My position in the ride crew would be that of motorcycle escort.  I wasn’t entirely sure what that would entail, but I was excited to be a part of such a large effort.

Day 0, Ride down to Raleigh, NC.
Day’s mileage: 271.3  Total mileage: 271.3

About 3/4 of the motorcycle escort crew met at Shoney’s in Springfield.  There were some sprinkles around, and all the weather forecasts screamed heavy thunderstorms all the way from here to Raleigh (and beyond, but who cared about that?).  We all geared up in our rainsuits and proceeded down I-95.  The plan was to take an exit to Route 1 and proceed down on Route 1 to Richmond (where we were to pick up one other person for a total of 14 bikes).  Well, at the exit, the traffic light split the group and held the second half back for a few minutes.  After catching up to the rest of the group, we realized this was a Bad Idea (TM), and got back on I-95.  Man, those guys were fast!!  I managed to keep up with them though... going an average of 70-75 mph.  I don’t even want to know what my top speed was.  And luckily once we got out of Springfield, there wasn’t another drop of rain until Sunday afternoon.

We didn’t have too much trouble with traffic.  We pretty much stayed in the middle lane, this way people could get on/off the exits without too much interference from us.  The only time we had a problem was when an idiot in a sports car tried to pass us all.  First he tried to pass on the left.  (3 lane highway, we were in the middle)  There was a car in the left lane, so he swung over into our lane, right in the middle of all the bikes with hardly any warning.  After that he got in the right hand lane.  But near the head of the group, there was a slow moving truck, so that didn’t work out.  He couldn’t find an opening to get back into the left lane (we didn’t want him swinging back and forth in the middle of us, that’s really dangerous) so he had to drop all the way back, then come up from the back on our left again.  The way he would come up one bike at a time and match speed for about 5-10 seconds before moving up a little more made me a little worried that he might be writing down our license plates to try to report us.  Oh well, if he tries, I don’t think he’ll have much ground to stand on, he’s the one who kept cutting us off, we didn’t do anything wrong.

Turns out it was a good thing we did high speed down I-95 instead of the slower Route 1, because we arrived in Raleigh later than our anticipated time as it was.  The layout was really dumb.  There were several buildings on the NC Fairgrounds, but the Ride occupied two of them.  Yep, you guessed it, one all the way on one side, an the other all the way on the other side.  Add to that, it’s frigging hot in NC!  So we go to building 1, they tell us to go to the crew meeting in the other building.  Fine, we go to building 2.  We were too late for the crew meeting, so back to building 1.  After registering, we find we have to attend the safety briefing before our tent assignments.  Back to building 2.  (More about the safety briefing later).  After the briefing, it’s back to building 1 for our tent assignments.  Finally we depart for our hotel rooms for the night, our last night with a real bed, shower, pillow, etc.

The safety briefing was geared to the safety of the bicyclist.  We with the motorcycle crew went in as a group (setting the scene here).  During the video, the guy doing all the talking said how when you think of a bicycle you think of fun and enjoyment, but when you think of a motorcycle you think of bad accidents, broken bones, road rash, and death.  Needless to say, there was quite a bit of muttering among ourselves at this point.  The video then went on to point out several safety rules, always giving an example on how if you don’t follow that rule “You’re dead.”  For example, calling out “On your left” when passing.  “If you don’t call out ‘on your left’ when you pass, the rider may not be aware you are passing, and may pull out onto his left to pass someone else, causing you to have to move further to the left, over the yellow line, there’s a car coming the other way, and bang!  You’re dead!”  Later in the ride I heard some of the bike riders referring to this as the “You’re dead” video.  Appropriate.

At this point I wasn’t feeling very well (I don’t do well with lots of heat when I’m not used to it) so I had one burger at McD’s and went back to my hotel room.  Turns out my roommate for the night works in the same building as I do (a few different agencies work in the building).  He recognized my motorcycle.  His was familiar, but is a lot more common than mine, so I didn’t think anything of it until we both realized we were in the same building.

Day 1, Raleigh, NC to Lawrenceville, VA
Actual Route mileage: 112.4
Day’s mileage: 261.4   Total mileage:  532.7

The ride began this morning at 6:30 am.  That meant we had to assemble about 5:30 for our initial briefing, put our gear on the trucks, etc.  I was assigned to group one, which would mean I’d be by the head of the riders for most of the time (which was fine by me, I’d get to the first pit stop before most of the people had a chance to use the port-o-pots).  And like that, the ride was on.  I didn’t even stay to watch them all ride out (which must have been quite a sight) but rode on with the first group, starting out right away at an intersection that was causing some problems.  After directing the riders for a while, another motorcyclist came to relieve me, and I rode on ahead.  The roads through North Carolina and southern Virginia were nice.  We didn’t have too many problems with traffic that first day, but there were a lot of cases of dehydration.  The riders needed to drink lots and lots of water.  I’ve heard that 25 riders were taken to the Emergency Room, and 5 were admitted into the hospital.  The person I heard from (via e-mail) said the hospital would only release her if she promised not to ride anymore that week.  Temperatures would be in the 90's throughout the 4 day ride.

Finally I rode all the way into camp.  I then kept riding from camp to pit stop 6 and back (there were seven pit stops) from 2:00 - 6:30.  There were a few nasty hills, and I would shout words of encouragement to the riders.  One rider later told us motorcyclist that sometimes the words were helpful, and sometimes they just wanted to give us the finger since we’d just then roll on the throttle and be over the hill.

At camp, I learned how things would work.  First they had us park far away from our tent, so I had to carry all my gear on the bike to the tent (saddle bags, tank bag, etc).  They had a few 18 wheel tractor trailers.  2 carried a full mobile kitchen, and 3 carried full SHOWER FACILITIES!!!  We were camping on the grounds of a college, and couldn’t get into the buildings.  The first day was the longest for the riders, 112 miles, so everyone was pretty much beat after dinner.

Day 2, Lawrenceville, VA to Petersburg, VA
Actual Route mileage: 65.0
Day’s mileage: 133.7   Total mileage:  666.4

Today was to be the shortest day, Mileage-wise.  It wasn’t too bad actually.  Just a few sticky intersections.

After the second pit stop, the roads got very twisty, and some of the turns were easy to miss.  However, someone was covering the place where I missed the turn when I initially went through (before most of the bikes) so I headed on.  There was an intersection where the bicycles rounded a bend, then needed to make a left.  The problem was that they didn’t see the light for the left turn until after they went around the bend, and then usually had to wrestle with the traffic to get over.  I did the best I could to help them get through, but since I can’t direct the cars, there wasn’t a whole lot I could do.  After standing there for about 15 minutes, a police car pulled into the parking lot across the street and the cop was watching the bikes and me for a few minutes.  When he got out and started walking over to me, I got really nervous.  Maybe he thought I was trying to direct the traffic (I made doubly sure not to when he was around).  When he came over, he said the bikes were doing everything right, it was the traffic that was a problem, not all the cars were yielding the right of way to the bikes.  He also said it would help if the bikes got over into the left lane a lot sooner.  Hmmm.  Just then another police officer came by.  Wow, here I am conferring with two, then THREE police officers on how to handle the situation!  Finally one of them got in the intersection so he could direct the bikes AND the other traffic.  Then I said I’d go back down the road about a block, and tell the bikes to move over into the left hand lane earlier.  Things moved MUCH MORE smoothly at that point.  After standing out there in the noon sun for an hour (plenty of sunscreen and a hat on) it really started to wear me down.  Just then another motorcycle escort guy swung by and told me to go get lunch, he’d take over.  Ah, thanks, I needed that!

The rest of the day went well, escort duty wise.  The motorcycles were parked closer to our tent site that night, which was good.  Actually I had originally parked my motorcycle a little further away, and already changed into shorts and sandals.  So I didn’t want to ride it to move it closer.  I asked Libby, another escort rider, if she wanted to.  She jumped at the opportunity!  But when she hooked a right, out of the parking lot, and out of sight instead of swinging around to the left, my heart jumped in my throat. *Gulp* But a few minutes later, she returned.  She wanted to try it out for a little more than a few yards.  Ok, as long as everything went well, I guess.  Later I’ll have to call her and get a ride on her Shadow.

That night was Julie’s birthday, so we all rode up to a local bar.  Julie didn’t know that we knew it was her b-day.  Libby snuck in a cake.  After drinking some Sprites and ice tea (some guys had a beer, but most of us didn’t drink alcohol), Libby brought out the cake and we sang “Happy Birthday.”  Julie was astonished!  I was pretty much dehydrated that day (I made sure to drink plenty of water thereafter) so headed back early and went to sleep after taking a long drink of water.

Day 3, Petersburg, VA to Fredericksburg, VA
Actual Route mileage: 87.8
Day’s mileage: 171.0   Total mileage:  837.4

Shoot!!  Bryan, my tentmate, overslept.  Since I don’t have a portable alarm clock (note to self, get a portable alarm clock!), I was depending on him.  I woke up about 6 am and quickly got dressed and out of there.  I didn’t even go for the camp breakfast.  Bikes are out at 6:30, and so am I.  I stopped at a Dunkin Donuts on the way to grab a bite.  Man, those bikes are FAST, a large group of them passed by while I was finishing the donut!!

This day was pretty much the most uneventful.  At this point it was mostly will power that kept them going.  The first day it was the rush of the beginning, the second day was the shortest mileage day, and tomorrow is the last day.  This was just “the third day.”

I panicked slightly when I crossed a large bridge.  There were at least 20 bikes over on the side.  I figured something Really Bad (TM) happened and there was a major pileup, I’d have to call for a bunch of ambulances.  Upon closer inspection, I was relieved to find that what had happened is that the bridge offered a beautiful view of the river and parts of Richmond, VA, so the bike riders were all taking pictures (except one guy who had a blown tire... I got tech support for him).  Whew, major disaster avoided.

There were a few intersections where we stopped to help the bikes out, mainly telling them when the road was clear so they could just ride on/around without stopping (bicycle riders hate to stop, I’ve noticed).

That night at camp, when I first came in, there was a motorcycle all the way in the back, near the tents.  The “Traffic control” dude came up to me and said that the motorcycle parking would be over by the bicycles (way the hell on the other side of camp from the tents).  I pointed out the other motorcycle and he said he didn’t know who’s it was or how it got there, but they wanted the motorcycles near the bicycles.  Well, I told him I needed to turn around, so he let me past.  I went and parked by the motorcycle in the back, and soon all the other motorcycles joined in.  So much for the traffic control.  They learned that we motorcyclists like to be near our bikes, and will stretch things to do so.  The traffic control guy even came by and was chatting with us with the motorcycles all around and didn’t say anything about it.

Day 4, Fredericksburg, VA to Washington, DC
Actual Route mileage: 81.4
Day’s mileage: 144.75  Total mileage:  982.15

We got up early this morning since the bikes were heading out a half hour early (last day, they wanted all bike up in time for the closing ceremonies).  First we all posed for the standard group shots.  We suckered a nice young lady into taking pictures for us... with about 10 different cameras, and a few different poses.  Another guy finally came in and helped out.  By that point the bikes had been out for a few minutes already.  I strapped everything on my motorcycle, rather than putting some of the stuff in the Gear Truck, and took off after the bicycles.

The route on this last day was gorgeous.  I helped out a few people on the way.  I was frustrated that I didn’t have a cellular phone or even a walkie talkie.  I would find out what the problem was, then flag someone down (usually Barbara, another motorcycle rider) and she’d call dispatch.  Next time I’m making sure I get some means of communication, plus I’ll slap together a quick first aid kit and maybe even some bike tools.

Soon we entered familiar territory.  One of the pit stops was at the Wal-Mart down near the corner of Van Dorn Street and Kingstown.  If Van Dorn Street rings a bell, yes, that’s the road I live on.  The bicycles didn’t actually go in front of my apartment, but they were within one block of doing so.  I took advantage of this by going to my apartment and unloading most of my gear (and using those wonderful flushable toilets).  We went up through Alexandria and Arlington, up to the Pentagon.  I circled back to make a final sweep, and it’s a damn good thing I did.  There was one intersection that another motorcycle escort person was working, a left turn.  When I came by, he had already left, and I saw that two bicycles had missed the turn.  I chugged after them and sent them back the right way.  I covered that turn until I didn’t see any more bicycles, all the sweep vehicles had passed me by.  So I headed up to the Pentagon again.  I saw the last bicycle peddling away, but when I looked at my watch, it was 3:50, all bikes were supposed to be off the road at 4:00 p.m. (the sweep vehicles would pick them up).  I rode up ahead and saw the sweep vehicles with several bikes.  I told them they missed a bike about a mile back, so someone circled around and got him (otherwise he probably wouldn’t have made it for the closing ceremony).

When I arrived at the Pentagon, I found I was the last motorcycle in.  When I saw the long faces, I realized something was up.  Originally we were told that we (the motorcyclist) would lead the bicycles in.  Then we were told “Well, we want the focus to be on the bicycles, so you can follow them in.”  Now they just told us that we couldn’t ride in with the bikes at all.  I realize that the bikes are the focus of the whole thing, but for a motorcyclist, leading a group in is our way of honoring them.  So that was one thing, plus we didn’t like being lied to, they kept changing their promises for where we would be located.  That was irritating!

Several of the motorcyclist left at that point, and I left too, to call a few friends to tell them I wouldn’t be riding in on the mall as they had expected.  After getting back to my apartment, I thought about it and wanted to at least watch all the bicyclists arrive back, since I’ve worked hard with them, it would be great to see them come in.  When I got to the mall, about 5 other motorcycle crew people were there.  We got together with the rest of the crew and watched the bicycles come in.  When the bicyclists came in, they split into two groups, on the left and on the right of an aisle.  The crew then walked down the middle of the aisle.  Some crew people had signs announcing which crew they were on.  All of us motorcycle people raised our helmets high up in the air.  As we passed the people on bicycles, we received lots of Hi-fives and handshakes.  I thought my heart was going to burst.  These people were showing love to all of us on the crew.  It made the whole experience doubly worth while.

One thing that the speaker said during the ceremony rang true to me... he mentioned the diversity of people.  On the ride there were black people, white people, Asians, Hispanics, and others.  There were straight people, gay people, bi people, drag queens, feminists, and the like.  Obese people, pretzel thin people, and the whole range in between.  Every part of the spectrum of human beings was represented.  And we all got along.  There were no fights, no arguments.  No insults, no hatred, no bigotry.  All that there was were handshakes, hugs, kisses, embraces and total acceptance.  If only that good will and openness could spread.

Each night at camp I left my gear outside my tent because there was not enough room inside.  This included my saddle bags, tank bags, and a rump sack.  For some reason I felt no fear of anything happening to my things, and I was not disappointed.  Everything was there and untouched in the morning.  How often can you feel comfortable doing that in a group of almost 2,500 people??

Did everything go perfectly?  No, there were some accidents, some wipe outs, some mistakes made (by bicyclists and motorcyclists).  I do have some suggestions which I sent to the ride committee.  (Give us some yellow paint so we can add last minute road signs for stuff like warning of an oil slick; have the riders move into the left lane sooner, etc.)  Would I do the motorcycle escort again?  Definitely.  As long as I was even partially helpful, then I served a purpose and helped others in achieving their goals.

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Last modified: 8 MAY 98