Sturgis SD, Aug 6th
Today was all about the site seeing around Sturgis and it being the Black Hills, there’s plenty to see. It was also a day to see just what can happen to those of us who spend a lot of time riding, some I don’t feel too sorry for, but the others not knowing the story, not sure what to say. You can see we started the day at a place we were at yesterday for the bloodies, Lewie’s and this was just for that a Bloody Mary to hit the road with. We’ll be riding as a group as far as Deerfield, but from Lewie’s we all made a stop at Rocheford before hitting the gravel. Only one bar in Rocheford and you can see the bar and some of the group before hitting gravel. Only had 12 miles of gravel before hitting Deerfield where some went riding more gravel, the snowmobile trails they travel in the winter, but some of us just headed to Hill City to eventually do Needles Highway and the Iron Mountain road, more on that later. More bikes today in Hill City than what was here yesterday that sure the roads will be busy riding today.
Well, those of us sticking to the blacktop today headed down Needles Highway to the Sylvan lodge and guess who’s bike broke down, yep, Bruce’s Honda, notice Honda, broke down and it was a good thing my Harley tools were available so he could fix it. Apparently that Honda vibrates more than my Harleys that the battery connections had shaken loose, that hadn’t it been for my tools, Bruce might have never gotten the seat off the thing to fix it. You can see more of Sylvan Lake which is a beautiful place before we hit needles, and even needles highway is something else to see the way they have the tunnels cut between the rocks. Tried to get some decent pictures of it, but you have to be there to really appreciate it. Got rained on a little before heading down Needles, yep there’s and up and down and today was riding down, but it wasn’t enough to don the rain gear.
Eventually made our way to the Iron Mountain road which we’ll be riding up today, yep there’s an up and down and today is up. Well, this is where things got ugly, but fortunately none in our group were involved. Ok, I was the trail boss like usual, you know how I like to lead, but for this ride was behind a slow group of about 5 bikes. Well, they were going way to slow and on these roads, there aren’t really turnouts as they are places for people to stop to take pictures and if they realized how many people they were holding up, some are smart enough to stop, but there aren’t any other places to pass. Like I said the 5 bikes in front of me were going way too slow and I notice how they all seemed to be paying more attention to what was around them than on the road that I kept my distance even though sometimes slow enough that I could foot it…you know, put a foot down to keep from tipping over. Well, things did get ugly because the third bike eventually hit the back tire of the second and went ass over handlebars as well as the rider who landed on top of the bike and guy in front of him as his bike went down. Ok, you should be able to picture it, but my tire wants to go one way while your back tire wants to go another that both bikes ended piled up on top of each other in the middle of the road and the two guys lying in a ditch not moving much. This was only two bikes in front of me and because of the space I gave was fortunate enough to stop before being involved as well as those behind me were able to stop to…ok, dodged another bullet. Did stop, but none in the group were paramedics and there were already people running to the riders aide, that figured might as well move on…nothing but open road in front of us that now we can ride the curving roads the way their meant to be ridden…hard. Hey, that might make a difference in less accidents too, cuz as long as one is so far in front of the other because of riding faster, you’ll never have the situation we saw happen, just someone running off the road – ok, that could be worse.
Tried getting pictures of the heads of Mount Rushmore thru the tunnels, but I probably need a different camera or be a professional photographer to figure this camera out.
Well, that’s what the pictures of the tunnel are, the heads thru the tunnel and look what else I found, another Honda broke down on the side of the road, but they needed more than Harley tools to fix this one and sorry, none of my parts’ll work either. The weather wasn’t the greatest for taking pictures of Mount Rushmore, but hopefully they’ll give you some feel of what it is you might see if you ever decide to visit and if you haven’t you really should and by bike would be preferable. Steve had a good one the other day how you can see a lot of beauty driving around the country, but doing it on a bike can move the soul, that’s what I’m talking about when I talk about the roads I’ve ridden and have said there’s no better way to see the country than by motorcycle. Some of us have the opportunity to feel it and share it and I’m sure, once shared, those people would even agree, it moves the soul.
Oh, before I forget, happy birthday Bruce and happy anniversary Bruce and Janice, and it’s probably a good thing that both forgot one or the other cuz that’s where it could otherwise get ugly. So the husband may always forget the anniversary, but I guess that’s fair when the wife forgets a birthday. Anyway, we have all night to celebrate, and all you have to do, is get to the trailer before the rest of us start crashing – if you know what I mean.
So that brings me to the ones I have no sympathy for and that’s our neighbor Greg from Chicago. He came over to our campsite this morning with a neck brace on complaining about an accident he had a few years ago and like we asked, are you just looking for a sympathy kiss…ok, so we all don’t consider it a kiss, but for this blog, just go along with me. Well, he probably shouldn’t be riding if his neck is bothering him that bad, but I doubt he really needed the brace since he was partying with us the night before without it and you wouldn’t been able to tell anything was wrong, maybe instead of that sympathy kiss, he knew the insurance company was watching him. Well, tonight he showed up at camp all bandage up and hurting since he crashed his bike today. He said the bike just slipped out from under him, but found out the real story, that while his bike was being washed he was getting drunk that his buddies decided to go on without him since they hadn’t been drinking, but he decided he’d head back to camp and ok, not even something those that I ride with would do, get on a bike after having too many. He got a DUI and was talking about how his wife is gonna kill him, but like I told him you’re lucky to be alive after doing something so stupid.
Ok, the other reason I was annoyed with him was because he was interrupting my viewing of the Worlds Fastest Indian which is a great movie and has some quotes I’d like to share. The first, ‘girlfriend of mine when I first bought the bike’ ok, he was showing a kid pictures, but the rest of the quote was, ‘you live more in five minutes on a bike like this going flat out than some people live in a lifetime’, now you know why I like hitting the curving roads hard. The other; ‘Danger is the spice of life and you have to take a risk now and again, that’s what makes life worthwhile…and having some nice ladies around can be a big help.’
Man when the wind starts blowing around here things start flying. Another night of some rain keeping us from watching the entire concert, but the bar blew into Janice and we were worried about the tent for awhile. Eventually things started settling down that we were able to get party central back in order and tonight, what a party. Sorry, but no pictures after the Nipple-O-Meter came out except for Greg making some of Laurie’s nipple clips, he’s hired. Only the discrete pics.
Well, those of us sticking to the blacktop today headed down Needles Highway to the Sylvan lodge and guess who’s bike broke down, yep, Bruce’s Honda, notice Honda, broke down and it was a good thing my Harley tools were available so he could fix it. Apparently that Honda vibrates more than my Harleys that the battery connections had shaken loose, that hadn’t it been for my tools, Bruce might have never gotten the seat off the thing to fix it. You can see more of Sylvan Lake which is a beautiful place before we hit needles, and even needles highway is something else to see the way they have the tunnels cut between the rocks. Tried to get some decent pictures of it, but you have to be there to really appreciate it. Got rained on a little before heading down Needles, yep there’s and up and down and today was riding down, but it wasn’t enough to don the rain gear.
Eventually made our way to the Iron Mountain road which we’ll be riding up today, yep there’s an up and down and today is up. Well, this is where things got ugly, but fortunately none in our group were involved. Ok, I was the trail boss like usual, you know how I like to lead, but for this ride was behind a slow group of about 5 bikes. Well, they were going way to slow and on these roads, there aren’t really turnouts as they are places for people to stop to take pictures and if they realized how many people they were holding up, some are smart enough to stop, but there aren’t any other places to pass. Like I said the 5 bikes in front of me were going way too slow and I notice how they all seemed to be paying more attention to what was around them than on the road that I kept my distance even though sometimes slow enough that I could foot it…you know, put a foot down to keep from tipping over. Well, things did get ugly because the third bike eventually hit the back tire of the second and went ass over handlebars as well as the rider who landed on top of the bike and guy in front of him as his bike went down. Ok, you should be able to picture it, but my tire wants to go one way while your back tire wants to go another that both bikes ended piled up on top of each other in the middle of the road and the two guys lying in a ditch not moving much. This was only two bikes in front of me and because of the space I gave was fortunate enough to stop before being involved as well as those behind me were able to stop to…ok, dodged another bullet. Did stop, but none in the group were paramedics and there were already people running to the riders aide, that figured might as well move on…nothing but open road in front of us that now we can ride the curving roads the way their meant to be ridden…hard. Hey, that might make a difference in less accidents too, cuz as long as one is so far in front of the other because of riding faster, you’ll never have the situation we saw happen, just someone running off the road – ok, that could be worse.
Tried getting pictures of the heads of Mount Rushmore thru the tunnels, but I probably need a different camera or be a professional photographer to figure this camera out.
Well, that’s what the pictures of the tunnel are, the heads thru the tunnel and look what else I found, another Honda broke down on the side of the road, but they needed more than Harley tools to fix this one and sorry, none of my parts’ll work either. The weather wasn’t the greatest for taking pictures of Mount Rushmore, but hopefully they’ll give you some feel of what it is you might see if you ever decide to visit and if you haven’t you really should and by bike would be preferable. Steve had a good one the other day how you can see a lot of beauty driving around the country, but doing it on a bike can move the soul, that’s what I’m talking about when I talk about the roads I’ve ridden and have said there’s no better way to see the country than by motorcycle. Some of us have the opportunity to feel it and share it and I’m sure, once shared, those people would even agree, it moves the soul.
Oh, before I forget, happy birthday Bruce and happy anniversary Bruce and Janice, and it’s probably a good thing that both forgot one or the other cuz that’s where it could otherwise get ugly. So the husband may always forget the anniversary, but I guess that’s fair when the wife forgets a birthday. Anyway, we have all night to celebrate, and all you have to do, is get to the trailer before the rest of us start crashing – if you know what I mean.
So that brings me to the ones I have no sympathy for and that’s our neighbor Greg from Chicago. He came over to our campsite this morning with a neck brace on complaining about an accident he had a few years ago and like we asked, are you just looking for a sympathy kiss…ok, so we all don’t consider it a kiss, but for this blog, just go along with me. Well, he probably shouldn’t be riding if his neck is bothering him that bad, but I doubt he really needed the brace since he was partying with us the night before without it and you wouldn’t been able to tell anything was wrong, maybe instead of that sympathy kiss, he knew the insurance company was watching him. Well, tonight he showed up at camp all bandage up and hurting since he crashed his bike today. He said the bike just slipped out from under him, but found out the real story, that while his bike was being washed he was getting drunk that his buddies decided to go on without him since they hadn’t been drinking, but he decided he’d head back to camp and ok, not even something those that I ride with would do, get on a bike after having too many. He got a DUI and was talking about how his wife is gonna kill him, but like I told him you’re lucky to be alive after doing something so stupid.
Ok, the other reason I was annoyed with him was because he was interrupting my viewing of the Worlds Fastest Indian which is a great movie and has some quotes I’d like to share. The first, ‘girlfriend of mine when I first bought the bike’ ok, he was showing a kid pictures, but the rest of the quote was, ‘you live more in five minutes on a bike like this going flat out than some people live in a lifetime’, now you know why I like hitting the curving roads hard. The other; ‘Danger is the spice of life and you have to take a risk now and again, that’s what makes life worthwhile…and having some nice ladies around can be a big help.’
Man when the wind starts blowing around here things start flying. Another night of some rain keeping us from watching the entire concert, but the bar blew into Janice and we were worried about the tent for awhile. Eventually things started settling down that we were able to get party central back in order and tonight, what a party. Sorry, but no pictures after the Nipple-O-Meter came out except for Greg making some of Laurie’s nipple clips, he’s hired. Only the discrete pics.
posted by Dalej Webb at 1:11 PM
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