About US - We are 3

June 2018

Our Harley Days Blog is about US. Who are we? I think the importance of that question depends on who you are.

We are just a couple of regular ol' people out here running up and down the highway when life, circumstance, work and pay checks allow. We are 3. You will know me as Vickie or Vik (the creator of the blog) and Tim (the reason we get from place to place) and the Ride(s). Ride I, now the Old Ride was a 2008 H-D Heritage Softail. Ride II or the current ride is a 2010 H-D Ultra Classic with over 85K on the odometer at present.

In 2007 Ted (my Dad living in Texas) purchased a 2007 H-D Dyna Street Glide compliments of Mom who instigated Dad's return to riding - something he had not done since joining the USAF and getting married in 1954. He talked about riding and racing when I was a kid and the names of the people he rode with in the 1950s including motorcycle club members of the Kickapoo Kowboys MC of Wichita Falls were as familiar to me as family member names. But, motorcycles never entered the picture while I was coming of age.

So, we were surprised when Dad started riding again in 2007 especially with his diehard commitment to riding in memorial missions for fallen military heroes. Aside from that, Dad was riding all over Texas and Oklahoma with a posse of like-minded patriots... riding to eat, riding for fun. What did we think about that? Well, we said to each other - damn! Dad is having fun. One trip home to look at that beauty of a bike gave us H-D-Fever (maybe a better word is envy) - baaaad.

So bad, that's really all we talked about all winter - in June 2008 I filled out the paperwork and sent Tim to the dealership (Thunder Mountain H-D in Colorado) saying don't come back without a yes or a no. If you know anything about Harley-Davidson at all, you understand that NO is not a concept they embrace.

In a few days - June 25 to be exact, a Harley entered our lives. By July 2008 the Harley was in house. By August 2008 Tim was licensed and we were good to go and go and go. The riding season is short in northern Colorado but we still managed 4643 miles now known as s'miles on this blog. There's a reason the word smiles incorporates the word miles so neatly. We were newbies. Neither of us (other than Tim's brief experience on a dirt bike) had ever ridden a motorcycle. But, we were hooked! By the end of 2009 we had logged 14709 on the Heritage.

And Dad had a new Ride - 2009 H-D Road King.

By the time we reluctantly traded the Heritage off April 28, 2010 we had logged 21168. We could not get off of the darn thing. All of a sudden it was screw the housework, grass was overrated and aside from work, if it didn't mean putting on boots and helmets we simply did not do it. Ha! Nothing but fun I tell you. Then and now.

By the end of 2010 we had logged 15858 on the Ultra. We logged 14383 in 2011 - making our total mileage 51409 since August of 2008. We were proud of those 50K patches I tell ya. 2012 we logged 12369. By September 2013 we had logged 9295 smiles.

I have part of 2013 logged and plenty of pics but blog posts are sketchy. From the end of 2014 to 2017 we stopped logging miles and posting to the blog. Oh, I have the data and the pics and it will get out here but a move to Texas in the Spring of 2015 as the result of a lost job in Colorado means we were just busy getting moved, resettled and reemployed and we moved again this Spring. So, the Ride has more permanent housing at present and things are beginning to smooth out a bit. We have been riding all along and it has been a hoot riding with Dad and friends - especially with Dad so stay tuned I am getting this blog up to date as quick as I can.

The blog itself is under revision - lots of the old videos and so on need new code. I'm working on it. 2018 rides are up to date. I am working backwards in time now so 2017 will get updated next. Update August 2018 - Blog posts from 2008 thru August 2011 are revised and updated... still working on it.

In May 2018, we rolled over 85K on The Ride (the Ultra). We have our 100K patches as of last summer - 2017. We are proud of those too.

So... stay tuned. We rode the southwest and the northwest when we were in Colorado - now points east of here (north central Texas) are gaining interest.

This blog is loaded with photos, videos and slide shows as well as narrative of our rides. Most photos and video clips are taken from the back of The Ride. It is amazing the shot you can get of places along the way that you cannot get at a stand-still at a designated rest stop. All photos have evolved in quality as cameras and editing software and now even cell phone images have drastically improved. When we started riding in 2008 I think the digital camera I had was an 8MP dinosaur and we were still carrying flip-phones. I've gone through two or three digital cameras since then. The "ride" camera I carry in my vest pocket now on nearly every ride is a Canon 20MP. We love sharing the photos with friends and family and people who stumble upon Our Harley Days.

Welcome and enjoy!

That's all for now - Vik June 24, 2018

By the Way: Mom (aka Nezzie) is sill the instigator.

She does not ride but she is the reason the rest of us do.