Open Road Biker

Yesterday was a solemn day. I had the privilege to ride with the Patriot Guard Riders for the first time. It was a privilege to be able to honor someone who gave their life in the service of their country and to also ride with a great group of people. We met up at 0900 yesterday morning in the parking lot of a well know department store and rolled about 15 miles to a staging area. From their we headed over to the Locust Fork HS football field and lined up along the fence across from the home bleachers. In total there was probably around 60 bikes. The ceremony started around 1100 and we were all lined up with our bikes holding the American flag. There were three guest speakers, two congressmen and a general from Redstone Arsenal. The family said a few words after the presentation of the award and after all was said and done the local Air National Guard performed a fly by to honor PFC Millican.

Now I don’t know much about PFC Millican but I will tell you what I know. He was assigned to the 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment from Fort Richardson Alaska, he was 20 years old, and he made the decision to cover a grenade to shield his comrades. Now there are tons of stories out there concerning what happened that fateful day but this is true, he was a man of courage and character and who served his country with honor. I would have been proud to have served with him and I am sure those in his unit feel the same. If you want to read more article about him head on over to Google and check out some of the articles that are listed there. I also have a few pictures over in the gallery. I wasn’t able to take any pictures of the ceremony itself because I was in it but I hope I took enough. I have also created a new section where I will put other pictures from any PGR missions that I go to from now on.

For those who do not know, SSM = Silver Star Medal

Admin note, please if you are going to comment on this article then no advertising or off track comments. Honor this fallen soldier and save the website plugging for another post.
Thank you,
James

So, you either like to go to bike nights or you don’t. Some people think it is just a place for posers to bring out the bike to get that weekly 5 or 10 miles on it. Others think it is something where people just go to show off that garage queen they have. Well I headed out to one the other night and sure, I seen a few garage queens. I also seen a few guys that may have just been trying to play the Harley game but along with all of that I also had the pleasure of meeting some good people. They also had a few backyard builders there who had some neat bikes made from junk they picked up for $50.

The thing is, you never know who you are going to meet while at little gatherings like that. Well me I got invited to ride with the Legion riders next Saturday. I also got to talk to a few veterans and I got to see a few awesome rides too.

All in all I had a descent time and I also got to put around 75 miles on my dads Heritage and it was a beautiful night to do it (my bike is somewhere on a ship from Europe). I can’t wait to get my bike back here so that I can ride it but until then I have other bikes to ride.

Well thats all for now, until next time get out and ride and be safe.

In my comments today someone asked about my very first ride and to tell you the truth I am not sure when it was. Now I know that when I was 15 years old I traded a stereo for an 81 Honda XL80. Now that was my first bike and I rode that thing untill it literally fell apart. I would take it out to the strip mines behind my house in Alabama and ride until I needed gas. If I had sold enough aluminum cans that week I would probably just fill it up again and head back out. If not then I would have to wait for some grass cutting money or something. My next bike was a big step up from there; I got a Husqvarna 250 enduro from my next door neighbor. I can’t remember how I got it, I think I paid $500 for it. I rode that bike for a while until I tore it up and the parts were just so expensive that I couldn’t afford to fix it. I didn’t get another ride until I picked up a Yamaha dirt bike (I can not remember what in the world it was except that it was a 250cc) but I didn’t keep it long. It got traded for a fender tube amp and I still to this day have not learned the guitar. After that I talked about bikes but it wasn’t until I got back from Iraq in 2004 that I picked up my Harley. I wanted to buy a basket case but I just couldn’t find what I wanted so when I found out that I was getting promoted the boss told me to go to the stealership and pick me out a bike. The rest is history from there. My first ride on it was a nice big loop from Ft. Carson down to Pueblo and then across to hwy 51 and back up to carson. It was a nice windy day and I got blew into the other lane a few times. But man what beutiful country Colorado is. So there you have it my first ride and some of my bikes also. So what about yall? Tell us about some of your memorable rides. If you want to you can also head over to the motorcycle forums and tell us your story.

I found this on YouTube the other day and thought I would post it. After watching it the song in the background made me want to go watch Easy Rider again. See for your self;