling as seating and a pseudo bar and the  RV the hang-out and rally point for much of the rest of the week.

Gunny, Warrant's mom and Warrant

At this point I should probably mention that all these shenanigans were happening at a fairly swanky Hilton Hotel.  The place is near the airport and had quite a bit of meeting space, so it's obvious that this is a common place to hold large meetings and conventions.  In fact, there was another large meeting happening simultaneously with ours.  I literally busted out laughing when I saw another  registration table set up near ours labeled "Gambling and Addictions Counselors Meeting."  I kick myself now for not taking a picture of one of the signs that I walked past everyday!  I stopped and asked one of the women manning their registration table if she knew who our organization was.  She smiled sweetly and replied that yes, they had looked it up and were thinking about putting some flyers out :-)   

Sunshine and Starry (photo by Body Slam)

Over 500 bikers staying at one hotel can definitely be intimidating to other guests and I genuinely felt bad for the  non-biker guests at the hotel.  From the flight crews getting off the airport shuttle at the hotel to the random families in minivans, the look on their faces indicated that the hotel had not informed them of our event when they booked.  Though there were large groups of leather-clad, scruffy looking folks milling about drinking and telling stories, there were no fights or drunken disorderly events typically associated with this kind of group.  I'm not sure if our presence helped to change the biker stereotype or added to it.

All in all, it was a nice relaxing day as we geared up for the days ahead.