Just bought my FLHRC three months ago and figured I had to hit the 105th as a first time Harley Owner. Had Jap bikes on and off since I was 18, always dreamed, and at 38 the dream came true.

Let me just say, that the thought, the desire, the dream has been all that I had expected.

To start off, I headed up to the 105th by myself. No wife, no kids, no friends, just me. I did have a buddy that backed out on me, but that was OK. A bunch of co-workers thought I was crazy taking off by myself. I said, hell there are going to be 60,000 - 100,000 people there, I'm sure I can find someone to talk to.

Rolling into town on Wednesday, the city of Milwaukee made me feel so welcome and proud to be a HD owner. Soo many people on the overpasses waving to all of us rolling in, posters and signs made up saying "Welcome Home!". Now I'm sure a lot of them were HD workers, but this was happening all weekend long and out on the country roads too, women with their little ones waving to all of us. The Milwaukee Police Dept. deserves kudos too. I did not see one instance of any police officer harassing, shaking their head's, or giving any hard times to any of us. Everyone extremely patient and helpful. I also must give kudo's to all of my fellow HD owners.... I'm sure there may have been a rare case or two of some rowdiness, but I personally didn't experience any of it. Everywhere I went, it was riders just hanging having a good time. No attitudes. I could not have dreamed of having a better experience overall.

All the free entertainment was incredible. Lynrd Skynrd was great the first night at HOG Haven. Looking at the sea of bikes parked in lots at Miller Park was absolutely incredible. Sugarland, great show, Kid Rock better show, ZZ Top, etc.... The list goes on and on...

Milwuakee HD, deserves major Kudo's too.... They had their service dept. open 24hrs/day during the rally and some form of entertainment. Bikini bike washes, TWWL, Midget wrestling and more... Always something going on there 24 hours a day.

Wisconsin HD and Hal's had great entertainment and shows going on through the day, less crowded and still just as fun. Although I went to go to Wisconsin HD one of the days for the $7.50 all you can eat breakfast and they ran out of food just as I got in line. My bad for draggin a$$ that day from the night before and not getting there until 40 minutes before the breakfast was supposed to end though. Hal's had a stage are with entertainment and bands playing too.

All the dealerships had large vendor areas (Milwaukee and Hal's being the largest), that had real time artists and vendors doing work on your bikes as you waited.... Pinstriping, audio setups, new tires, bikini washes, and more stuff than I can even remember....

Knucklehead bar and grill was a great place to nurse my hang-over and grab an awesome burger and screwdriver (nutritional ) Moseyed on over the Knucklefest, which was a great place to go hang-out with a much more manageable sized crowd.

Also did Waukeshaw, I didn't stay for the concerts (Montgomery Gentry), but had a real nice time in the town, LOVED House of Guinness, the owner is from Whales and met a few guys there, bought me a round and just friendly people. The food/drink area at the festival was nice with 0 lines when I was there, but I didn't like how they had a "TICKET" system. I prefer just to hand you by $5 for a beer and be on my way.

Someone gave me a free ticket to see Springsteen, so I went over there on Saturday night, he did a great job getting into it with the crowd and luckily only spewed liberal non-sense in between one song. He went on damn near four hours straight. I'm not a big fan of his and honestly probably would have rather been over at Summerfest watching Puddle of Mud and Daughtry. But I guess I can at least say I saw the "Boss" in concert and hell I didn't pay anything for it. The guy who gave me the ticket bought me a few rounds, so all and all, good times.

All of this was a great time, but there were a few downsides too. One the crowd at Miller Park for the HOG 25th was INSANE. HOG should have rented out the entire park, not just the lots. Only those of you who were there know what I am talking about. Two hour lines to get a beer, took me just an hour to get a friggin' snow cone cause that was the shortest line. When I was walking to the stage I had two guys offer me $20 for the damn snow-cone and my answer was, not even close enough. That is how bad the lines were. It was even doubly bad when you were there by yourself, so if you wanted to get anything, any chances of remotely getting close to where you were, were non-existent.

Same goes for ZZ-Top and Summerfest. I mean seriously, they had three beer tents by the stage I was at and within two hours of me being there (4-6PM) two of the tents had run out of beer.... YES RAN OUT OF BEER!!!! As someone else stated on this board I think, a can of sardines would feel more comfortable in their can instead of the stage where ZZ-Top played.

Equally as bad was the shower situation at the HOG Haven campgrounds. An hour and a half wait just to take a shower, come on, you could have at least doubled the shower trailers. I did find another solution, but keeping it on the down-low so the other brothers that know about it can keep their secret to fast showers.

I'm not sure if HOG and Harley underestimated how many people were going to be there, but at the major venues (Miller Park, Summerfest, etc...) the lines were WAY too long, not enough food/drink vendors, and definitely not enough seating capacity at the concerts. On the plus side, a couple dudes blocked off an exit and wouldn't let any women go out without flashing.... So I had at least good scenery to watch while standing.

Like I said though, the other venues had plenty of entertainment going on without those limitations. Weekend in Waukeshaw, Knucklefest, Dealer parties, all a good time!

All and all I am glad my buddy backed out on me, I went where I went, when I wanted, stayed however long I felt like it and even hit up Holy Hill and ate at their cafe. Just something interesting about going to a Friar ministry and their cafe service selling mini-cans of beer. Good job! I know I would not have seen near as much if I was constantly asking someone if they were ready to go somewhere else, or where do you want to go to next? I think most of my future rally's I'm going solo. The freedom is the heart and soul of being on a bike and this trip brought it all together!

I had one helluva a great time and you always know that when you get home, plug the phone in the computer and you have a load of pictures you have no memory of taking and they are the good kind.

Here are some pictures from the trip, from the camera (work safe), not the phone (not so work safe)....

http://gallery.mac.com/ww_kayaker#10...r=black&sel=41

P.S. Mike, Jill, Kevin, Amy, Holly, Kristin, Dave, Nancy, Scott, Jerry, Chuck and the countless others that I met there had, had a beer with and hung with, IT WAS AWESOME MEETING EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU!

Peace out!

 

Sounds like you had a seriously great time.

I second everything you said.

Milwaukee HD was pretty cool in that it was advertised as the 'adult' entertainment area since it shares a lot with the strip club 'Silk'.


I left the HOG thing at Miller park because it was packed beyond reason with only one place to get beer/food...very bad planning. Ended up going to the Foo Fighters, and they seriously know how to rock out even though they are known as a bit of a pop/rock band, I am sure they suprised a lot of the older HD crowd.

 

Nice post. Glad you had a great time. How far did you ride?

 

looks like ya had a better time then me, but I tried to avoid the mainstream crowds

 

Nice pics thanks for sharing

 

Good report. Thx. I've come to the point that those huge crowds, and waiting an hour to get a stinkin' burger just doesn't fly with me. Guess I'm turning into the Old Geezer my kids warned me about becoming... Go figure.

 

There's just something wrong with the bike parked in Picture 1/Page 11. Who in their right freakin mind would ride a fuggin "Yellow Goldwing" into a Harley 105th event. What a moron! Doesn't Honda have their own parade for weenies on Yellow GW's?

 

Glad you had a great time. Wife and I had a great time too. Aside from overheating on the way down to the HOG 25th we had a great time. We put on about 800 miles from home to Milwaukee and back home. Only about 300 miles round trip from Green Bay down so we got about 500 miles between Thursday and Sunday. Great parties everywhere. The HOG 25th was a nightmare. All the music was awesome. Had a blast.

 

I rode in from Springfield, IL so around 330 miles each way and I did at least 500 while I was there. All in all over 1,200 miles over five days.

 

It was obvious that they completely underestimated the crowd for the Hog fest. I was at ZZ top and the summerfest grounds for most of the first day, never had any major lines for food (more than 10 minutes) and no problem with Beer - there are like 25 beer stands in the place, so not sure why you had any problems getting beer. Overall, the summerfest grounds were not bad at all. Getting in to Springsteen was a slow process. The amazing part is that getting out all 3 nights was no problem at all. I had about a 15 minute ride to get to everything (I live in town). I had my cousin and his buddy in from Albuquerque - they rode 1400 miles to get here and had a blast.
Springsteen was AWESOME and I agree about the politics - he started to imply something between 2 songs, but it was short and not really that specific.
Unfortunately, the guys that opened for him - Alejandro Acevedo or something like that was GREAT, but went on a 10 minute anti Bush rant that ruined the whole thing, and turned off the crowd. Musicians should just do there job and entertain - I really don't care about their politics.

One other thing - all those people on the overpasses are NOT HARLEY people, in fact, I am pretty sure none of them are. It is a big thrill for a lot of people when this happens every 5 years, not just Harley owners, but everyone in town. Everyone wants Harley owners who come here to be happy. It is a real thrill to have people from all over come to our city.
One of the coolest things that happened to me was meeting a group from Poland that was here... they rented bikes out west and rode in on them.

Cool. Too bad it is over......T minus 5 years.....