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For those who weren't here
last time, allow me to add a link
to my original pages. The links will be up soon. try clicking on the bike and see what happens
Or you can click here for the 2002 trip.
Click here for the Highway1 trip in 2002
or the Northeast trip in 2002
The go west trip
in 2000
None of the picture will work on these pages. I just don't have the space here to publish them and I'm too lazy to fix all the links if
I put them on another site.
Maybe someday, but don't really expect it.
To read old emails that you may not have gotten you can click here. For some
reason a lot of people like the emails. Though I don't really understand, I'll keep writing them until someone tells me to stop.
Brendan
Finally, if you like to hear a good story guaranteed to have a happy ending try this
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Another year and another trip. I
finally got around to taking the trip to Sturgis with my friends. Most of you who have followed my trips know that I am a loner. I've been
putting this trip off for a few years now. Not that I don't like riding with my friends, its just that I like being by myself. Who would have guessed
that I would have enjoyed the ride so much.
Riding
by yourself is fun. I can do 600 miles or more in a day if I want. Or I can just stop a dozen times. Once in Georgia I barely made 150 miles because
the scenery was so cool I couldn't bear to leave the area.
Of course on this trip everyone was telling me how it was so much better because they weren't stopping for
two hours at each gas station and we got where we were going much earlier than usual. Be that as it may I was rested and realized when we pulled into
the stop each day.
I remember a story of a guy
who got a new job as an over the road truck driver. The first day at work he was paired with an old man. The new guy got in the cab, drove hard for
his ten hours and went to sleep in the back. Ten hours later the old man woke him up for dinner and the guy was still exhausted. The old man on the
other hand was fresh as a daisy. During dinner the kid asked the old man, why do you look fresh and rested after 10 hours and I'm still exhausted even
after sleeping. The old man just looked at the kid and said, "You got up and went to work in the morning, I got up and went for a ride in the
country". The trip to Sturgis was definitely a ride in the country.
Of course along the way we had our share of adventures. The night in Mitchell was a beautiful campsite
overlooking a lake. The next day though would try the patients of almost anyone. Only 125 miles out we had our first breakdown. I'm thinking
someone should have spent a bit more time testing his new bike before taking such a long trip. But amazingly a very nice couple stopped and put the
bike on the trailer. Then of course Rocko had his flat, but eventually we made it to town, just a bit late to meet the other idiots at One
Eyed Jacks.
The next morning was spent waiting
for people to get their bikes fixed. Eventually though I went for a ride with a few guys up to Belle Forche, and then Sundance. At the
first bar we did the obligatory names on a dollar and stuck them to the ceiling. I don't even remember the name of the saloon and I doubt that I'm spelling
Belle Forche correctly, but we put the dollar up anyway.
The next stop was Sundance, in of all places Crook County. You have to have a picture in front of that courthouse don't you? One of the guys still had some bike trouble and didn't want to chance his muffler
falling off. We were only 20 miles from Devils Tower though so I couldn't
pass up the opportunity. The other five guys rode back to town and I went on. I climbed to
the base of the tower and sat and wheezed a bit until finally I climbed back down. Sometimes its tough to be fat and
lazy. On the other hand the work makes you really appreciate the
view.
Coming back to town that night I was suppose to meet the guys I left in Sundance at the Dungeon. They
never showed up. I did however meet Trina. I was pretty sure I met her before the last time I was there. So I promised to look her up on my old web
pages and see. As you can see Trina and this girl don't really look all that much alike. The picture from 2000 isn't very good, but if those are the same
girls I'll eat my hat. Obviously it must have been just a line I used to get on her good graces.
I think the next morning Blaster and them took off and I wanted to get my muffler support
rewelded. I was thinking maybe ten minutes and $20. The guy said he had to wait for his welder to come in so I took a nice helicopter flight
around town. I've always wanted to take a helicopter flight. They had no doors on the thing so I buckled in real tight. The pilot looked at me like I was crazy, but I
don't really care all that much for heights. We circled the campsites and went around town. the flight wasn't too
bad, but I spent the entire time hanging on to the extra seat belt with one
hand and snapping pictures with the other.
I had to stop and check out the Full Throttle bar. I came just in time to see the daredevils doing their
thing inside a cage. It was pretty cool to see these guys doing riding in circles inside a metal ball. Going side to side and
riding right upside-down. They asked for volunteers to go inside while they were doing this. I guess they didn't hear me. I may not like heights but
standing inside a cage while two bikes ride around me at 40 miles an hour doesn't sound scary.
The next day I finally made it to Mount Rushmore. Mt Rushmore is pretty
cool, but I thought Crazy Horse was even better. First of all the heads on Mt Rushmore are only 60 feet high. While Crazy Horse will be 560
feet high when it is done. Of course that may take another hundred years. You can see the little opening under the arm on one picture, when it
is done that opening will be 10 stories high. All of this is and will be done by private donations. They have already refused about 20 million dollars
from the US government. They want this to be a public monument to the Native people.
Most of the rest of the pictures I have are from the campground. I'll put those up on a different site and
send everyone the link who wants one. Sturgis, its not just the riding its the beautiful bodies, Right!
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