the queen travels: The 110th celebration begins

Stars and stripes forever.

Thursday morning (August 29), Birdie and I headed down to the Harley-Davidson Museum. The parking was still in the grass riding over the interlocked plastic octagons to get to the various rows. Grass is still not my friend but I still did not fall over. We were pretty early so we were parked only a few rows in.

These plastic octagons were a little tricky to ride on. They seemed to move beneath you.

There were 2014 motorcycles outside on display and I sat on a trike. I like the sand colors.

Pretty nice ride.

The statue outside of the museum was a popular place for photos but we waited our turn.

There was a countdown clock outside and we could see the celebration was imminent. And we were going to be a part of it.

Counting down.

We wandered around and then headed into the museum. She was going on a special tour while I was just meandering. I had been in the museum when it opened but there was so much more now. I wandered, took photos, wandered some more.

It's amazing how many antique bikes are in the museum and the quality of them.

This bike is from my birth year ... and it's red.

In 1937 this bike broke the land-speed record, reaching 136.183 mph on the hard-packed sands of Daytona Beach, Florida. William Harley proposed the event to promote the recently released knucklehead engine.

By 1916 the U.S. Postal Service fleet included more than 4,700 Harley-Davidson vehicles. This vehicle has the original U.S. Mail lettering, which was optional at the time. The company had pointed out that these vehicles were faster than old-fashioned horsepower. Great marketing strategy.

My very favorite engine ... the shovelhead.

This was also a personal favorite. Note the two scabbards on the front forks.

This is the Harley in the trailer box that was found in April 2012 on Graham Island, off the coast of British Columbia. The bike had a license plate registered to a Japanese citizen.

The bike had been swept to sea during an earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March 2011, that took nearly 20,000 lives and left hundreds of thousands homeless. The bike was taken by currents and eventually landed on Graham Island. The bike has not been cleaned, and the remaining salt and sand will continue the corrosion. It's been left as evidence of the tragedy that happened.

The museum has the entire history of HD, but there are interactive displays … you can hear the sounds of the various engines, play video games with motorcycles, and build your own custom bike.

Crash!!!!

These pedals worked the water for the sinks in the restrooms. Very different.

While I didn't read and look at everything, I enjoyed exploring and seeing things. When Birdie found me, we saw some of the 2014 motorcycles, sat on a few bikes and just enjoyed ourselves. What a treat to see it again.

We also found these bikes we could sit on. This one reminds me of a bike my dad had. I have a photo but haven't identified it. Need to check with Guy Casey, I guess.

Sure, it could be Birdie's new ride.

From the museum we saw some various cop bikes, and I had to have photos. I'm always drawn to them. I did see that now there is a bigger tourpack bag on the back. It's because they now have to carry computers rather than just radio gear. It's almost big enough.

Yep, cop bikes rock.

The computer requires a bigger tour pack on the cop bikes.

These are policemen from Las Vegas.

Beautiful ...

Birdie and I got on the shuttle and went down to Summerfest. It was much easier to leave the bikes at the museum (although grass parking is still not my favorite). We spent time there, looking around, wandering and finally hooking up with Vickie from San Diego.

Bikes at the museum were a much better option for us than riding to Summerfest.

Birdie and I signed the big 110th celebration sign. She signed high up ...

This one's for you, Hobbs.

I was so hot it's a wonder I didn't sweat off my new tattoo. It'll be gone in a few days, I'm sure, leaving an interesting white spot on my arm. Birdie and I both got these at the museum.

This is a view across the lake from Summerfest. I sat at a table in the shade for about an hour while the others walked around and just took photos of various things and people.

Mexico City patch. Lots of different ones.

This doesn't appear to be a HOG patch.

Nor does this. But I found the variety interesting. Security came wandering through the area ... possibly because there were a lot of different patches from Mexico gathered in one place? Coincidence?

Birdie met Vickie at HOG officer training and when Vickie came to Anchorage on a layover (flight attendant for Delta Airlines) we took her around on bikes and spent some great time showing her some of the sights.

Vickie from San Diego, Birdie and me at Summerfest.

A bike called "Old Glory."

Parking was not an easy thing to find, but we parked up on the road and found a path down the side of the hill. Will from Kenai was with us, too, along with Vickie. It was hot and I was quite dewy from the direct sun.

Then it was on to the House of Harley-Davidson, the Milwaukee version. It was starting to get a little wild. There were vendors, bars, food. Wow. Every place you go it's a party.