Bike Week turns into Biking for Life
During Harley Davidson’s 115th Anniversary celebration there was only one way to catch up bikers in the hotel: to wait for rain. HD devotees from all over the world flocked to Milwaukee to celebrate, and most importantly, to ride the streets of Brew City. The Saturday during the festivities began as a soggy one, keeping enthusiastic bikers indoors, and periodically checking the Weather Apps on their phones, scanning for a break in the showers that stubbornly refused to pass. It was on this gloomy morning I met Scott and Lynn Erickson, riders from Kirkland, Illinois.
These leather-clad lovebirds had a chance meeting during Daytona Bike Week in 2001. Lynn caught Scott’s eye the moment she entered the room. He turned to his companion and declared he would have Lynn join their group during their time at the Florida gathering billed as the “World’s Largest Motorcycle Event.” Scott’s friend was more than doubtful, replying it would only happen “in his dreams.” Yet Scott was undaunted. Before the end of the evening he had Lynn’s phone number and soon after she agreed to help Scott and his friend in their retail tent during the week-long festivities.
Lynn was as taken with Scott as he was with her, however, when they exchanged telephone numbers, her heart sunk: Scott was from Illinois. Her home was in Florida and she tried to quiet her fluttering heart, knowing her new acquaintance would soon return to the Midwest. The pair spent the week working and playing together and, by the close of the week, Scott was a new Florida resident. The couple have been together ever since.
Years later, the pair returned Illinois and Scott began to introduce wife to all the Midwest has to offer, including The Pfister Hotel. He proudly proclaims his loyalty to the grand hotel, saying he’s been a patron for over 25 years and it is the only place he will stay when visiting Milwaukee. He recalled, with affection, the times when hotel staff provided memorably stellar service, and laughed at the memory when he, a die-hard Bears fan, was in the hotel when a busload of Green Bay Packers players arrived. He knew, as he shared an elevator with several of the massive men, that most Milwaukeeans would give their eye teeth to trade places with him at that moment. Lynn has come to love the hotel as much as her husband, enjoying the aura of luxury one feels upon entering the historic building.
As the rain continued to dance on the windows, friend after friend joined this charming pair, each eager for the skies to clear, so they could hit the open road. While not quite the leather of a bike saddle, there is something to be said about the fun that occurs while spending a rainy morning atop a leather chair in the Lobby Lounge.