Love the Vibration Between My Legs
2013. The 110th anniversary of the founding of Harley-Davidson.
How do I know this bit of minutiae, you ask?
I was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2003. The 100th anniversary of the Hog. It was my virginal visit to the land that spawned my love.
I almost forgot about him as we drove through ear-splitting armies of motorcycles. Legions of bikes. On the interstate. At our favorite custard stand. Blocking the view of Lake Michigan.
A lot of vroom-vroom-vroom to celebrate the lowly founding of a motorized bicycle company. William Harley and Arthur Davidson started out to put an engine on a regular bicycle, but it didn’t have enough oomph to climb the hills around Milwaukee.
Undeterred, Harley and Davidson revamped their motorized two-wheel dream in a back-yard shed. It later placed fourth in a race at the 1904 Wisconsin State Fair.
Harley-Davidson has a museum in Milwaukee. On the shores of the Menomonee River, their sleek facility sports a shrine museum to the hog, several restaurants, an H-D shop, and even a tree lot at Christmastime.
Because my brother-in-law’s birthday is New Years Eve, we met him at Motor Restaurant for dinner. He and MTM talked car parts, engines and antique cars, and I watched the lights twinkle on the river outside. Our visit was a cornucopia of old bike movies, gleaming engines and plenty of studded leather.
The food was good, too.
If you’re interested in Harley-Davidson, you can visit the Museum in Milwaukee. It’s an OD on everything Hog.
Harley-Davidson Museum
400 W Canal Street
Milwaukee, WI 53201
1-877-HD-MUSEUM or 414-287-2789
Open every day 10am – 6pm; until 8pm Thursdays
Or, tour the factory in Menomonee Falls, a few short miles from Milwaukee.
W156 N9000 Pilgrim Road
Menomonee Falls, WI 53051
Free tours every Monday, 9am – 2pm
This post is part of the series Doing It Our Way, an homage to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, birthplace of MTM. If this is your first visit to the series, please check out the other installments:
We’re Gonna Do 2013 Our Way
Cold as a Witches Nipple
A Spew of White Foam
A New Year Moo and a Prize for You
An Orgy of Caloric Consumption
The Architect’s Dry Bones
Thank you for reading, for liking my posts, for subscribing and for sharing my blog with your world.
I would love to go to the museum. For a brief time (too long if you ask Nancy) I owned a 100th anniversary, 2003, Harley Davidson Sportster. It almost killed me. Or more correctly, I almost killed myself on it. I need to stick with 4 wheels. But I would still love to see the museum!
This is what my bike looked like. http://www.carsct.com/pics/007A4P.jpg
How did you almost die on your Harley? Accident?
Twice. Took a corner too fast the first time, dropped in on my leg, and wound up in the hospital for a few days. Second time I slammed into a curb and went over the handlebars. No hospital that time though. No third time – I sold it before there was a third time.
I stick to cars now.
Dad had a used Harley when I was growing up. We called it the Hardly Running Davidson, because he always had it taken apart to fix, like a teen with a beater car.
MTM’s dad also had a Harley, and that’s why MTM hates them so much to this day.
Vroom Vroom.
I’ve never ridden a motorcycle of any kind, Nancy. If MTM ever gets his Spanish one back on the road, I don’t know if he would take me.
Gene had a Honda (blasphemy, I suppose, to use that word here), and I once heard him reminisce with his son about the old Indian he once had — long before I knew him. Years after the fact, I was horrified to learn of the rides each of my boys had taken with him that fell into the category of “don’t tell your Mom we did this.”
Not blasphemy here, Karen. MTM would never own a Harley.
My father almost punished me worse than ever for riding on the back of a moped, so I’ve always steered clear of riding motorized two-wheelers after that. It should’ve been “don’t tell your Dad we did this.”
Love the rumble that a Harley makes and enjoy seeing others having a go on them, howsomever, not for me, Missy Dee. I did own a small 150 Honda back in my practice marriage days and I thought that tooling around the old farm roads of Southeast Ohio would be relatively harmless….OY, such tomfoolerry on my part. Many more times than once, cars would try to run me off the road, cut me off, pull out in front of me, etc.
I shall never see
A motor bike with me upon it
Even wearing a metal bonnet
I want to see age 123.
Cheers, Huzzah..OY, Oy, OY.
I never knew you had a bike, Lou. Had you revealed that about yourself before?
My friends who ride now have taken safety courses, and the primary thing they deal with is how to always be aware of cars who either aren’t paying attention or are malicious.
How did I miss this one yesterday? Nothing is like feeling and hearing the vibration of a HD in the summer! I used to swoon. Even so, my heart studdered this Christmas when Sterling just had to go to the HD “store” and peruse the hogs. *sigh* Why is it he hasn’t learned? Instead of feeling the joy of the vibration of an HD I now shudder as it reminds me of the time when he was almost lost to me.
Did you read yesterday on your phone or on your desktop? I ask because this theme seems to put my featured slider posts ahead of the new post for the day when someone reads on a smartphone. It doesn’t happen on my iPad. If that is the issue, I want to contact WordPress and see if there’s a work around.
I remember Sterling’s big accident, Lori. I think bikes really just get in the blood.
He says it’s a sense of freedom…I say go outside and let the wind blow through your hair – no need to get on a crotch rocket. But alas, I am only the Mom.
I was on the PC when I commented. My smartphone, well, I struggle to type comments cause it’s difficult to type on those dang things (so small).
Does that help?
Thanks for coming back here and letting me know. Still learning the ropes on the new theme.
While I have never ridden a Harley, or any other motorcycle, being enough of a klutz on a bicycle, I would enjoy the museum, I think. I know Antler Man would. We pass Menomonee every time we head up North, but all I’ve seen is the Caddie Woodlawn site. Caddie Woodlawn vs Hog Factory – well, they are both pioneers of sorts.
I think touring the plant in Menomonee would be far more interesting than the museum, Penny. If you do it, please let me know what it’s like.
Judging by the number of hogs on the road out here, and the biker clubs that accompany, I thought they were more of an “out west” kind of phenomena. I’m glad to learn the truth. They are beautiful bikes, although I’ve known too many people severely injured to be comfortable with them. I know I’d enjoy a tour of the plant!
A number of folks I know have them around here, too. Or, at the very least, motorcycles of some kind.
I was a long haul trucker back then. That summer, I have never seen so many motorcycles on the road! Not just harleys but of all types. It was friggin’ amazing. I’ve never seen so many bikes in my life, especially the closer I got to Wisconsin.
Summer of ’03 for the 100 year celebration, I mean.