Hit the Road with Harley-Davidson

Million Mile Monday

By Darnell

June 17, 2009

Last June the Harley Owners Group came up with a challenge for HOG members. The idea was for HOG members to ride their bikes to work, school, shopping, wherever, and log the miles with HOG
National. The goal was to accumulate one million miles. Hence, Million Mile Monday was born. Last year HOG members logged not one, not two, but three million miles on the inaugural event.

This year Million Mile Monday was June 29th. I was able to play hooky from school (again) for a half day and ride with the Superstition HOG Chapter. We met at 6:30 a.m. on Monday morning and headed
north. It gets so hot here in Arizona in the summer, north is the only way you can go and not get heat stroke. We rode up to Christopher Creek which is 100 miles north and 3000 feet higher in
elevation. It was nice to cool off a little. After breakfast, I had to go home and hit the books. The rest of the chapter members kept going. My buddy John Cat and I rode back to the inferno, I
mean Apache Junction, together. It was 105 degrees when we hit town. There are ways to stay reasonably cool in the summer heat. It sounds worse than it was.

When I got back home, I checked my odometer, it read 203 miles. I went to the HOG website and logged my miles. The total for all HOG members for the Million Mile Monday was over 4.3 million miles!
I am going to take the entire day off next year, declaring Million Mile Monday an unofficial holiday.

Learning To Ride Part 2

By Dianne

July 16, 2009

Hi ladies!! I just realized with all the new baby excitement I never continued the learning to ride saga!! He really is cute and a good baby….going to visit with him in about 10 days. Anyway
let’s talk about me learning to ride and that MC endorsement that was taking some time to achieve!!

Winter in New Jersey was finally ending and it was time to get my Sporty out of the garage once again. I was still riding in a parking lot but this was different than running circles around factory
buildings!!!LOL John picked my new spot and it was the shopping mall that was closed on Sundays. It was a huge perimeter road with four lanes of traffic, stop signs, traffic lights and the dreaded
hill stop!! Learning to feather that clutch and how many times you can stall your bike is funny!!! But with practice I got used to it… never get discouraged..you can do anything when you are
determined.

After several weeks of this John asked me the question as we were pulling my bike to the end of our driveway….are you ready for the open road? I said sure why not..it’s about time I put all my
effort and his into really riding.

So off we went riding side by side in our neighborhood. Our mailman was on his route. He rides a Sporty also. He started waving and hooting and hollering as we rode by and shouted out ” Way to go
Di”!!! We came back around our block to the house and John shouted do you want to ride some more and my response was absolutely. Once I started I didn’t want to stop. That entire riding season I
rode with my permit side by side with my wonderful soulmate who taught me to ride. It was my determination and his encouragement that got me to really ride!! We wnet many different places
throughout the year including a fun ride to the Jersey Shore for the annual ROAR TO THE SHORE rally. It was a great time and I was so proud to be riding my own bike. It is so different being a
rider and not a passenger but sometimes you have to take small steps to get to the main goal.

Now I was riding through a full season but still no endorsement. Well I figured John is riding with me so why push for that. After all I am riding!!  Anyway at the end of riding season came
the ultimatum…..”go to the safety course or I don’t ride with you anymore”. John was determined to have me perfect my skills. So stay tuned and see what happens after this
second winter season in New Jersey!!