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Update from Steve Adams 07.23.01

Saturday July 14th: What a rush!! We left Schenectady, NY Friday morning and headed for the Mass. border. We had decided that the riders who left the Speedway in California with us would follow myself and Mike Tomas across the bridge into Springfield, followed by the Indians and other brands.

We were met just inside the border by a couple of Pittsfield, MA motor officers and escorted to Mass. were a couple of State Troopers on their Harleys joined us. We were escorted to Pittsfield were a huge contingent of citizens, city officials and other riders met us. We were paraded around the city under police escort (so cool running stop lights, and not getting in trouble)to "The Brewerey" a local eatery/bar that hosted lunch for us. Their the city officials presented us with some official proclamations and after a quick speech by Mike Tomas and Springfield Indian dealer Ray Jensen (who set all this up) it was time to feast!

Food was great, the people of the city even better. A few more riders joined us, we are now nearing 200 riders I think. I look in the mirrors and see nothing but motorcycles (of course, looking into these mirrors, everything get doubled with the vibration!). Lunch over and the police fire up their bikes and our riders stream out (I of course was taking care of some last minute signees and rushed to get back to my bike, and as most the riders will tell you, I am always the last to get started, I just can't get the hang of the starting proceedure!!) By the time I got her fired, only Scott Hull from Tulsa hung around with me. We took off, but without the escort, we hit every light in town, plus, we made a wrong turn and got lost (okay, I made a wrong turn and Scott followed). After some direction (thanks Midas Muffler) we found our road and played catch up. We finally arrived at the Russell Barracks where we were to be lined up for the last 45 mintue dash into Springfield. The guys from Chester joined up with joined up with us at the Russell Barracks on their Indians, bringing the number of bikes to nearly 300 (though, most did not pay, hopefully they will donate something to their local Cystic Fibrosis Foundation chapter)!

We took off from Russell with Kiwi Mike and myself in the lead, followed by the Pokey Posse and the rest. Mike soon motioned for me to fall in behind him (hmmm), so he could lead us all I guess.
As we got closer to "Home", the streets were lined up with people, young and old, waving and shouting encouragements to us. As we got closer, the crowds got thicker. We made the final turn onto Memorial Bridge that tooks us into downtown, and words cannot express the emotions we all felt. Like John Talar said "...if I wasn't a tough guy, I would've shed a tear..." Well, I am not a tough gut, and I was indeed touched by what the city of Springfield did for us!!

We paraded into Court Square were there were thousands of people there. From then on, it was all a blur....people and bikes everywhere. There back slaps, high fives and hugs that we made it, and we had done good. This trip was awesome!

I would like to thank all the people who made this trip a success:
First of all, my family: Michelle and my boys, Gregg, Devin and Cody who saw very little of me for the past several months while I worked on this ride.
To Mike "Kiwi" Tomas for giving me the time to work on this, both at work and at home.
To Jeremy Ferris, who took the workload off of me at Kiwi, freeing me up.
To Joe Lambert, for keeping all the bikes on the road,
and most of all, to the riders. Without you guys, this ride would have happened. To Stan, Greg, John, Dave, Nevada Bob, NY John and Debbie, Roger and Kate, Edwin, Wally, Winger Bob, CJ & Amy, Bill (Speed Racer), Matt, Andre', my Minnesota gang: Dan, Jeff and Bob, Scott and Pokey David, Jerry and many, many others, I am deeply indebted to you all, I will never forget you guys. You are the greatest bunch of riders in the world!! Peace,

Steve Adams

07.11.01 I am sitting at Kinko's in beautiful Harrisburg, PA. I haven't had time to put anything much down, but here’s a quick little note about the last couple of days:

Monday, we left the beautiful city of Cumberland, MD after the great hospitality (and great Coney Island hot dogs from Gino and Teddy Bear) and headed for Gettysburg, PA for our lunch stop. George Wheelock led us there, and then gave us some background of the battlefield and what transpired there. We then headed off to the actual site, where George again spoke about the Civil War. He really knew his Civil War history, and made the trip very memorable.

Tuesday was an off day for everyone, and Bob's Indian Sales and Service in Etters invited us down for some lunch. His place was a virtual museum of unique and rare Indians. Even the local media showed up and did a feature on us there. Thanks Bob & Robin Markey for the time. After Bob's most of us assembled back at the hotel, where Melissa Deets, the local CF Rep. brought out Olivia (age 9) and Brandon (age 7) who both suffer from CF. All the guys jumped all over themselves to give these kids a ride on their bikes. To see these kids smiles, made me realize what this ride is all about. It is not about the partying, the beer or even about Indian.... it is about these kids who may not have a chance to ride their own bikes. It is about the parents who through their strength, keep their children mentally strong and fighting to make every day special. When after the photos where all done, Olivia's father (sorry, I didn't remember his name) got up and spoke, thanking us, very emotionally for what we were doing, there wasn't a dry eye in the lot. It made all the hardship and hardwork I have endured these past few years worth every minute. I just wish we could have done more. For every kid we can make smile, for every life we touch in some small way I know that this was what we were doing this ride for! For the kids!

Steve Adams