DAY SEVEN: The Festival-Double WOOOOWZER

Where in the world would you find a couple hundred thousand Harley Davidson motorcycles - Milwaukee's picturesque lakefront and throughout the city. Bikers really have taken over the entire city. Everywhere the trekking trio went today there were many, many, many, many bikes.


Lake Michigan




Contemporary Art
Museum @ Lake front

So often bikers are not welcomed and perceived to be some lifeforms lower than a slug. Well, Milwaukians are much more savvy than holding on to such ugly stereotypes. They have truly rolled out the red carpet for Biffy and all the other bikers. Everywhere they go there are signs welcoming the bikers, people standing on the overpasses wave at all the bikers and everyone, from the hotel staff, to the gas station attendees, to people in the grocery store, to the restaurants greet us all with huge smiles and engage in conversations about biking. They have been sooooo cool!!! What an amazing experience - how can Bif even explain the joy of being so welcomed and being part of this tremendous event!!! This is a once in a lifetime experience....one the most memorable and fabulous that Bif and Thrivette have ever experienced!!!


Although, the trio has been seeing more women bikers, they have yet to see another group of only women.........Thankfully, HD is really encouraging women to get into the sport and had a whole Pavilion dedicated to women. Most of the events focused on things like how to deal with helmet hair, how to eat right on the road and helping new riders (or women considering becoming riders) learn some basic techniques. Some day, when there are more and more women riders maybe HD will have more seminars and information for skilled riders.




And we have yet to meet another rubber chicken....but today Thrivette met the human Chickenman Notice how Thrivette is bowing her head in honor of meeting the chicken man. This big burly Harley rider loved meeting the rubber poultry. His CB handle is the chicken man and his grand kids call him "grandpa chicken." Today, not only did the girls feel so welcomed by Milwaukians - Thrivette observed that "hard core, tough" Harley guys seem to be fascinated with rubber chickens...interesting connection.....Harley guys reallyy are big sweethearts underneath all that "toughness."










Thrivette had a big day today. She started the day by going on a tour of one of the Harley factories. When they go to the factory the trio had to park their bikes way behind the factory. Thankfully, Thrivette met a very special golf cart diver, named Stanley, who gave them all a ride from the bikes to the factory. Stanley made Thrivette cluck with giggles when he said "usually you see the hogs chasing the chicks but Thrivette seems to be chasing the hogs." Thrivettte enjoyed the tour and learning about twin cam engines.

In addition, to these two characters Thrivette met up with southern gentleman she met in LaCrosse. She also met riders from all over the world, including: Italy, UK, Germany and France. These bikers rent bikes while in Milwaukee or the went to the lengths of shipping their bikes!!!!







At the event, Thrivette and Bif were really fascinated by the police stunt riders. HOLY BOLOGNA can those guys ride. They can whip those bikes around in really tight circles and at incredibly fast speeds. As they zipped those bikes around in ways that just plain shouldn't be possible a gentleman next to Biff captured the feeling of the moment by saying "Holy Crap" in absolute amazement. Now, Biffy really knows how much more she needs to work on increasing her skills.

Thrivette has been so thankful to have been freed from her office that today she felt very generous and "gave back." HD is big supporter of the Muscular Distrophy Association and Thrivette was compelled to support them and by a raffle ticket.

One last note for today - when the trio was going back to the hotel they got a bit lost. Bif was a passenger with Super Sheri and Bif was seen on the back of bike while going down the road pulling out her blackberry and pulling up mapquest to figure out how to get "unlost." So, one can search the Internet almost anywhere...even on the back of a bike.

Stay tuned tommrow for highlights of the parade from the ThrivetteCam...........