Day 1 - Journey Begins

"A RIDER'S JOURNAL" is an open journal of the miles I will put on my 2008 Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic. The journal entries will be hit and miss, but it will be interesting for all of us to see where the road leads over the next months and years. Since I'm a year-around rider, there should be few months that I don't go somewhere. I'll try to take photos of interesting sights, so you can see some of the scenery.


HARLEY-DAVIDSON ELECTRA GLIDE ULTRA CLASSIC (FLTHCU)
I picked up the bike from Latus Motors Harley-Davidson in Gladstone, OR today when they opened for business at 9AM. The sales associate, Russ, was great. He helped me order the bike on October 8th and was there today to hand me the keys and take my photo. Latus has a tradition of having the new owner ring a bell located on the sales floor. I rang the bell so hard that the cord came off in my hand. (Sorry Russ).

Three of my buddies came with me for the event, which added to the party atmosphere. Rowdy gave me my first ever "guardian bell". Before I left Latus, we each smoked a celebratory cigar to mark the occasion.

About 120 miles later I parked the bike in the garage for the night after a quick wash job. The ride included some sun, but mostly overcast and 40F temperature. I rode north toward Castle Rock, WA where I had planned to show the bike to some family, but was turned back by a hard rain just north of Kelso, WA. This photo was taken at a friend's house in Kalama, WA where I warmed up with a cup of hot cocoa. I met my son along a county road so he could have his first look at the bike. When he arrived KGON.com was blaring out an AC/DC tune on the killer sound system as the engine idled smoothly.

Probably the most important part of the day's ride was when I picked up my wife. I took her straight to Love Leathers, in Ridgefield, WA where she promptly bought a new pair of Harley-Davidson Sonia boots and a new leather coat. The sales associate was pleased with the amount of money we spent and when she learned we just came in on the new bike, she quickly let us pick out a guardian bell. Yep, you guessed it. We now have two bells on the bike. It can't hurt, right?

Ending odometer: 000125. A full day, but not many miles.