Club Members Lloyd & Gill Hall recently completed the famous Route 66 trip, this trip was planned to conencide with Lloyd's 60th Birthday. Another couple on this trip were Peter and Serda from New Zealand wrote a very comprehensive holiday review which has been included in its entiriety as it will be of interest to anyone else planning this famous trip in the future. The tour company were www.eaglerider.com
THE
START
We
did some more checking and decided to go for an all-inclusive 15-day tour with
EagleRider Motorcycle Tours based in LA. Pretty much everything was provided -
hotels, bikes, fuel, breakfasts, riding jackets plus guides and a luggage van.
I could also have my Harley (although I could also choose from a BMW, Honda, Triumph
or even a trike). Booking was easy - a couple of emails, hand over the dosh and
Sirda and I were on the last trip of the season, departing Chicago on 1 October
on a 2011 H-D Electraglide Classic.
EagleRider provided good pre-tour information
- tips on what to bring and riding in the States - and included the names and
countries of all the other people on the tour. 31 people in all on 20 bikes -
from Russia, Italy, the UK, Singapore, Canada, Australia, the US and another couple
fromNew Zealand. There was also a good gender mix - 19 men and 12 women. There
were 4 guides - 3 on bikes and 1 driving the van. It was sounding better and better
by the day.
We
arranged our flights to include a week with our son, Toby and his wife Sarah -
they were married last year and now live in Philadelphia. So we flew directly
there and spent a very pleasant time catching up with them including a tour of
the Philadelphia City Hall - an amazing structure completed in 1901 having taken
30 years to build and with 700 rooms. It is topped by an 11.3 m
(37 ft), 27-ton
bronze statue of city founder William Penn who interestingly died in poverty in
England in 1718, once having owned over 45,000 square miles (120,000 km of what
is now Pennsylvania. City Hall remained the tallest building in Philadelphia under
the terms of a gentlemen's agreement that forbade any structure from rising above
the top of William Penn's hat
until 1987.
We also took a day trip to Gettysburg - the site of the greatest battle of the American Civil War, fought over three days in July 1863 and which had the highest casualities of any other battle of that war. We paid to have a tour guide drive our car around the battlefield which covers a big area around the town of Gettysburg itself. He was very knowledgeable about the battle and was very friendly and outgoing. It was a really good way to learn about what is generally accepted to be the turning point of the Civil War We flew up to Chicago a couple of days before the tour started and when we jumped into the shuttle recommended by EagleRider at the airport, we met an English couple - Neil and Michelle, who were also on our tour - we managed to save some money by getting the discount for all 4 of us going to the same destination. We had booked an extra night at the Holiday Inn - the hotel for the tour - and it was very comfortable as were all the hotels that we were booked into by EagleRider - I was impressed with the consistent high standard of the accommodation.
Chicago
is a stunning city and although the weather was a bit chilly we walked around
admiring the architecture and the public sculpture. We also took a river and harbour
cruise that gave us great views and understanding of the city. Almost all of the
buildings in the centre date from after the Great Fire of Chicago in 1871, which
razed 4 square miles of the city. Mind you it did prompt a huge rebuilding programme,
which saw Chicago grow into one of the most populous and economically important
cities in America. Friday afternoon and registration was at the hotel - we turned
up to be greeted by this big bearded biker. "Just call me Preacher,"
he said as he shook my hand. We then met "Lala" his wife and the leader
of our little group. April and Deejay were the other guides - April was our van
driver and fastidious hander-outer of bottled water at every stop on the road
and we soon came to be very appreciative of her attentiveness. We filled out the
forms, sorted out our insurance and chose our riding jackets - they were good
quality and ideal for summer riding.
That evening we enjoyed a welcome dinner
at the Hard Rock Café - the meal and first drinks were included in the
tour price as was the farewell dinner in LA but more of that later. It was a good
opportunity to meet the other people on the trip and new friendships were already
forming. Not for the last time on the trip Mozzie from the UK lost track of Alex,
his partner and wandered home alone (she did eventually turn up!)