Ride to National WWI Museum

Staging for the ride

Looking back at all the pictures I took on Friday, it's hard to believe we fit so much into one day!  After early morning shenanigans around Chief's RV in the parking lot, we staged as a chapter in the ride to lay a wreath at the National World War I Museum in downtown Kansas City.  I'm really bad at estimating distance or quantity, but several people agreed that there must have been between 1000-1300 bikes that made the 18 mile ride from the Hilton at the airport to the museum.

23-3 taking off in the line-up

It's pretty amazing how smoothly the ride went, especially after such an eventful evening.  A storm ripped through Kansas City on Thursday night which left a wake of carnage in the vendor tent area.  Chief and Babycakes said they thought their RV was going to roll over during the storm.  There were some pretty large tree limbs scattered about on the country roads before we hit the interstates, but nothing that really affected the route.  Not only did we have law enforcement officer escort the whole way, they actually shut down the southbound lanes of the interstate for our ride!  I'm sure most of the Friday morning commuters were cursing us, but there were still some folks lined up along the roads waving flags. 

Riding into Kansas City on cleared interstate

Once at the Museum, we paid tribute to the fallen of WWI and laid a wreath in their honor.  The guest speaker at the ceremony was Medal of Honor recipient Don "Doc" Ballard.  He was awarded the MoH for his actions as a Navy corpsman with the Marines in Vietnam.  It was pretty cool to meet another Navy enlisted that went Army officer later in his career.  Chief, Kickstand, Purkiss and I got to meet him later at the hotel and hear about the great work of  the various foundations and organizations with which he is involved.

Medal of Honor recipient Don "Doc" Ballard 

After the ceremony, Lucky Joe introduced us to an iconic Kansas City BBQ joint, Gates Bar-B-Q.  Between living in North Carolina, Texas and now Kansas, I will have quite the spectrum of BBQ experiences.  Even though it's the sauce that seems to make people like one style over the other, it's the sides that sway me.  Baked beans, cole slaw, corn on the cob, potato salad- those are the flavors that conjure up happy BBQ memories from growing up. I'm looking forward to exploring the KS way of doing those sides over the next year.

Learning balance early

After BBQ, we headed back to the hotel for the delegates meeting and to check out the re-established vendor area.  The auxillary members of various chapters from around the nation set up booths and sell all kinds of unique CVMA and biker items.  The best part of the vendor area though is the people watching.  Never a dull moment!

Kickstand, Doc, Chief, Sunshine, and Purkiss

Although most folks ended up going to Worth Harley-Davidson for the CVMA bike nite, the day ended for me with more social time hanging out at Chief's RV and enjoying Babycakes' blender concoctions.  I was still suffering with a congested head and scratchy throat, so laying low with good friends was just what the doctor ordered :-)