Thursday 5th July

This adventure came about by way of my involvement with the classic Harley Davidson Shovelhead motorcycle, produced from 1996 to 1984, and its unique forum http://www.shovelhead.us. Since 2008, there has been an annual gathering of forum members in the United States, known as the Shovelfest and held in a different state each year.

Me and my 1976 Shovel

I was lucky enough to have been loaned a bike by an American member, in the summer of 2010, to ride from York, PA, to Shovelfest III in Rose, OK, nearly a 3000 mile round trip. This event was like a surprise 60th birthday present to myself, coming without the months or years of planning that people normally go through for an American motorcycle tour. All I had to do was sort my ESTA, arrange medical insurance, book my flights and go! I had a brilliant time; thanks mainly to the amazing benevolence of Rich Horn, who lent a total stranger his immaculate, tuned 2005 Electra Glide Ultra Classic to ride, but also to the warmth and generosity of the other forum members whom I met.

Richard's Ultra at Jonesboro, Arkansas

Such is the quality of Shovelfest that some English forum members have attended every one. The Australian forum members now have ‘Oz Fest’ and, last year, an English forum member who had lived in the States decided to try and replicate the ambience of the American gathering for European forum members. MadDog hosted SFUK (Shovel Fest UK),  Limeyfest 2011, at his Kent country home, with camping in the beautiful gardens and use of the ‘domestic facilities’ within the charming old house.

The event was well-attended, with an international contingent of three Americans, three Danes, an ex-pat Brit who rode up from the South of France and a Scot. The rest of us were a diverse bunch from the north and south of England and various points in between. The weekend was excellent; great location, great food, great company, enough alcohol to create a great atmosphere round the camp fire and great weather, too. I had established a particularly good rapport with kevthefire, who had a very similar sense of humour to my own. Kev’s forum identity comes from him not only being a fireman but also being fascinated by fire – makes you wonder if his station has an exceptionally high number of shouts, compared to the norm! Due to our banter round the fire we were christened ‘the gobshites’.

Like all these happenings in life, where you don’t know quite what to expect but then have a really good time, the weekend engendered one of those post-event highs, a sort of euphoric bonhomie, that carries on for a short while. Because my bike wasn’t particularly reliable, Kev decided to accompany for part of my journey home, around the M25. We stopped at Clacket Lane services, for a coffee, which is shortly before where I turn off for the M23 and home.

The weather being so fine that we were happy to sit outside in the shade, drinking our coffee and still under the influence of the SFUK after-buzz, Kevin made a disclosure, “I’m going to do Route 66 for my 50^th, next year and buy a bike over there to ship back from the west coast. Do you want to come?”  I’m not sure, now, how this reached my brain through the post-Limeyfest haze, but of course I said “OK!” I did, though, add that I thought there were better travels to be had over there, if heading for the Pacific coast.

That’s how I’ve come to be sitting here now, typing the introduction to this blog, the high of last weekend’s SFUK 2, Limeyfest 2012, now replaced by the panic of trying to get everything ready for an early morning departure for the airport, in less than 48 hours. We are flying out to Harrisburg, in Pennsylvania on the 7^th of July and returning from LA on August 5^th. We have bought a couple of 1979 FL Shovelheads, rebuilt by Rich Horn. Rich is riding with us, on another Shovel, to Shovelfest  V which is at Virgin Island, Yutan, Nebraska, the following weekend. After that, Rich is heading back home to PA and we are heading for Colorado and the Rockies.

The schedule for getting to SFV is necessarily quite rigid, as we’re aiming to cover 1350 miles (off the slab) in three and a half days. We want to get to Yutan for The Things Fish Fry on Thursday evening. Then our only constraint is making sure we get the bikes to the shipping agent, in Paramount, CA, by August 3^rd. We want to do some nice mountain roads, visit Vegas and see the Grand Canyon again. We intend seeing some great sights, meeting some great people and taking home great memories. Hopefully, from time to time on our travels, we’ll be able to sofa surf with some of our Shovel Family, or camp in their backyards, otherwise we’ll just camp or stay in flea-pit motels.

 Whatever happens, it’ll be a great adventure and there’ll eventually be another Shovel in my garage. It’ll also be brilliant to actually see lots more places that I’ve known all my life, through books, films and television. I’m going to do my best to keep the blog updated and post plenty of pics, but ……………………… you know how things go.