0 0 8 custom alchemy for 2011 riding the beat in ... - Harley-News

PLANES, TRAINS,
AND MOTORCYCLES
STORY and PHOTOGRAPHY by GLEN ABBOTT
WANDERING THE WORLDS OF WHEELS AND WINGS ON A HARLEY
®
The mist-covered Blue Ridge Mountains
glowed golden in the early morning sun.
Blossoming yellow and purple wildflowers
dotted the roadside. Breezing through the
unattended ranger station at Shenandoah
National Park’s Rockfish Gap entrance (“Pay
at exit,” read the sign), the throaty rumble
of my 2006 Road King® resonated through
the empty Shenandoah Valley. I pulled into the McCormick
Gap overlook, shutting off the Harley’s motor and rolling to
a stop amidst a soundtrack of chirping birds. It was the kind
of day most touring riders live for: the perfect combination of
sunshine, scenery, and solitude. Not to mention lots of curves.
For a brief mid-summer moment, it seemed I had the entire
National Park to myself.
“Skyline Drive is one of the prettiest rides on the East
Coast,” a rider on a 2008 Ultra Classic® Electra Glide® told
me. J.D. Witzig, of Danbury, Connecticut, and his friends had
already ridden the length of the park, part of a 2,400-mile,
six-day road trip. “Sure beats the hell out of ridin’ on the
highway,” he said.
Indeed, Virginia’s Skyline Drive, from Rockfish Gap on the
south end to Front Royal on the north, is 105 miles of winding
two-lane, traversing the tree-covered mountains and verdant
valleys of Shenandoah National Park. Maximum speed limit:
35 mph. Livin’ large in life’s slow lane: for me, sheer bliss on a
Harley-Davidson® Touring machine.
Two days earlier, I had journeyed north from Florida aboard
Amtrak’s Auto Train, the Road King tucked safely inside one of
its vehicle carriers. I’d never put the King on a trailer before –
and realistically, the Auto Train is a very long enclosed trailer,
albeit one with a dining and lounge car
– but train travel turned out to be fun. I’ll admit
I was somewhat disappointed, however, that
the conductor never said “All aboard!” The
Amtrak employees I talked with all laughed
and shook their heads when I asked if anyone
says that anymore.
Riding the rails recalls a slower-paced, more
tranquil era, a time when air transportation was still a dream
and horseless carriages a novelty. At the dawn of the 20th
Century, railroads provided most inter-city transportation.
The term “horsepower” often referred to locomotion of the
equine variety. The seeds of change were sown in 1903,
however. That year, the Wright Brothers achieved powered
flight. Henry Ford started selling cars. And, perhaps most
significantly for two-wheeled travelers, William Harley
and Arthur Davidson built their first motorcycle in a small
wooden shed in Milwaukee. The rest, as they say, is history.
And a grand history it is.
As night fell, the train hurtled northward, its lonesome
whistle echoing in the darkness. The coach car’s rhythmic
rocking lulled me to sleep. I had been well fed and watered
in the aforementioned dining and lounge cars, one of 378
passengers on that day’s journey into night. Jim Whitman,
on-board customer service chief and a 17-year Amtrak
employee, informed me that our cargo consisted of 177
vehicles, only three of which were motorcycles. Between
man and machine, we occupied 35 rail cars: 16 for passengers
and 19 for vehicles, pulled by a pair of behemoth 8,000-hp
locomotives. That’s 16,000 horses powered by diesel fuel,
not oats!
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