1st Century of the decade part 3

2003.....January was a busy month!

• January.....In 2002 for Rich's Christmas present for 2002 I bought tickets to Blue Man Group and made hotel reservations in Chicago for January. After the show we went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. On Sunday morning we went to the museum and they had a special exhibit. They had a WWII submarine at the pier.

As we were telling friends how much fun we had we all decided to go into Chicago as a group. Take the train and not have to worry about driving or parking. We went to Joey's Pizza and ended up at the Chef's table. Then we went bar hopping and settled in at one on Rush St that had Karaoke and a very small dance area. When we came out of the bar there was a limo waiting for someone. Rich asked him how much he would charge to take us to Union Station. He said $10. We know a good deal when we hear it.....so off we go. While we are in the limo, the drivers phone rings and he is telling us shhhhhh!!!! He was making a few bucks on the side. Just try to keep 6 drunks in a limo quiet. His phone was on the 4th ring when we finally got quiet enough so he could answer it.

Look ma, no hands!!! To this day I don't know how he stayed on that rail all the way down and landed on his feet! I guess it's true that God watches out for Children and drunks.

Then during Jan, my brother came for a visit from NV. Now why he would leave 70 degrees for below zero, I have no idea.

• March.....I finally found my bike online at a Harley dealer in Union City TN. It was exactly what I had been looking for, right down to the color. It was also allot cheaper there than it would have been here. I saved thousands by making the trip. It cost me $150 for gas. We left here at 4:30 am and we were back by 10:00 pm.
  


• April.....My kids took us to Benihana's for my birthday and I had my first experience with sushi, not bad, I would do it again.



• May.....We took a ride to Starved Rock and this is where I dropped my digital camera in the lake. I dropped it as Rich was handing it back to me at the edge of the lake so at least I was able to retrieve it without jumping in. The camera was trashed but the memory card was fine after drying out.
  


• June.....My 1st long trip on my new bike. PA for Rich's family reunion and to meet some of my cousins. Talk about coincidence, my father was born about 10 miles from where Rich's dad was born. Because my father died when I was real young, I never knew his family. I found some of my cousins and arranged to meet them. It was interesting to meet people who I had pictures of but never knew. I have a picture of my Parents in the same spot by this covered bridge when my mother was pregnant with me. This is at McConnell's Mill, check out the web site for some beautiful pix. http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mcclell2/homepage/mill.htm Heading up to the top, the road is narrow and twisty. When you go through the tunnel and in the tree covered areas the road is mossy and slick. Talk about testing your riding skills!!! This is a tunnel we are about to go through.



• July.....We spent most of July on the boat this year. Rich taught a few people to ski. We took my youngest son and his girlfriend out and we got caught in a bad storm with tornado warnings. We found a river bar with a pier and docked and waited it out playing pool. Once it blew over we headed back to the boat dock and called it a day.
  


• August.....Our vacation destination this year was Grand Canyon via Old Route 66. Along the way, we ran into some people we knew from Elgin, IL, What a small world it is. Then we met some very nice people in Ashfork, AZ, pictured in front of dinner. We all came in from the rain for shelter at a small motel. When I say rain, I mean it was coming down in buckets. The next morning we rode into Seligman for breakfast and then we rode as far as Kingman together. That is where we headed to Oatman and they headed north towards home. They lived in northern CA and had been on the road for 23 days when we ran into them. The old car below is in Hackberry AZ.

We made pretty good time so we kept going and ended up in Lake Havasu CA.

Then we came back through Kingman AZ where we spent the night. In an AZ town, which I won't mention the name, Rich was nearly arrested at a Harley Dealership. After riding in the rain for 3 days, the wiring harness on my NEW bike came loose. It was just held under my back fender with glue. I don't think they even had a clamp on it. We left it at the dealership and headed up to my brothers, 60 miles north, two up on Rich's bike. When we came back to get my bike the next day, they refused to warranty it. Well....this was not going over too well with Rich.....Make a long story short, the cops made us pay for the work. When I got home, I called customer service in Milwaukee and I had a check in the mail with-in 3 days for the full amount of the repair.

Along the way we found so many interesting places. We stayed in a wig-wam at the Wig-wam motel in Holbrook, AZ. We explored ghost towns.....that is till I went into a building and heard a rattler....it didn't take me long to get out of there and back to the road. We stopped at the Cadillac ranch in Amarillo, The Big Texan Steakhouse and ran into Travis Tritt as he was leaving. We saw the Hoover Damn, rode the strip in Vegas. Saw The Blue Whale in OK, did some two stepping in TX. Stopped at the Meteor Crater in AZ, Window Rock, and we rode through allot of small towns and tried to stay on 66 as much as possible. I have so many really cool pix, it would take me days to post and tell about them all.

The rest of the year seems boring in comparison. We had a wedding, B-day parties, poker runs and toy runs. More of the century to come later.