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 Wow.....what a week. We just got back from the Antique Motorcycle Club of America's national meet in Davenport, Iowa and I'm here to tell you it was one heck of a time. Davenport is a must for us every year, and we'd all been looking forward to this one for quite some time.
We left Maggie Valley last Tuesdaynight, August 26th and headed north. Leaving at night has its advantages...no traffic and an early Wednesday arrival time. All in all, the ride up was great. We made a couple of stops along the way -- one in Bloomington, IL to pick up an old '46 Knucklehead basket-case (which I'll tell you about in my next blog) and one in Galesburg, IL. Galesburg was home to my long-time friend Chuck Lipsky, who passed away just over four years ago. Chuck was a big antique motorcycle nut, and collected bikes of all kinds. He collected new old stock parts by the dozens, and even tooled up to make a few reproductions of hard to find parts over the years. Chuck's son invited me up to look over some of his dads parts, and of-course, I obliged. We spent several hours at his place, and eventually made a deal on a small pile of parts that I was needing for projects around the museum. A pretty good start to a swap meet weekend. We left Chuck's son's house and only had about another hour to go. When we arrived, the parking lot was already filling up. We made our way to our usual camp spot, and immediately started catching up with old friends.  Thursday morning, the fun began. It was a bit rainy, which usually isn't good for swap meet business. This time, it didn't matter -- Davenport doesn't come around every weekend. Matt and I ran around in search of parts we need (and ones we don't need), and found countless goodies for the museum. There were all types of great bits and pieces this year. One of my favorite finds was the early teens motorcycle lift I got from an old buddy. I also picked up my 1921 Harley-Davidson 8-valve motor, which my friend Mike Lange had been working on for quite some time.
Friday was a blast as well. We woke up with a big project on our hands -- assembling the 1946 Knucklehead basket-case for the Friday afternoon tech seminar. With about 10 buddies jumping in on the project, and a pile of extra and replacement parts gathered the day before, we knocked it out in about 3 and a half hours. I'll be sure to fill you in on all the details in my next post. Friday night we hit the races. I brought up the old 1924 H-D FH boardtracker to compete. Matt and I got the bike dialed in, and before I knew it, I was out on the track. This time, it fired right up and ran great. I was pretty darn happy with sixth out of nine places. I'm just out there to have fun. We woke up Saturday with motorcycles on our mind, and before 8:00 we were knee deep in parts again. Matt found several pieces for projects at hand, and turned me on to a few deals around the meet. He found a perfect large-port Knuckle-head I've been needing for months, and an awesome bobbed rear fender for the next WTT bobber. By one o'clock, we were at the field games. I gave it a heck of a shot, but Matt ran away with the trophy for the 3rd year in a row. Sometimes I wonder how he got so good......then I remember. ;-) On Sunday morning, we packed back up and said goodbye to a few friends before hitting the road. Stopped by my friend Tom Faber's booth, which is a Sunday ritual at every meet. I also ran into my old buddy Barry, and ended up making my final purchase of the weekend -- a 1945 Harley 45" enduro bike. What a machine. The ride back was pretty smooth. I slept for 10 hours straight....and made sure to thank Myron for driving when we got back. Weekends like those really wear you out. But there some of the best times an old motorcycle buff can have. Talk to you next time, --Dale 
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