Band of 4 Harley Motorcyle Trip 2009

It's been more than a week since Ken returned from his epic motorcycle trip with his 2 older brothers and cousin. Several years of talking about it finally culminated into some serious commitment late last year. Ken and his oldest brother, Ed, did a good deal of planning and created a very ambitious itinerary. In 4 days, they covered 1200 miles from Ocean City, Maryland to Point Pleasant, West Virginia and back. From an outsider's perspective, it served as a tribute to Ken's father & family as their west-most destination of Point Pleasant was where Ken Moore Sr. grew up. It also seemed like a midlife crisis-averting, male bonding event involving big motorcycles, bar food and winding roads that they would all remember for a long time. And that's very important considering what's coming up for Ken & me in the near future. Ken will need to hold tight and savor those memories because it might be a little while before he can do that again. But I am glad for them that they pulled it off, there were no injuries or arguments and they had fun. There are lots of pictures and stories but I'm not sure if Ken intends to do a formal summary or slide show. In the meantime, here are a few images that give an idea of what it was about.

Their planned route

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The Moore Boys stopped by their childhood home in Bowie, MD and luckily the current owners of the house were very understanding. A very faithful recreation of a photo taken in Aug 1969 (almost 40 yrs ago).

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Band of 4 on Skyline Drive in Virginia: cousin Allen, brother Mike, Ken & brother Ed. That is Allen's Chopper in front by the way. The rest of them had Harleys which tend to be more reliable and comfortable on longer roadtrips. The guys rotated through the Chopper so Allen wouldn't have to spend so much time on it--I guess it was fatiguing but it certainly does have a look all it's own.

Ken on his rented Hog

The guys all wearing the shirts Ken designed to commemorate the trip while stopped in Luray, Virginia.

A very colorful and tattooed mechanic they met during their journey.

The Moore Boys molesting the Mothman statue in Point Pleasant, WV.

People asked me if I was nervous about Ken doing the ride and being away from me for a full week in our 7th month of pregnancy. Because I had my cousin up visiting in Seattle during that time (see next post), I wasn't so concerned for the day-to-day stuff but clearly his safety was on my mind. All 4 guys are very experienced riders and I knew they would look out for one another. Also Ken had strict instructions to check in everyday and he enabled his phone to be GPS locatable via a Google app called Latitude so I was able to track their progress. Ah technology.