Indian Motorcycle Rally

Friday is the first day of the Indian Motorcycle Rally. This day is mostly about people arriving and setting up camp at the site, so I am not anticipating much going on, but it is a good day to ride and visit.
The plan is to stop at Berkshire Cycle in Goshen, MA first and check it out.

The ride starts in Belchertown, MA. We grab some lunch at McArthy's Pub in the center of town. This is a favorite stop for bikers coming thru the area. There is almost always bikes parked out front.
We head west on rte 9 and take it thru Amherst, MA (Bay Road has construction going on at rte 116, which we want to avoid). It was so HOT going thru Amherst that I figure next time it is probably best to take Bay Road and deal with the detours! Crossing the river into Northampton, we take a right on to Damon Road and continue on Bridge Street to rte 9, bypassing downtown Northampton. We take rte 9 to Goshen.

We spent almost an hour at Berkshire Cycle. For a small business (a very large, multiple bay garage) there is a wide array of bikes being worked on and sold. It was very interesting and we had a good conversation with the owner. It is also an inspection station for those who live out in that area! It is worth the stop and see. You never know when you may be in the area and need someones help.

We then headed south thru Chesterfield (past the Boy Scout Camp) to rte 143 and on to rte 112. This was a fantastic ride thru the hills. We went past early American cemeteries and the Knightville Reservoir and Dam. Once we got to rte 20, we headed west to Chester and the rally. There were hand-painted signs along the way.
We arrived around 5:30pm and as expected, there was not much going on other than the setup of the site in a very large field. There were dozens of campsites arrayed around the perimeter and a lot of antiques bikes. People were relaxing and socializing and young children riding mini-bikes around the field.

Most of the fun will start tomorrow and lead up to the bikers heading to the Springfield Museum for Indian Day.
 This ride was just shy of 60 miles.

Heading home at 10pm, we took rte 20 east thru Westfield, cut over East Mountain Road to rte 202 and took it back to Belchertown.

I arrived home at 11:20pm. This leg of the ride was 46 miles.

Even more video

More video from the trip...

While Dan is buying his Road King ...

Sunday - Father's Day ride to Bentley's Saloon

So, Sunday morning we pack up, have breakfast and head for Arundel, ME and Bentley's Saloon.

After a couple hours here, it is time for our iron man ride home down the coast line, across to lower New Hampshire

to cut down thru Mass just east of the Quabbin reservoir  (by this point my ass was getting a little sore)

 to end up in Ludlow, MA around 8:30pm.

We put on about 540 miles over 3 days, and had a great time.

Saturday .. tooming around Laconia

 Very nice view from the back of the resort in the hills west of the Laconia.

Well, Saturday we decided to head back to the Harley dealership and see what kind of trade-in deals we could get.

 This also let us have a cushy parking spot, which was just as important.

The road king I was checking out ..

The road king that Dan was looking at..

They came up with real good terms for the bikes, but a little to pricey for me this time around. Dan made an offer but they were not budging.
 So we move on down the road, next to the Broken Spoke Saloon.

And then across the street to the Boot Hill Saloon.

someone is having a special occasion!

and I somehow lost the rest of my photos from Saturday night. Dan bought that 2008 Anniversary Road King.
Hopefully, the others have some photos to help fill in the gaps.

Friday's ride to Laconia

Here is the big picture of the traveling on Friday.

We met up in the center of Belchertown, MA around 9:30am. The first leg of the trip is on rte 202 to Concord, NH. We had a number of possible stops.... the initial one just over the border to take a quick break.

Then we ended up stopping at Heritage Harley Davidson.  A lot of nice bikes, a pig roast and a pumpkin cannon. Good times!

Then we went around the block  to National Power Sports, which was just a huge showroom of wall to wall bikes. From there we moved on to our second leg of the trip, which brought us thru Laconia to Meredith thru almost an hours worth of traffic and an ocean of bikes.

I wonder where everyone is going.

Then up the road to Laconia Harley Davidson, where we find all the bikes.

After the harley dealership, we swung thru some back roads to head to the resort and drop off our gear and grab a bit to eat.

And when I say back roads, I mean mostly dirt roads, which I was not expecting. Fortunately they were hard packed and fairly smooth.

After the resort, we headed out around 9:30 for Weirs Beach and the rally. We saw the masses, their bikes and all that goes along with it.

Nice trailer ....

V8 bike ... very sweet!