Armed Forces Day Ride and Event

We met the Legion Riders in the parking lot of Brookfield Square so we could all ride over to Hal's Harley-Davidson together.  We were leading the parade today so it was best to get there as a group.  The bad part about that is we have to be there way before the start of the parade so we are staged in the correct order.  The good part is Hal's HOG chapter is hosting a free pancake breakfast so at least there's a social event to fill the time while we wait and remove some of the boredom. 

One thing about waiting for a parade to begin is that we always meet really cool people.  Today was no exception. We met a serviceman who was just transferred to the Milwaukee area.  We hope our converstaion made him feel welcome here.  We also met a real live general.  He was going to speak at the ceremony today.  We had a nice chat and discovered that he will be leading the parade with us today.  This day is getting better already. There was also a cameraman from FoxNews who was going along with us today. He filmed the entire event.

The ride started at Hal's Harley-Davidson on Moorland Road and ended at the Harley-Davidson Museum.  It was quite a long way to go.  The route was controlled by local police and the HOG chapter road guards so we never had to stop at the intersections.  I love those kind of rides. 

When we got to the museum we parked and headed to the bar for a morning Bloody Mary then sat and enjoyed hanging out and listened to the Legion band play on this beautiful day.

The speakers at this event were all military people (of course) and Jeff is never shy about talking with any or all of them so off he went to say hi to the color guard, the Navy people, and the speakers for today's event. As for me, I loved the tank display. They even let me climb in and operate it. I could move the turret from left to right and back again while pretending to aim and shoot those big guns. It was quite and incredible point of view and not easy to climb in and out of. But it sure was cool.

The ceremony ended with the solemn laying of the wreath on the water which was a proper way to conclude the event.