Ridin' With the Blues

We patiently waited for the traffic to clear, then Dan and Jim signaled for us to follow in a precise and orderly fashion, careful to observe all traffic laws and…

STOP!

That’s not how it went! Let me start over and get it right this time.

This is my third version of that memorable afternoon ride. I wrote it the first time for a HOG chapter web site, carefully choosing my words in order to fall within the HOG’s guidelines for content. I then wrote it again, deleting almost all the words because it still wasn’t sanitized enough. Now that I have my own site, I can tell the story the way it really happened. So here goes.

It all started with an announcement by John on the Eastern Ontario HOG chapter ride line. If anyone would like to meet Dan Akroyd and Jim Belushi, and accompany them on a ride to Blues Festival Plaza, then they should show up at Ottawa Harley-Davidson this coming Saturday. Hey, that sounds like fun, I thought. For the past week, I was all by my lonesome since the rest of my family was away in Britain on vacation. A little bit of excitement was just what I needed.

I called the shop to get a few more details. Apparently the boys always try to make a grand entrance to their concerts and ride in on a pair of Harleys. They had approached Ottawa HD requesting the loan of a couple of their bikes, and invited anyone who was interested to join them on the short ride downtown to where the Blues Festival was taking place. Rain or shine, they were committed to this ride. Before hanging up, I also was informed that there would be no police escort. All the rules of the road would apply, and any blocking would be illegal.

Saturday started cold and very wet. After two weeks of scorching heat, Mother Nature had decided a few days earlier to rejuvenate herself. Since then, a persistent rain had fallen. It alternated between drizzle and downpour, and it wasn’t looking good for Blues Fest, or the ride. Never-the-less, I was determined to go. When the time came for me to get the bike out of the garage, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the precipitation had actually stopped. I put on the rain gear to be on the safe side, and hit the road.