Sturgis Trip - Day 1

With great excitement, we all gathered at Outlaw’s house this morning before the sun came up. It was day 1 of our trip to Sturgis. The bikes were already loaded; that is something you want to do in daylight. Repo Man’s bike was already in Sturgis as he shipped it a couple of weeks ago. With the obligatory last minute group photo…in case you never come back, we were on our way. Traffic at that time was light and after a short time we stopped for coffee and to make certain the bikes were properly secured. With Starbucks in each holder, we were off again. The ride was fairly uneventful, thank goodness. We did come across a number of rescue vehicles on the shoulder of the roads as we were coming down the mountain from Tahoe City, you know, the area where it is a sheer drop off the side just a few feet from your right tires… Well, off the road and DOWN the hill was an 18 wheeler! It was a couple of hundred yards down the steep hillside facing nose down and still on its wheels! The wrecker that was on the scene had to be thinking..”how am I going to pull that thing up the hill?”. I would have liked to get pictures, but there was no where to pull off. Hopefully my description was dramatic enough.

We are in Outlaw's new truck so we are trying to be careful about our snacks. We did pull out the beef jerky…okay, no smart remarks! We are serious about our jerky and I have to say, this was the best jerky I never made… As you can imagine, we are not a tofu crowd. You can’t jerk that stuff anyway, can you? We made it past Winnemmucca (if there are too many letters, too bad) this year! I wanted to stop and visit the Buckaroo Hall of Fame, but we had daylight to burn. I’m not kidding about the BHF, but I was kidding about my desire to stop…We eventually stopped in Battle Mountain for lunch. I can honestly say we were the three best looking guys in that town. Inbreeding has not gone well in BM, appropriately named. The lady that waited on us at McDonalds, their finest eating establishment, had no teeth! I got the salad, hoping it was pre-made somewhere else…perhaps in China by little kids.

Fortunately we have satellite radio, unfortunately it picks up a signal called “NASCAR radio”. Yes, they broadcast car races on the radio! If you think watching Nascar is stimulating, you have to try listening to it on the radio. I kept trying to find the Dog Show station, or perhaps the Quilters Guild radio hour… Those were the only things I could come up with that might be worse…

For those of you non-believers, I have compelling proof of God. While crossing the Bonneville Salt Flats, a motorcycle with a rather nasty looking character driving and an even nastier looking partner went by us. As they passed, the guy looks at us in our cushy truck with trailered bikes and sneers, at least I think he sneered as he shook his head. You see, his filthy goatee was blowing in the breeze and it completely covered his mouth. He may have even uttered the word ”pussy”, still not sure. You see, there is this supposed badge of courage for riding your bike to Sturgis, doesn’t matter if you live 10 miles away or 10 thousand. Okay, back to Mr. Bad Ass and the existence of God. About 2 miles down the road, Mr. BA was on the shoulder looking at his smoking engine. Good luck pushing that to Sturgis, how about that trailer now, jackass...? I wanted to get a picture, from the safety of the truck….

We made it to Park City today, 700 miles. I brought an air mattress, fortunately for Repo Man, none of us has to spoon. I’m excited to show the guys my Harley sheets and pillow case…They were purchased for my grandson, eventually… There is some apprehension about 3' of us in a room. It was suggested that perhaps we use the lobby bathroom for those special occasions” that should not be shared with roommates. After facing resistance to this suggestion, I suggested the use of the “courtesy flush”…think about that one…

That’s all for now! See you on the road!