The Mother Road Ride/Rally® NEWS


Volume Four Number 9
http://www.hhjm.com/rally
September 1, 1998


Counter Point to The 5th Annual Mother Road Ride/Rally® Every year we hear from our participants about the heat in the desert sections of the ride. Because the June date has gotten such wide publicity, we're reluctant to change the dates but we have been thinking about adding a 'cool country' event to complement the Route 66 event. How does Ride the Boundary Waters strike you? It would start in August in International Falls, MN and then cross to Fort Frances and Canada. That's the really beautiful country of the Boundary Waters . . . which includes Thunder Bay, and the stunning Lake of the Woods. We'd love to hear your opinion of such a tour.

Earliest of the Early Birds

Joe Miller of Dayton, Ohio notches the number one registration for The 5th Annual Mother Road Ride/Rally® (June 12-19, 1999) . We got Joe's registration into the office July 17, 1998. Joe also wins the coveted Repeat Offender designation: He made the run in June, 1998. Joe introduced the Mother Roaders to the Kevlar® riding suit. It gave us all something to think about as we sweated our way south from Chicago. Joe, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, could unzip and step out of the armor carrying suit when we stopped while the rest of us had to stay in leathers. Not having to carry a rain suit seemed quite a feature as did the pockets one could load with ice if it got really hot.

And just days behind Joe in The 5th Annual Mother Road Ride/Rally® 'Early Bird' race were Bill Mikesell of South Elgin, IL and Dale Simmons of San Diego, CA. Bill is another 'Repeat Offender' while Dale is making his first run.

Ooops! & Apologies!

Last month we got our captions mixed and didn't correctly identify Ken Lato as a Chicago starter. Ken also sent us a picture of his stop at the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, NM. We were delighted to get the picture because earlier reports about Blue Swallow suggested it was closed and for sale since the passing of Lillian Redmond.

Ken said he 'want[s] to go on the [The 5th Annual Mother Road Ride/Rally®] next year [and] would love my wife to come with me. Love to have both of you, Ken!

Davenports at the End of the Road

Carole & Ken Davenport sent us the picture they snapped at the end of their run of Route 66 in June, 1998. The plaque was part of a Route 66 long promotion the producers of the motion picture The Will Rogers Story put together. In all, they placed 8 of the plaques . . . one in each state Route 66 passed through.

The plaque the Davenports posed at is in the Palisades Park at the intersection of Ocean Blvd and Santa Monica Blvd. The Santa Monica Pier is just south of the plaque at the intersection of Ocean and Colorado. The Davenports also sent us a picture of Santa Monica's namesake which we'll share with you next month.



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