Bike Nights Begin

We love Thursdays in the summer because it is bike night.  Both Motor Bar at the Harley-Davidson Museum and the Iron Horse Hotel host bike nights all summer long.  We have a long-running tradition of getting on the bike and heading to Conejito's which is right across the street from the Iron Horse for a quick, cheap dinner.  It starts with a small pitcher of margaritas and an order of chips and salsa.  We order our inexpensive dinners that are served on paper plates, enjoy the margaritas then pay bill which is always less than $20 and head out. 

We start at the Motor Bar which is on the other side of the Iron Horse Hotel.  We park and take a random walk around the grounds.  There are lots of theme nights however, I don't think there's one on this night.  Lots of people are out and we look for familiar faces.  Usually our Milwaukee HOG chapter friends are somewhere in sight.  And sure enough, we found them at a large table inside the bar.  That's rare, this group usually has a long table close to the canal outside on the east side of the bar (where the shade is).  Anyway we stop and say hi only to find out that one of our favorite people in this group has had a stroke over the winter.  Although he is better and was in attendance with the group, it's always hard to hear about things like this.  It's another reminder of how our group is aging and of our own mortality.  We usually just walk off our margaritas here, it's not exactly our favorite hang-out so we don't stay long.

We head next door to the Iron Horse Hotel.  The Yard is open.  It is a comfortable outdoor bar with a great view and wonderful comfy seating.  Whether we sit under the pergola, by the fire, at the bar or on one of the many sofas, it's a nice place to be.  We relaxed on a sofa and people-watched for a while and enjoyed our cocktails.

Tonight's theme for their opening night is the BUILD Moto Mentor program.  The local high school students compete by each school building a motorcycle and they are all on display in the special motorcycle parking area. It's amazing that these bikes are all done by 15 & 16 year olds. We stopped and chatted with a few of the builders. They seem so mature for their ages. 

The weather was perfect until about 8:30.  The skies turned an ominous gray-black and the clouds were moving in circular formations and a quick rate.  So we quickly got on our bike to head home. On the road we felt like we were just a half-step ahead of the storm.  Even a driver next to us shouted, "don't worry, I think you'll make it before the rain".  And it turned out he was right. We pulled onto our street and felt a few drops on us.  As we got in the garage, the rain started coming down in buckets.  I swear Mother Nature was waiting for us to get home.  It was that close. We sat on the porch and watched it rain grateful that we left the bar at the right time. 

Here's to many more Thursday night bike nights.