Milwaukee

The neighbors also gave us great advice about the availability of showers when we arrived, too. I had never seen "shower trailers" before. They have 4 SMALL stalls in them and a little sink area in the center. But they were clean, had hot water and late afternoon was the time with the fewest people trying to use them. Both Kevin and I were beyond ready for showers by the time we got there, so after the tents were set up (his is the orange Coleman in this picture, my small little tent right to its left), we cleaned up.
There were so many tents and campers stuffed into this place! Washington County Fair Park is great facility about 35 miles north of downtown Milwaukee, and it had been designated as the "official" campsite of H.O.G. (Harley Owners Group). By the time we had cleaned up and set up, it was getting close to 7 P.M. We gave up on the idea of going downtown for the Kid Rock concert. Instead we grabbed some Dairy Queen for dinner, then some beer and ice at the grocery store. And sleep. Oh yeah, it showered some too, as we were out running the errands. We met a group of bikers that had ridden in from Bangor, Maine, too. Their journey was over 1,400 miles. It made my 1,251 miles seem less. We also met a couple that had ridden up from Key West, FL.
When morning came (too early), we ate at the American Legion breakfast tent on the campgrounds. Around 12, we headed for downtown. Not knowing where we were going exactly, we just followed the motorcycles. And there were thousands! It was pretty cool to be a part of that. I imagine there were many people that live in Milwaukee not thrilled with all the added traffic this event brought (like the lady in the Mercedes SUV that decided she needed to be in the space/lane that I was occupying!), but I would think most were happy for all the cash being dropped in the area.
We finally got downtown after a forty minute ride, which seemed like nothing by now.

The stream of bikes coming into downtown was overwhelming the parking availability. Virtually all the street parking was gone. There were some lots charging $10 (you'll see those in the next post) but we are cheap. After a loop of the area near the lakefront, we noticed some folks were pulling up on the islands underneath the freeways. This picture shows Kevin and I parked in a relatively open space about 6 rows of bikes from the back. That sure did change!
I wanted to get the steeple of the church behind me on this shot. It was a nice looking scene.

















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This other picture juxtaposes several different ages and styles of buildings, so I thought of Rat and tried to be "artsy". Downtown was clean and quiet while we walked around it. We were told however, that the nights had been rocking and we missed the big party. Oh well.
It didn't matter that much to me. I was just enjoying being there
Finally, here is a shot of a street completely filled with parked bikes. This scene was repeated ALL OVER the city. It was so cool!