My friend, Poet, invited me to ride with Combat Veterans International (CVI) Chapter 5 in the 63rd annual Bremerton Armed Forced Day Parade. When I was with CVI I always enjoyed riding in this and the Veteran’s Day parade in Auburn. Most of the Veteran motorcycle groups that have entries in the parade invite any and all veterans who ride to participate. Some other veteran motorcycle groups also ride with the CVI entry. The Brothers in Arms MC (BIA) has participated every year since CVI organized an entry in the parade.
I had arranged to meet Poet near Port Orchard so we could ride into Bremerton together. It pretty much rained continuously from the time I left home at 7:00AM until we arrived at the staging area for the parade. The parade officials want people to start staging at 9:15 but CVI is almost always the last group in the parade. By the time everyone gets staged, the parade starts and movement actually occurs at our position it is usually 11:00-11:30AM. That leaves a lot of time to 
mix and mingle. I hadn’t seen a lot of the folks here for almost three years. My job had pretty much sucked the life out of me over that period.
We got moving about 11:30AM and the usual fun began. The folks at the parade are always great and the veteran bikers do their best to give them a good show. There was the occasional burnout, revving of engines and honking of horns. We try to keep the smiles on and wave to all the people who are waving and cheering us on. Bremerton really supports their veterans. The good news was the rain let up and there was just a slight drizzle periodically as we ran through the parade route.
At the end of the parade route we pulled into a parking lot to say our good-byes. As president of CVI Chapter 5, Poet thanked everyone for participating. The presidents of the other CVI , BIA and Veterans of Foreign Wars chapters had ridden and at the front of the procession and they also thanked everyone.
The groups started heading out. I rode back to Port Orchard and had lunch with a number of the CVI riders. All the picture I took during the parade can be seen in This Gallery.
I am re-joining CVI as I have really missed the brotherhood and the activities. I was stupid to have resigned in the first place. Most veterans groups primary mission is helping other veterans, in the process they usually are also helping each other. Somehow I got caught up in trivial BS and forgot the bigger picture. It looks like I may have an opportunity to correct a big mistake on my part. Thank God for CVI!
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At the last minute I hooked up with a ride announced on the Seattle Motorcycle Riders Meetup group. I managed to get a day off and the weather forecast looked halfway good for a change. The ride was called the Leavenworth Lunch Run and the host was Rico from the Pleasure Barons MC. They were going to take the Chumstick Highway route into Leavenworth which is always a fun diversion. The rally point was Couzin’s Cafe in Kirkland.
I arrived early as usual and staked out a table in the cafe. I ordered a cup of coffee and settled in to wait for the other riders. I hadn’t seen a lot of commitments to participate in the ride so I wasn’t sure how many were actually going to show up. As it turns out there was just two other motorcycles an one passenger, Rico’s daughter. Rico’s wife was
caging it with their baby son. The food at Couzin’s Cafe is very good with farm sized portions. A good way to get the day started.
It was 38 degrees when I left home and it wasn’t a lot warmer when we left the cafe. Climbing Hwy 2 to Stevens pass cost us whatever temperature increase we realized from the steadily rising sun. Rico was in the lead and he decided to pull over at one of the parking lots at the pass. They didn’t have the niceties I did, like a heated jacket liner and heated gloves. As it turned out I was the only one that had actually ridden the Chumstick Hwy so I told them they needed to on Hwy 207 heading towards Lake Wenatchee Park then just follow the Leavenworth signs.
We all snapped a few pictures and then got back on the road. Rico Made all the right turns and we had a fun little ride on the Chumstick Hwy. We got into Leavenworth right about noon and found some parking in fairly short order. This was a little lucky because the good weather had Leavenworth pretty well filled up.
We ended up eating at the Munchen Haus and we all ordered our brat and beer of choice. We had a nice lunch sitting in the sun and conversing. They were all heading to Spokane so I was on my own after we finished lunch. I decided to run the Chumstick Hwy again and head back over Hwy 2. I found a few places to pull off and take more pictures of the beautiful snow covered mountains. When I got to Monroe I turned South on Hwy 203 and ran it to I-90 and from there on home.
All in all a nice lunch run. It’s too bad there wasn’t more riders but that was their loss. All the pictures I took during the ride can be seen in This Gallery.
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As I stated in my previous article, I was testing out a new Pentax Optio WS80 as a video camera during the Three Pass Ride. It was mounted centerline behind the windshield using the windshield bracket of my 2005 BMW R1200GS and a short RAM mount. The WS80 was shooting 640×480 at 30 fps. The stabilization was on though it is obviously not completely effective.
I don’t know if the stabilization is also creating some of the frame noise or fluttering that is also apparent. I also had a number of gloved finger and operator errors that corrupted several of the videos. The two that I am showing here are the best of the lot.
Ride On Chumstick Road – Part 1
Ride On Chumstick Road – Part 2
The batteries were only lasting about 30 minutes which isn’t too big of an issue. Shooting at these settings produces some large files as well. I could probably edit out all the bad frames but that doesn’t seem all that value added at this point.
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A number of Western Washington motorcycle groups gathered and Ken’s Restaurant off I-90 exit 34 to ride the annual Three pass ride. Randy the X Man, of PNW Sport Touring group, was the originator of this ride and it has become a popular spring event. I was participating with the Seattle Motorcycle Rider group.
JD’s Three Pass Route
The ride plan included a rendezvous point at the XXX Drive-in in Issaquah. That is where Brutus and I met up with them. We had time to get acquainted and have a cup of coffee before heading to the primary gathering site. Claudette was a co-host of the event and also our little group’s ride leader. This is actually my first ride with the group, but I knew Claudette from when we both did our first IBA SS1000 with the MTF back in June 2007.
Ken’s Restaurant was just a short 13 mile run up I-90. There was already quite a crowd when we got there. I would guess there was in the neighborhood of a hundred motorcycles but that is just a wild guess. I didn’t try to count them.
I wandered around and took pictures and found Tad, who I met during the R-IDES of MARCH VIII ride. As it turned out he was the ride leader for another group of riders from the Greater Seattle and Puget Sound Motorcycle Riders group.
There was an attempt at an overall group safety briefing but most people were too busy socializing to pay much attention. Claudette had already done one for our small group of six riders so hopefully the other individual groups did the same thing.
Claudette is also the organizer for the Lady Riders of Western Washington group. They had a nice showing at the event and they all got together for a group picture. I managed to wander over just in time to take my own pictures.
Eventually groups started to depart on the ride. Claudette rounded us up and got us out on the highway ahead of most of the gathering. I think we ended up passing just about everyone that left before us. Claudette likes a spirited pace. 
The ride over Snoqualmie pass was uneventful and the traffic was fairly light. There were three different side routes that were part of the planned ride but there was no requirement to run them. The goal was to get off the beaten path and possibly introduce some new roads to people. The first one was the West Nelson siding road between Easton and Cle Elum. There was construction on I-90 and we ended up in the left lane with barriers preventing us from getting to any exits. I thought we were going to miss the turn off but the barriers ended about 2/10s of a mile before the exit.
Due to a little GPS problem I was having we didn’t run the whole side route into Cle 
Elum but ended up getting back on I-90 at the East Nelson exit. We took the first exit at Cle Elum and stopped at a Chevron Station for those that needed to fuel or a pit stop. From here we ran a strait shot out WA-97 and WA-2 to the planned lunch spot in Cashmere, the Country Boys BBQ. We didn’t take the side route from Cle Elum out WA-10.
The ride across Blewett Pass was interesting as we encounter some rain and hail. The roads were clear so we didn’t have any issues other then visibility and the cold. The weather was fantastic in Cashmere with plenty of sunshine. Some of the riders needed it to get warmed back up again.
The BBQ was very good and they did an awesome job of feeding the large group of riders that showed up. Even though some of the group preferred to go to Leavenworth for lunch, the streets at the BBQ were lined with motorcycles. There was a constant line waiting to order for the better part of an hour. The organizers did call ahead and let them know the group was coming. 
Otherwise the would likely have run out of food.
I had a combination plate of ribs, pulled pork and chicken. It was all very good. Eventually it was time to go and we geared up to head back out on the road. There was a short jaunt down WA-2 to Peshastin where we turned off on Main St. to take the back road that connects with Chumstick Road. The Chumstick loop was the best riding of the day as far as twisties are concerned. The road was wet in quite a few places so the pace was somewhat subdued. Otherwise it was great.
There was one last stop at the Shell station where WA-2 and WA-207 come together. We said our goodbyes at this point seeing as how folks would be heading in various direction once we got to the Monroe area. We were then back on WA-2 heading towards the pass. The traffic wasn’t heavy but it was slow enough to probably annoy the more spirited riders. We lucked out on Stevens Pass as there were just a couple of sprinkles of rain here and there. Claudette, David and I turned off in Sultan to pick up Ben Harper Road and then headed South on WA-203. Eventually I was alone riding South though Carnation and eventually back to I-90. I decided to head East to pick up WA-18 and add another pass to my route, if you want to call Tiger Mountain a pass. 
The total days riding was almost 300 miles. A great ride with some good socializing. The gallery with all of the picture from this ride can be found HERE.
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