Rolling Thunder
 

WoW!!

AAA expects 900,000 motorcyclists this year to travel from across
the nation to DC for this weekend's events.

That's almost twice as many as the year I went back in 2002.

Can't imagine where they will all park. The year I went the
Pentagon parking lot was completely filled ... and for those who
have never seen it, it is *huge*!

Rolling Thunder
 

On Sun, 27 May 2018 18:28:05 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:


WoW!!

AAA expects 900,000 motorcyclists this year to travel from across
the nation to DC for this weekend's events.

That's almost twice as many as the year I went back in 2002.

Can't imagine where they will all park. The year I went the
Pentagon parking lot was completely filled ... and for those who
have never seen it, it is *huge*!

This may just be a testament to the number of boomers who now have no
problem going on a road trip ;-)

The open question is how many will sleep under a tarp next to their
bike and how many will be at the Crystal City Marriott?

Rolling Thunder
 

On 5/27/2018 8:00 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 27 May 2018 18:28:05 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:


WoW!!

AAA expects 900,000 motorcyclists this year to travel from across
the nation to DC for this weekend's events.

That's almost twice as many as the year I went back in 2002.

Can't imagine where they will all park. The year I went the
Pentagon parking lot was completely filled ... and for those who
have never seen it, it is *huge*!

This may just be a testament to the number of boomers who now have no
problem going on a road trip ;-)

The open question is how many will sleep under a tarp next to their
bike and how many will be at the Crystal City Marriott?



Don't know. We stayed in some sleezy motel in Manassas VA.
It was the only place we could find a couple of rooms.

Rolling Thunder
 

On Sun, 27 May 2018 18:28:05 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:


WoW!!

AAA expects 900,000 motorcyclists this year to travel from across
the nation to DC for this weekend's events.

That's almost twice as many as the year I went back in 2002.

Can't imagine where they will all park. The year I went the
Pentagon parking lot was completely filled ... and for those who
have never seen it, it is *huge*!

There was a lot of noise in the area yesterday. Trump, in his tweet, said '400,000'. One news
article said 'a million'. Personally, I think it's probably closer to 'ten's of thousands'. I went
last year, but the carb was giving me problems this year. Might give it a shot again next year. My
daughter wants to go badly.

Rolling Thunder
 

On Sun, 27 May 2018 20:00:59 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 27 May 2018 18:28:05 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:


WoW!!

AAA expects 900,000 motorcyclists this year to travel from across
the nation to DC for this weekend's events.

That's almost twice as many as the year I went back in 2002.

Can't imagine where they will all park. The year I went the
Pentagon parking lot was completely filled ... and for those who
have never seen it, it is *huge*!

This may just be a testament to the number of boomers who now have no
problem going on a road trip ;-)

The open question is how many will sleep under a tarp next to their
bike and how many will be at the Crystal City Marriott?

They do a good job of filling the hotels in the area. Many of them stay 20-30 miles out to find
cheaper accomodations. Both I-66 and I-395 were closed inside the beltway. Once the Pentagon parking
lot fills, they start backing down 395, filling it from side to side.

Rolling Thunder
 

On Sun, 27 May 2018 20:45:12 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:

On 5/27/2018 8:00 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 27 May 2018 18:28:05 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:


WoW!!

AAA expects 900,000 motorcyclists this year to travel from across
the nation to DC for this weekend's events.

That's almost twice as many as the year I went back in 2002.

Can't imagine where they will all park. The year I went the
Pentagon parking lot was completely filled ... and for those who
have never seen it, it is *huge*!

This may just be a testament to the number of boomers who now have no
problem going on a road trip ;-)

The open question is how many will sleep under a tarp next to their
bike and how many will be at the Crystal City Marriott?



Don't know. We stayed in some sleezy motel in Manassas VA.
It was the only place we could find a couple of rooms.

Shoulda yelled, we had room!

Rolling Thunder
 

On 5/28/2018 6:51 AM, John H. wrote:
On Sun, 27 May 2018 18:28:05 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:


WoW!!

AAA expects 900,000 motorcyclists this year to travel from across
the nation to DC for this weekend's events.

That's almost twice as many as the year I went back in 2002.

Can't imagine where they will all park. The year I went the
Pentagon parking lot was completely filled ... and for those who
have never seen it, it is *huge*!

There was a lot of noise in the area yesterday. Trump, in his tweet, said '400,000'. One news
article said 'a million'. Personally, I think it's probably closer to 'ten's of thousands'. I went
last year, but the carb was giving me problems this year. Might give it a shot again next year. My
daughter wants to go badly.



The year I went there was an estimated 460,000 bikes (mostly Harley's)
parked in the staging area in the Pentagon parking lot. Don't know
what the actual number was. I know I was in one of the early groups
to start the ride over the Arlington Memorial Bridge, down Constitution
Ave and then back to the West Potomac Park where we parked the bikes.
My group left the Pentagon at noon. By 4pm the bikes were still
arriving at the Park.

Rolling Thunder
 

On 5/28/2018 6:54 AM, John H. wrote:
On Sun, 27 May 2018 20:45:12 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:

On 5/27/2018 8:00 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 27 May 2018 18:28:05 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:


WoW!!

AAA expects 900,000 motorcyclists this year to travel from across
the nation to DC for this weekend's events.

That's almost twice as many as the year I went back in 2002.

Can't imagine where they will all park. The year I went the
Pentagon parking lot was completely filled ... and for those who
have never seen it, it is *huge*!

This may just be a testament to the number of boomers who now have no
problem going on a road trip ;-)

The open question is how many will sleep under a tarp next to their
bike and how many will be at the Crystal City Marriott?



Don't know. We stayed in some sleezy motel in Manassas VA.
It was the only place we could find a couple of rooms.

Shoulda yelled, we had room!


I'll remember that next time. :-)

I think the AAA estimates of 900,000 is in error. I think they were
referring to the total number of visitors to the DC area this weekend.
The number of bikers is probably closer to half that at most.

Rolling Thunder
 

On Mon, 28 May 2018 07:51:46 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:

On 5/28/2018 6:54 AM, John H. wrote:
On Sun, 27 May 2018 20:45:12 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:

On 5/27/2018 8:00 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 27 May 2018 18:28:05 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:


WoW!!

AAA expects 900,000 motorcyclists this year to travel from across
the nation to DC for this weekend's events.

That's almost twice as many as the year I went back in 2002.

Can't imagine where they will all park. The year I went the
Pentagon parking lot was completely filled ... and for those who
have never seen it, it is *huge*!

This may just be a testament to the number of boomers who now have no
problem going on a road trip ;-)

The open question is how many will sleep under a tarp next to their
bike and how many will be at the Crystal City Marriott?



Don't know. We stayed in some sleezy motel in Manassas VA.
It was the only place we could find a couple of rooms.

Shoulda yelled, we had room!


I'll remember that next time. :-)

I think the AAA estimates of 900,000 is in error. I think they were
referring to the total number of visitors to the DC area this weekend.
The number of bikers is probably closer to half that at most.


I wish one time someone would stand on Memorial Bridge and count the bikes as they go by.

Rolling Thunder
 

On 5/28/2018 8:21 AM, John H. wrote:
On Mon, 28 May 2018 07:51:46 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:

On 5/28/2018 6:54 AM, John H. wrote:
On Sun, 27 May 2018 20:45:12 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:

On 5/27/2018 8:00 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 27 May 2018 18:28:05 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:


WoW!!

AAA expects 900,000 motorcyclists this year to travel from across
the nation to DC for this weekend's events.

That's almost twice as many as the year I went back in 2002.

Can't imagine where they will all park. The year I went the
Pentagon parking lot was completely filled ... and for those who
have never seen it, it is *huge*!

This may just be a testament to the number of boomers who now have no
problem going on a road trip ;-)

The open question is how many will sleep under a tarp next to their
bike and how many will be at the Crystal City Marriott?



Don't know. We stayed in some sleezy motel in Manassas VA.
It was the only place we could find a couple of rooms.

Shoulda yelled, we had room!


I'll remember that next time. :-)

I think the AAA estimates of 900,000 is in error. I think they were
referring to the total number of visitors to the DC area this weekend.
The number of bikers is probably closer to half that at most.


I wish one time someone would stand on Memorial Bridge and count the bikes as they go by.


I think they do but many of the bikers come in from places other than
the Pentagon parking lot (although they are not supposed to).

I've mentioned this before but one of the most memorable things of that
trip was being in the staging area at the Pentagon all morning and
shooting the **** with many of the other people there. Then, at
about 11:45 am, in preparation for starting the ride over you heard
a bike start up in the distance. Then another and another in rapid
succession. Quickly the whole area would soon be a roar of bikes (again,
mostly Harleys) and the air turned blue with an oily haze. It was
incredible to hear so many bikes running with the riders gunning the
engines at the same time.