2009 Sturgis Motorcycle Trip

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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