Sturgis 2013
#1
08-06-2013, 04:25 PM
Sturgis 2013
We are back from the vacation of a lifetime for me! The trip was indescribable! I wanna try to hit the high points best I can, will post a few pics. Beav, myself & moma met at Racetrack gas station in Canton about 5.00am Sat. 7/27. Headed north for the longest and most looked forward to ride for any of us to this day. Our buddies Wiz and Jim were looking out for us by watching our rears by pulling a trailer in case we had any major mechanical problems. I believe we started a few hours earlier than they did. It was so nice to know that in case of a breakdown we had a alternate plan. Thank you both for that assurance. My buddy Beavs fender bunny chose to take a bird to the local airport.
Heading north on I-75 to Chattanooga to I-24 I believe, all is good. Pulled over in a rest stop, my eyeballs were floating already. Beav pulled up beside me and had that look in his eye I have seen before. Come to find out a 18 wheeler tried its best to push him off the side of Lookout Mtn! There was nowhere to go in that spot, the emergency lane is maybe 3ft at best to the guardrail. Beav was able to recover, gave the trucker a real big HELLO and continued. Next episode was somewhere before St. Louis. Beav was in the lead, I was a click behind him. I was not getting as good of fuel mileage as him being two up and carrying everything except Christmas decorations. I managed to get beside Beav, knowing there was fuel at the next exit, traffic was fairly heavy, pulled in clutch, revved motor to get him to look, pointed at fuel tank & fell back. My LOW light was on, Beav did not notice what I was trying to tell him, I pulled off for fuel, Beav continued on. As we were fueling a older gentleman in a suit & tie fueling his Chrysler 300 looked around the pumps & said " Id trade ya even, but she wont let me get on one no more!" I'm thinkin this is a preacher, want to be on good behavior, I know I am Christian in spite of all my flaws. Moma says to him "talk real sweet to her, maybe she will change her mind." The finely dressed man states,,, "Its BULLSHIT is what it is!!",,,,, Okay I gotta pee again & right now!!!!!
We get back on the highway, coming into St. Louis. I am following my newly purchased GPS. I never owned one before & its all new to me. We came up on signs stating a bridge was out on the road we were on. I am looking at my GPS trying to figure out what to do & ended up in down town St. Louis! Had a close up view of the arch & the Cardinals stadium. Moma is rubbin my shoulders sayin "its okay" knowin how I hate big cities & the traffic. we wondered through town & finally found our way back to our destination.
My buddy was no where to be found at this point. Moma & I assume he is miles ahead of us so we roll on the throttle. The interstate is rural, we are ridin hard trying to catch up. Time for gas again. Text sent to Beav letting him know where we are. Roll on hard again,, many miles rolled on very hard!! Next stop for gas & water, received text from Beav, realized he had same problem we had & we are ahead of him! WTF!!! How the hell did that happen???? We are in a not so proud part of Kansas City, witnessed a drug bust at a local gas station. Fuel is fuel at this point. Noticed we can no longer depend on 93 octane. I am getting maybe 30 mpg but have been averaging prolly 85 mph. I text Beav to tell him where I am. KC finest keeps pulling in interested in these guys selling there goods. I say to moma, cmon, he aint stopping here!!!! We get back on the highway. We run another 175 miles or so & time to fuel again. Found a stop where there was a over pass. Sat on the bridge & waited 17 minutes. It was fun waving at the folks headed to Sturgis. Finally moma says that looks like Beavs super bright *** headlight coming! I said yep! I think its him. Sure nuff, he rolls underneath us, we are again ridin together. Beav pulls over, we pull up behind, discuss the situation, he lights a smoke & we roll on. Again a team ridding side by side at a speed we wont talk about except folks were real nice about getting out of the way, we were on our way. We finally stopped about 9.30 Saturday night at a lil town just north of Sioux Falls Iowa to check into a motel. We had rode almost 1100 miles that day & were exhausted but in extremely good spirits!!! Laughing and cutting up with the young man at the Dairy Queen cause he didn't have a ear of corn for our supper when corn is all we have seen for many hours.
Sunday morning, we are ready to make the last 600 or so miles, no problem, easy day!!! Finally Hwy 90 in S.D. Headed to Sturgis. Moma & I have never seen country like this before!!!! Talk about BIG SKY & WIDE OPEN PLACES!!! OMG!!!! So beautiful, air so clean!!! No humidity, chilly but not cold! Pulled off the highway & up the road a mile or so to a country gas station. Gravel parking lot. No place to insert a card for gas so I went in. The nice man inside says "well pump ur gas & come back & pay son!" lawdy, I didn't even think to check to see if the pumps were on. Meanwhile a guy pulls in on a bike loaded heavy. I introduce myself and moma and we talk. He is from New Zealand! Flew into Daytona, in May, purchased a bike, and is riding our U.S. and Canada! OMG, this guy is for real! Said he will put the Harley Classic on a boat at the end of August & fly back home. We all had breakfast together in Mithchel SD & great conversation.
Hwy. 90 goes on forever! We finally get to Sturgis!!!! We easily find the road where the house we rented was on & about half way to the house a van meets us with arms flying out the window!!! Its Beavs fender bunny!!@! The people we rented from picked her up at the airport & brought her to the house!! I cant say enough about the accommodations & the people of South Dakota! Amazing!!!! Did not meet a soul we didn't wanna call our friends! Culture there is so different and so refreshing! I love it there!!!! The log house is beautiful! 5 BR, & a block from town, so walking distance is easy!! We made it to Sturgis safe! Our prayers were answered & we are so thankful. Wiz and Jim pull in a couple hrs. later.
I will stop this post here for now & add a few pictures. Hopefully moma, Beav or Wiz will pick it up & add there experiences to it. I had a great time with great friends!! Thank you all!!
Heading north on I-75 to Chattanooga to I-24 I believe, all is good. Pulled over in a rest stop, my eyeballs were floating already. Beav pulled up beside me and had that look in his eye I have seen before. Come to find out a 18 wheeler tried its best to push him off the side of Lookout Mtn! There was nowhere to go in that spot, the emergency lane is maybe 3ft at best to the guardrail. Beav was able to recover, gave the trucker a real big HELLO and continued. Next episode was somewhere before St. Louis. Beav was in the lead, I was a click behind him. I was not getting as good of fuel mileage as him being two up and carrying everything except Christmas decorations. I managed to get beside Beav, knowing there was fuel at the next exit, traffic was fairly heavy, pulled in clutch, revved motor to get him to look, pointed at fuel tank & fell back. My LOW light was on, Beav did not notice what I was trying to tell him, I pulled off for fuel, Beav continued on. As we were fueling a older gentleman in a suit & tie fueling his Chrysler 300 looked around the pumps & said " Id trade ya even, but she wont let me get on one no more!" I'm thinkin this is a preacher, want to be on good behavior, I know I am Christian in spite of all my flaws. Moma says to him "talk real sweet to her, maybe she will change her mind." The finely dressed man states,,, "Its BULLSHIT is what it is!!",,,,, Okay I gotta pee again & right now!!!!!
We get back on the highway, coming into St. Louis. I am following my newly purchased GPS. I never owned one before & its all new to me. We came up on signs stating a bridge was out on the road we were on. I am looking at my GPS trying to figure out what to do & ended up in down town St. Louis! Had a close up view of the arch & the Cardinals stadium. Moma is rubbin my shoulders sayin "its okay" knowin how I hate big cities & the traffic. we wondered through town & finally found our way back to our destination.
My buddy was no where to be found at this point. Moma & I assume he is miles ahead of us so we roll on the throttle. The interstate is rural, we are ridin hard trying to catch up. Time for gas again. Text sent to Beav letting him know where we are. Roll on hard again,, many miles rolled on very hard!! Next stop for gas & water, received text from Beav, realized he had same problem we had & we are ahead of him! WTF!!! How the hell did that happen???? We are in a not so proud part of Kansas City, witnessed a drug bust at a local gas station. Fuel is fuel at this point. Noticed we can no longer depend on 93 octane. I am getting maybe 30 mpg but have been averaging prolly 85 mph. I text Beav to tell him where I am. KC finest keeps pulling in interested in these guys selling there goods. I say to moma, cmon, he aint stopping here!!!! We get back on the highway. We run another 175 miles or so & time to fuel again. Found a stop where there was a over pass. Sat on the bridge & waited 17 minutes. It was fun waving at the folks headed to Sturgis. Finally moma says that looks like Beavs super bright *** headlight coming! I said yep! I think its him. Sure nuff, he rolls underneath us, we are again ridin together. Beav pulls over, we pull up behind, discuss the situation, he lights a smoke & we roll on. Again a team ridding side by side at a speed we wont talk about except folks were real nice about getting out of the way, we were on our way. We finally stopped about 9.30 Saturday night at a lil town just north of Sioux Falls Iowa to check into a motel. We had rode almost 1100 miles that day & were exhausted but in extremely good spirits!!! Laughing and cutting up with the young man at the Dairy Queen cause he didn't have a ear of corn for our supper when corn is all we have seen for many hours.
Sunday morning, we are ready to make the last 600 or so miles, no problem, easy day!!! Finally Hwy 90 in S.D. Headed to Sturgis. Moma & I have never seen country like this before!!!! Talk about BIG SKY & WIDE OPEN PLACES!!! OMG!!!! So beautiful, air so clean!!! No humidity, chilly but not cold! Pulled off the highway & up the road a mile or so to a country gas station. Gravel parking lot. No place to insert a card for gas so I went in. The nice man inside says "well pump ur gas & come back & pay son!" lawdy, I didn't even think to check to see if the pumps were on. Meanwhile a guy pulls in on a bike loaded heavy. I introduce myself and moma and we talk. He is from New Zealand! Flew into Daytona, in May, purchased a bike, and is riding our U.S. and Canada! OMG, this guy is for real! Said he will put the Harley Classic on a boat at the end of August & fly back home. We all had breakfast together in Mithchel SD & great conversation.
Hwy. 90 goes on forever! We finally get to Sturgis!!!! We easily find the road where the house we rented was on & about half way to the house a van meets us with arms flying out the window!!! Its Beavs fender bunny!!@! The people we rented from picked her up at the airport & brought her to the house!! I cant say enough about the accommodations & the people of South Dakota! Amazing!!!! Did not meet a soul we didn't wanna call our friends! Culture there is so different and so refreshing! I love it there!!!! The log house is beautiful! 5 BR, & a block from town, so walking distance is easy!! We made it to Sturgis safe! Our prayers were answered & we are so thankful. Wiz and Jim pull in a couple hrs. later.
I will stop this post here for now & add a few pictures. Hopefully moma, Beav or Wiz will pick it up & add there experiences to it. I had a great time with great friends!! Thank you all!!
#2
08-06-2013, 04:33 PM
Seasoned HDF Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Western South Dakota
Posts: 55,887
Received 70,431 Likes
on
21,387 Posts
#7
08-06-2013, 04:57 PM
