Shots from the 90th Anniversary Ride

The following are some of the photos from our July 2nd to July 20th cross country ride.

So the ride begins...from Northborough, MA, on Sunday July 2nd. Thanks to our friends for the send off and to Pat for the great photos.

This article in Motorcycle Illustrated shows the sisters leaving from the raceway at Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, NY, on July 4th, 1916. All of the old photos from Motorcycle Illustrated are courtesy of Rick Schunk of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America.

Since the ride was a fund raiser for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, we opted to leave from the Intrepid on July 4th. Notice both my wife and daughter are wearing our T shirts with Augusta's quote, "Woman can if she will".

Aboard the Intrepid anchored in the Hudson River, NYC, at 46th st. The Intrepid survived two kamikazi attacks in WWII and is now a floating museum.

The family "ride launch crew" with the living Van Buren Sisters, Dotty & Teresa.

Noon, July 4th, we start the ride from NYC.

The first leg on July 2nd brought us to NY from Massachusetts. The next day we found ourselves in DuBois, PA, and then Akron, OH.

Quaker Square, a hotel built from the old Quaker Mills Oat storage silos, was a great place to stay in Akron. We were looking for Peck's Studios where a photo of the sisters was taken during the trip. Unfortunately, urban renewal had eliminated the old building and replaced it with a highrise.

Augusta and Adeline were convinced that Firestone made the best tires available in 1916. As a result, they toured the Firestone factory in Akron, OH.

After Akron, we visited Fremont, OH, to the warm welcome of friends. Bob brought us to the City Council meeting and Introduced us to Mayor Overmyer. We had a great time at the Depot and were treated like kings by Janet, June and the family.

Mayor Overmyer graciously introduced us to the Fremont, OH, City Council so that we could say a few words about the Sisters, The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, and our ride

The next stop was South Bend, Indiana. By chance we stayed at a hotel about a mile from Notre Dame, so we rode thru the home of the Fighting Irish to find out that they don't allow motorcycles on campus!

We pushed on to Davenport, Iowa, and then to Omaha.

In Omaha we woke up to rain. It would be a long wet ride, problem was, we didn't have face shields. After a few miles of poor visibility we found a Harley shop that had just 1 snap on face shield. We had to ride all the way to Lincoln before we found another. Finally, we landed in North Platte to some unexpected, and fortuitous, events.

In North Platte, NE, stands this mini version of the Statue of Liberty. Being an ex-New Yorker, and having just left NYC, we had to stop for a photo. We asked pedestrian to take our picture and it turned out that she was a reporter for the North Platte Telegraph. Before long we were at their offices and the paper printed a great article about the Intrepid Fund, the Sisters, and the Ride. Thanks to Rebecca, Teresa, and Beth for making it happen.

At the North Platte 20th Century War Memorial, a striking tribute to our men and women in uniform.

The ride to Colorado Springs would have unforseen consequences.

Since there was no place to take shelter and only one road, we had to ride thru a massive thunderstorm system on the way into Colorado Springs. Here, we are putting on our rain gear and hoping for the best. We could see lightning cracking off to our left and heavy rains to our right.

The next day would find us at 7 Falls, Garden of the Gods, and a great tour of the Springs from the folks at the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum. Thanks to Larry & Alice for coming to our aid, and Barbara & Jerry for the great tour of the Springs.

The Sisters at 7 Falls in 1916

Here we are at 7 Falls, in the exact spot the Sisters were photographed 90 years ago...minus the motorcycle. Since they built a gift shop and walkway on the path to the falls, vehicles are no longer permitted at the base of the falls.

This was as close to the falls as we could get (the exact location was over our left shoulder). Thanks to David for the great photos.

Here I am contemplating Pikes Peak off in the distance. We had planned to ride to the summit like the great Aunts did 90 years earlier, but ran out of time. It turns out to have been a good turn of events. The altitude at Frisco, CO, later that day really bothered me, and that was only 9,200 feet. 14,000 would have really done me in.

Beautiful riding in Colorado.

Copper Mountain, CO.

I70 thru Glenwood Canyon in the western Rockies. An Awesome road and highly recommended.

After passing thru Glenwood Canyon we arrived at the Colorado River.

The article above from Motorcycle Illustrated was reason for us to stop in Grand Junction and look for the Peter Fox Motorcycle shop. But, like all the locations we checked out, it was no more. The mountains and waterfalls were there, but the buildings were all victims of urban renewal. We did get a needed oil change at the local Harley shop who took us right in.

We travelled west to MOAB, UT, and found ourselves in Arches National Park. After riding a windy road up to a plateau, you are greeted with a view that looks more like Mars than Earth.

Rhonda at Arches.

Now go to Photos - Part II by clicking on the underlined URL directly below.

Photos Part II - 90th Anniv Ride

Augusta and Adeline...Two Courageous Women