Today thankfully was a liesure day as we partied a little too much last night and I was feeling it this morning! I was happy to sleep in and be lazy this morning until it was time for breakfast before the ride at 10:00.
This morning we met at the garage by the bikes for 10:00. I arrived in the garage and looked around and thought where is my bike! Well it had been moved – with all the bikes jammed in Cliff needed out so he just moved mine in one direction as the steering wheel was locked. Apparently the alarm went off and he thought it would never go off! Too funny – had me confused – it was easy this morning as I was still in a fog.
We drove through the streets of Geneva and headed towards the Harley dealer in France. I didn’t realize that until we were well on our way. While doing the second man drop – someone messed up and left a few of us stranded waiting for the sweep to come by the pick us up. While waiting there the Swiss Police came and asked me some questions as I had been sitting there awhile and someone must have phoned it in! He just made me move forward and out of the lane of traffic (no dad I was off to the side and not in the way of traffic! – lol) Finally when no one came, one of the France Chapter members came back to let us know that there was some confusion and we could go ahead. Thankfully Jean-Pierre was there with his GPS and was able to direct us to the dealer. What a drive – nice curves at top speed was amazingly fun – with just the three of us we were able to ride a lot harder than we have been in a group – what a blast that was!
The Harley store was very nice and quite large. The dealer had some drinks for us upon arrival which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. With all this special treatment I can’t understand why there are not more people that come on these trips. We are treated like vip’s!
The restaurant was attached to the dealership which served as a great spot to grab lunch. We have seen a number of stag parties going on and it seems that the future groom has to dress up in something (sometimes a tootoo, other times a pig or a whatever!). I couldn’t resist talking to these guys as I was walking past their table and asked if one of the guys could take my picture with the future groom – LOL. Well they were more than happy to oblique and the guys got their cameras out too! Too funny!
The restaurant was based on Route 66 if you can imagine – all the way over in Europe and they are memorializing Route 66. I am always amazed to see all the Route 66 items as I travel now as that trip was my first experience with HOG.
After lunch we hit the Alps and climbed for quite some time until we reached the a peak where there was a very nice chalet that served some of us, coffee, hot chocolate – some had beer! It was raining again and we were dressed for the weather. The air was warm and the scenery was spectacular! A little bit of fog in the mountains but not too bad.
Coming down the mountain the weather got warmer and the rain finally stopped. We were in downtown Geneva in a traffic jam and I was getting hot. Our bikes were not moving very far as each stop light we moved maybe five feet! Finally I decided I had enough and the neck warmer came off – then the next stop my rain coat came off and then finally the next stop my rain pants came off. Dicky also did the same however the bike next to him had music so he danced his off – what a site the people in their cars must have had. Probably thought we were nuts. But I can tell you – it was nice and cool riding the rest of the way and very glad I had enough time to take the raingear off (or wets as they call them over here!)
Tonight we were going to go see a Blues band down by Lake Geneva but it was too late by the time we came in so we just had supper in the restaurant and then some of us watched the first half of the football game. After that I came up to pack and get ready for tomorrow.
Tomorrow we head back into France – Montelimar! 8:30 am and kickstands will be up!! I am with the Lost Boyscouts tomorrow again and hopefully none of us will get lost!
