2009 Sturgis Motorcycle Trip

Hay It’s me. Last Blog Post. My Summary of the whole trip. Day One I was not there. Day two Jimmy picked me up from Las Vegas and we went through Zion NP. Day Three, went through Capital Reef NP and I wrote my first Blog Post. Day Four we entered Colorado and went to the Dinosaur Museum. Day Five I had a HUGE Cinnamon Roll, went through the Rockies and went up to 12100 ft. in elevation. Day Six We left Lusk to Go to Rapid City, went to Sturgis After we Checked in our Hotel. Day Seven We went to Mt. Rushmore, and Crazy Horse. We were going to play Putt-Putt but we watched the Thunderstorm Instead w/Lightning! Day Eight we got some Rain Gear For myself, Went to The Civic Center, Looked at some New 2010 Models. Sent some Stuff Home and got ready for the trip home, then played Putt-Putt. Day Nine we got Rained on, with a 611 Mile trip, w/Jimmy Misplacing his wallet in his Rain Pants Pocket with a hole in it. And Jimmy got a Speeding Ticket from “The Man” which we think made us get into another storm. Day Ten went from Grand Junction to Mesquite. Went Through Zion Again. Day Eleven we got to Jimmy’s House at Around Noon. My Mom got here Around 6:30, Ate Pizza went to bed and It’s Today. Day Twelve, That’s Today. So, use the Rest of the Time in your Life that You Have While You can, and use It Wisely. Do Something Great or Fun!

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Ok, I’m too cheap to pay the extra 10 bucks at a casino for Internet access, so I’m doing this on the iPhone .

Today there was not a cloud in the sky and the forecast for the route said zero percent chance of rain! But windy and cooler, which is a nice tradeoff. Was cool enough that we wore our jackets for half the day. We stopped for lunch at About 1:30 we qent thru Zipn again and when we arrived in Mesquite at 5:00 pm, it was proba ly only 90.
Tomorrows game plan is rolling by 6 or 7 to beat the desert heat, but Vegas forecast is only a high of 95, so at least it isn’t the triple digits . Nice !!!

Again, we r having fun reading ur comments ! Dean, u got a giggle out of Shai on that one 🙂

I guess Shai is broken in now…

Iwanted to be rolling by 7:00 am, but I didn’t wake up till 6:40, so we started about 7:30 ish in a cloudy day that was rain/drizzle for the first 40 miles along route 79 out of Rapid City.  Then it was cloudy and starting to clear slighlty as we proceded to , then just overcast Edgemont SD for our first gas stop.

We pull into Edgemont next to them pump.  We have all our rain gear one, so my wallet is just in the front pant of the rain pant, so I pull it out, grab the credit card, and start pumping gas.  I tell Shai to head to the building andwait for me at the picknic tables outside the store and I’ll pull the bike up to the building when I’m done.

Finish the gas and pull the bike up to the building and get ready to head in and take a leak and by some snacks, only to realize I don’t have my wallet.  I feel my pants –  no wallet, look in my saddle bags, no wallet, look at the gas pump, no wallet there, look where I rode, no wallet there.  I triiple check again and again.  I look into the engine and behind the bags – no wallet.

Now from the pump to the building is 20 yards and took me 20 seconds to drive to.  Where in the hell is my wallet!It has my credit cards and my keys, so I have to have the keys to get home!….  I ask the other bikers outside if they have seen a wallet.  I never notice anyone else that went to that pump either.

Now I have about three other fellows helping me when one asked is it in your pant leg.  I did shake my leg before but nothing and I also felt down my legs – nothing!  But when I did it again in front of that guy, I felt with my hand all the way down – and next to my boot leg I could feel a wallet.  I had put it in my rain pant pocket, but the pocket now has a hole in the liner, so it was stuck between the liner and the outside pant, so it could never shake loose..

After that foolishness, we continued onwardto Lusk, Wheatfield, and Larime all without rain but under cloudy skys.  It was nice and balmy – great for riding.  When the sun did poke out, it was hot!

Gased up in Larime.  It was getting very cloudy where we were heading up to Walden, and the road out of Larime is straight for about 40 miles before you start to climb – and I mean very straight, flat and windy. I was looking at how the road on the GPS was going and how the clouds in the sky were when I noticed a car in my rear view mirror.  Then I looked at my speed, oops……  Then the lights were flashing.

After my citation, we continued up to Walden where I wanted to stop for lunch. Andsure enough, there is a hug lightingand rain storm out ahead of us blowing towards Walden.  The last 5 miles I got stuck in a driving rain which was blowing in from the side without my helmet on…  If I only didn’t get that ticket, we would have made it.

After our lunch that storm had blown over and we just had a few sprinkles here and there until we approach the last 10 miles to Wilcott CO, where it was a steady drizzle down the mountain to I-70. Once on the freeway, you keep heading down and it gets drier, so that was it for the rain.  We pulled into Grand Junction at 8:00 pm, about 12 hours from when we started.

We unpacked, went to Dennys, ate, treated ourselves to a banna split, then hit the sack.

Again, here are some pics from Shai’s view.

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Hello, again. Aww, we have to leave. I’ve had a great time over the past few days! Going to Sturgis, seeing Mt. Rushmore, and Crazy Horse. We went through a Highway called Needles Highway, stopped and had Ice Cream. We attempted to play Put-Put Mini Golf but, unfortunately a storm came and Jimmy and I watched the Storm Instead. The Next Day we looked for some Rain Gear for me in the Rapid City Dealer, and found some. Found Medium, no Large. Looked at new Bike models at Civic Center. Went to Sturgis got Two more T-Shirts. We looked for another Shirt for Jimmy, Couldn’t Find one. Looked for Face Bandana for me, Couldn’t find one either. Although we got ti play Put-Put Mini Golf today. Eat dinner came back to the hotel, played in Arcade. The Pinball Machine Ripped us off, and the Air Hockey Didn’t have the things you hit the Puck with. So we got a refund and Played Fusball. See u later!

Today was a relaxing day for Shai and I as we get ready to leave early tomorrow morning.  So the SPOT will be back on tomorrow.

I originally was going to go to the Legendary Buffalo Chip campground for tonights concert with Aerosmith, but I can up with a boat load of don’t s: we are leaving tomorrow morning early, I’ve never been to the chip, the band will be starting at 10:30 (if your lucky),the weather is always iffy, it is basically general admission and Shai really would want to stand around for hours waiting for the concert then have to stand for the concert and not really see them or the screen very good, plus he will be seeing them in a few weeks in Irvine, CA.

So we went to check out the Dealer for some cheap rain gear for Shai (since the weather looks like we will hit rain on the way home) and found some for $16. We then headed to the Harley Davidson event where they showcase the 2010 models, then headed back to Sturgis for lunch and some more shopping. We returned to Rapid City where we lighted our load and sent a box home vis UPS. Later we played a game of putt-putt down the street.

So tomorrow we will try and get an early start and head home. Hope you all follow along and thanks for all the comments

Well, it’s me again – sorry….

We did the Faces and Crazy Horse loop today and the weather was awesome – about 80 degress and mostly sunny.  First it was Mount Rushmore, then it was off to Crazy Horsewhere we had lunch.  After that it was a ride on needles highway and 385where we stopped for some ice cream before heading back to Rapid City on hyw 44.  We then took a break at the hotel around 5_00 p.m.   At 7:00 we headed down the street for some putt-putt golf, but there was an approaching storm, so they wouldn’t let anyone on.

We walked back to the hotel and then sat and watch the storm come trhough and then went across the street for a late dinner before hitting the sack.

Again, here are some pics from Shai’s view.

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Hello from Sturgis! We finally made it to Sturgis, South Dakota. I Have not Written Blog Posts for Two Days. What we have done over those days are, go through Colorado, go to the Dinosaur Museum, Split Half a HUGE Donut with Jimmy, went through the Rocky Mountains, Crossed the Colorado and Wyoming Boarder, go to Lusk, and got to Rapid City, South Dakota! We went to Sturgis Around 3’O Clock. I Got Three New T-Shirts and Two New Flags from Sturgis. Jimmy got a Sleeveless Embroidered Shirt. We’ll be doing stuff until Thursday Morning, when we leave for Jimmy’s house. It May Rain is what we have been hearing. Bye, for now!

Ok, having some issues with Day 05 Summary and leaving comments – looks like you can’t leave comments on it and I don’t have time to debug, so try leaving comments regarding Day 05 summary on this post.

In the mean time, we just arrived at our hotel in Rapid City and just checked in.  So for now, bye!

I know, I know… I’m not Shai, but he is hard to motivate once he gets checked in and he see a TV with Nick-at-nite, so I’m filling in till he writes something up

Well it has been a blast taking Shai along, so much fun viewing his photos and what catches his eyes.

Day 4 was a short ride from Green River UT to Eagle, CO. It was just a little over 200 miles and all freeway(I-70), so it is fast and beautiful route.

It is fairly flat for the first 100 miles from Green River to Grand Junction, CO and then the road starts a gradual climb up the western slope of the Rocky Mountain range. As you saw, we stopped in a Dinosaur museum in Fruita CO, then took our time the rest of the 100 miles to Eagle, stopping for lunch and photo ops.

Day 5 game plan was to make it to Lusk WY, which way depended on the weather.

I checked the weather for Sunday and it was looking real good to take our Sunday route through Rocky Mountain National Park. Typical I avoid this route to Lusk as usually encounter rain and it is fairly slow going out of the park, but I wanted Shai to see this road through the park.

We woke up early and were rolling by 8:15. By the time we arrived at the decision point, there was barely a cloud in the sky, so it was off to the park (after a quick stop at a little bakery in Kremmling, CO for coffee and HUGE cinnamon roll warmed with butter). We had a spectacular day to cut through the park as we climbed to 12,900 feet before coming back down.

It was 2:00 pm when we got to Loveland it was still 200 miles to Lusk,but it was about 130 miles freeway and the balance on 70 mph roads. By 5:30 we checked in to our hotel in Lusk.

BTW, we love the comments – we even read them during the day when I have cell service because they are also getting emailed to my account. It is great to hear you while on the road too! Thanks!

Another great day!

Here are pictures from Shai’s eyes …..

Day 4

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Day 5

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