Close encounters with Sturgis
Five riders, 3800 + miles in just over nine days,
mostly on two lane roads with not more than 300 miles of highway riding,
traveling through nine states, four national parks, 600 miles in the rain
over two days, low temps at 45 degrees, high temps at 95 degrees and 11
miles of dirt roads… The bikes on this adventure consisted of a V-strom,
Triumph, BMW, FJR and a Goldwing.
Why you ask? Well
it’s one of two ole answers,
“If you have to ask, you’ll never understand the
answer” or “Because we could!”
Day one, Friday morning in El Dorado Hills we (Frank,
Tom, Roger, Brent and I) all met up ready to ride.
Our scheduled start time was set for 6am and we had 600 miles to
ride out to Delta Utah before the day was over.
This was by far the longest day for mileage, but not for time in
the saddle nor was it physically challenging/tiring.
For the most part the ride up into the Serria Nevada
mountains and Lake Tahoe was pretty much un-eventful. Except for having to ride into the sun on twisty mountain
roads, with one hand held up blocking the sun and the other one on the
handle bars…
Then it happened, a signal from Frank that he was
having trouble with his bike. We
were about 50 feet from state-line Calif-Nevada.
His engine “over” temperature light came on indicating that his
engine was overheating. I’m
thinking; where we are going to find a “Triumph” motorcycle shop in
the Lake Tahoe area at 7am, or we might be loosing a rider…
So we all got off our bikes, and did as complete of a check-out of
Frank’s motorcycle as we could, all while parked on the sidewalk.
Not finding any problems other than the indicator light, we
concluded that it was probability just a bad sensor and not a cooling
system problem so we rode off. Our
first scheduled stop was in Carson city were we had breakfast.
After filling ourselves with food and our tanks with
gas we were off again. Our
route, hwy50 east, is not without its scenery and a much nicer to ride
east then hwy80, unless your just in a plan-ole hurry.
One thing that struck all of us as odd was the small herd of dear
grazing along the highway in the Great Basin area in Utah.
We all thought the same thing, where do they get their water from?
The rest of the ride went as planned and we made it to our motel
without further problems.
Our first dinner set the tone for the rest of our
meals. We discussed the ride
so far, the upcoming ride the next day, any and all scenery we rode
through, the weather and if that was not enough motorcycles in general,
and Frank’s engine temperature light is still on.
Day Two, Saturday morning we had just less than 500
miles to ride today and this was the day that we would have the most
highway time. Our final
destination was Craig Colorado, via Moab Utah and a short ride along the
Colorado river. We continued
our ride east and found a nice little restaurant called “Mom’s” in
Salina Utah to stop and have breakfast.
This was the last time we’d saddle up in dry weather for the next
400 miles. Yes, not 1 hour
out of Salina it started to rain and continued all day.
After we gassed up in Moab we rode out to a little two lane road.
Imagine, placing a two lane road in the Grand Canyon along side the
Colorado River make the canyon walls a little shorter and that is the ride
we rode out of Moab Utah. Even
with the rain, it was very beautiful scenery to ride through.
Not long after left the Colorado River we headed north all the time
hoping that we’d now be able to out ride the rain.
But as we’d later find out the rain was not done with us.
It was during this leg of the ride that we all came to closest to
having an accident as an eighteen wheeler carrying 6o feet of pipe, came
around a corner with its back wheels sliding over into our side of the
road, starting to jackknife the trailer. Had it continued, the back of the trailer would have hit us
ALL like a baseball bat. It
took a few miles for my heart to calm down and to be able to enjoy the
scenery and nice open roads again.
Our adventure this day was not over.
As we pulled into Craig Colorado, finally got directions to our
motel, with the rain still falling, upon arriving at our motel we were
told that they lost our reservations and no rooms were available.
It turns out that the motel was sold a month before and none of the
reservations were pasted from the previous owner to the new owner.
All worked out of the best as we found another motel (which was
nicer anyway) and the manager pointed us to a 5 star restaurant that was
very willing to accommodate five wet and tired bikers.
They put us all in a room that we had more or less to ourselves,
with the best view the restaurant had.
The bonus was that we all were given the opportunity for one free
drink. After what turned out
to be our best dinner for the entire trip, not that all the meals were not
good or had their own unique points, just that this one was the best as
far as the service and food was concerned, we headed back to our motel to
rest up for the next day’s ride. Yes, Frank’s engine light is still burning bright.
Day Three, Sunday today the ride would be just over
400 miles and was to take us to the highest elevation at some where near
12,000 feet, while riding through the “Rocky Mountain Nation Park”.
We were again riding east and the day started out dry.
We rode to Steamboat Springs for breakfast where the rain started
again. Five bikers all in riding gear draws a lot of attention and
we got it. At breakfast the
“locals” over hearing our route and destination, gave us plenty of
advice as to which direction to go, or maybe they just wanted “these
bikers to leave town”. Since
the weather had turned bad and the condition of the roads were
questionable, we decided to turn north and bypass the 12,000 foot mountain
pass. Today we’d only have
about 200 miles of rain and arrived in Lusk Wyoming our next overnight
stop. After checking into our
rooms and cleaning up a bit, Brent suggested pizza for dinner and since
the restaurant was not far we decided to walk (the whole town was only
about a mile long). Forgetting
that this was Sunday, the only pizza place in town was closed; we went to
plan “B”. We were told
that there was a nice restaurant inside and in back of the local bar down
the street, so we walked over to it.
As we walked in, the whole place went quite, turned and stared at
the five of us. I looked
around for the restaurant and not seeing anyplace to eat asked the bar
tender “where is the restaurant?”
To which he relied, “you’re staring at it”.
Just about then I noticed the “fold-up” tables sitting on the
wooden dance floor. Looking
to my fellow riders for a sign of what to do next, being tired and hungry
we sat down to eat, but not after the bar tender turned the lights on over
our table… We
again had a nice meal, walked back to our motel to rest up for our next
day’s adventures. No change with Frank’s engine light.
Day four, Monday today would be the shortest day as far
as mileage goes at 225 miles, but the most historic as we’d be having
breakfast at Mt Rushmore national monument, and stopping in One Eyed
Jack’s in Sturgis SD for a snack and drink.
If you’re like me and you have not been to Mt Rushmore since you
were a kid or never been there at all you’re are in for a treat.
The National Park Service has done a great job of updating this
national monument. There is a
café, gift shop, museum, movie theater and walking path that let’s you
walk right up to and under Mt Rushmore.
Our plans made it possible to have breakfast outside on the patio,
overlooking Mt Rushmore. After
a couple of hours of site-seeing we jumped back onto our bikes and headed
into the Black Hills of SD. Our
next stop was Deadwood for gas and then off to Sturgis where we stopped in
at “One-Eye’d Jacks” for a drink and some snacks.
While there, we toasted our ride, then friends and loved-ones that
are no longer with us, but live on in our hearts and through our deeds.
(This ride being one of those deeds).
Our final stop and overnight stay that day would be at Spearfish
SD, where we ate dinner at Bubba’s BBQ.
The menu was so large it has a table of contents, and the food was
again very good. If you meet
up with Tom in person you’ll have to ask him what he ate for dinner at
Bubba’s. J
Frank’s engine light you ask, yup it’s still on.
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