Sturgis 2002 Summary: - Trip - Plano TX to Sturgis CO to Copy WY to Jackson WY to Vernal UT to Las Vegas NM to Plano TX. 11 states. - Pack - Runt/X and B-Girl/B-Man made the whole journey. Slash/Oldman shunned pack Mon AM. Shadow joined pack Wed PM - Date - Wed 07/31 @ 5:00 PM till Sat 08/11 @ 8:00 PM ==> 10.5 days - Miles - 4093 ===> ~390 miles per day - Weather - Expected rain half day in Sturgis, dry elsewhere, slightly breezy at times. - Bike - Bagger performed flawlessly. Wed: - Plano to Oklahoma City - 75 N, 82 W, 35 N - 05:00 PM to 08:15 PM - 225 miles - X/Runt are meeting B's at Legacy Texaco, OldPeople will hookup in OK City. Let the vacation begin. - Confusion early in the trip: - There are the B's, let's save time and make turn onto 75, they will see us and catchup. - Where are they? We have been going 55 MPH for 5 miles and they have not caught up. Pull over to side of road, call mobile and question his ability to navigate anything larger than a tricycle. - Phone rings back after 3 minutes of being buffeted by wind gust from passing motorists. They are 3 miles up the road. Somehow they passed us. Ignore heckles on eyesight. We are on vacation. - Cools nicely after first gas. - Arrive Super 8. OldPeople roll in as we return from dinner. Thur - OK City to Broken Bow NE - 35 N (whatever it is called), 80 W, 281 N, 2 NW - 08:00 AM to 05:30 PM - 515 miles - Pack rotates LOTR after each gas stop so all can be heckled. - Slash entertains traffic by allowing a cassette tape to unwind from her pocket. Minor pack/traffic confusion as the shining streamer causes drivers to be distracted by the display. Slash suggests that next time B-Man/Old inform her of situation, instead of chuckling hysterically. - B-Man rolls through Belleville KS as pack lightly grumbles about gas/food. Questionable call. After B-Man drives past gas in Chester, X confidently states 'gas is right ahead, no U-turns, keep going". Bad call. Pack coasts into Cotter's Corner for gas/food. Bikes take a big drink. (Town names may be wrong but you get the idea. "Get gas in Belleville" and "Do not listen to X") - Running west on 80, Bagger's speed jumps from 85 to 95 to 115 till it finally pegs over 130. Based on fact that Runt did not beat his head in, X decides speedometer was briefly broken and files this as an excuse not to lead if needed. Speedo performs flawlessly for rest of the trip. - Oldman decides to exit 80 early and take 'the shortcut' around Grand Island to 2. Let it be noted that that is WRONG or BAD or whatever word associated with not doing it again. - Pack retires to Super 8 hot tub to relax after a full day in the saddle. Pack decides to lie down for an hour, to allow stomachs to settle, before dinner. Fri - Broken Bow to Sturgis SD - 2 NW, 83 N, 90 W - 08:30 AM to 04:00 PM - 395 miles - It is WINDY. We get blown north on 83 (pleasing) and have to lean south 30 degrees running west on 90. (And when the Wind Gods shut off for 1/2 second, you get to experience a floorboard scrape running straight down the highway.) - The Black Hills begin singing as you go up 83. Murdo SD, is where the Sturgis crowd is first seen. Pack takes a moment of silence to honor the poor working stiffs in their small cubes. (Actually pack heckled those not there.) - Arrive Spearfish Super 8, drop gear, go to doctors to have left nostril reopened (they call procedure the Wind Induced Blockage Removal) and go down town. Sat/Sun - Sturgis Area - Various/Most of the classic (Some are still cranky about missing the Badlands) - 441 miles - Spearfish Canyon is freshly paved and pleasing. - Keystone Porch is very pleasing. Teenage rentababes with senior citizen bikers is rather pathetic. - Runt gets wish of going to Cosmos. This place off 16 claims 'strange gravity effects' that cause water to run uphill (that one fascinated Old), people to grow depending on what side they are one, etc. We will see how the pictures come out. - Body Web suits should not be sold to anyone > 200 lbs. Runt (who was serving as pack 'Spotter') said "Look". Pack spun in unison, expecting some tasty fluff/beefcake, and immediately screamed from the painful sight of puffy cellulose. - Saw Jesse James of West Coast Choppers Sat night. - X learns that when Runt says 'I like people watching' that means 'I do not want to walk around, I want to watch people'. - Sun was the obligatory rain morning. Pulled over on 385, scoffed at concept of returning north, and road to sunshine/Wildlife Loop/ Needles Highway. - Speaking of the Wildlife Loop, the name is a LIE. We saw 2 birds, 2 prairie dogs, one dog with horns stuck on it's head and that is it, except for the pack of burros along the road. Some idiot comes rolling up on his custom/just washed bike, bumps into a burro, and the burro expresses itself by relieving it's bladder/whatever burros have on the bike. Quite a chuckle. - Needles was very nice until Oldman boycotted the required scenic outlook spot and motored on. B-Man punished him by pulling over and devising a way to maximize the time Old would sit sitting along the road waiting for us. X thought this was a great idea until plan was reveled as climbing through some very steep small hole for the perfect picture. X is a biker, not a climber. 2 hours later, pack reunited. - Ride back up 385 was very stately, the crowds were gathering. - Porkies BBQ is very pleasing. Go for the chop. - Rumor (started by knowledgeable source) that Slash flashed in Deadwood cannot be confirmed by this reporter. - Following a trike down hill on 14A through the twisties causes you to go "Oooohhhh" as the inside wheels lifts just a little. The girl on the thing was more confident than this observer. - Summary: Pleasing as always, crowds are turning the 'riding' into parades. Mon - Sturgis to Cody WY - 90 W, 16 W, 14 W - 08:45 AM to 04:00 PM - 357 miles - OldPeople refuse to journey on, so they are left behind. - Arrive at UPS to ship home extra gear. When you ship home 172.5 lbs and that is a small part of the load, you realize it is possible that the bike is overloaded. Love the Vulcan, a true warrior. - Slight sprinkle early, still windy. Nostril procedure holds up so breathing still possible. - Very flat/straight except for 16 from Buffalo to Worland. Pack decides to shorten route/drop 14 Alt in fear of more 'a whole lot of nothing'. 16 is very nice. - B-Man feels need to point out 'Wasn't that you that said we could get a room/I scoff at making reservations?' after Best Western, Super 8, Day's Inn are full. X recovers by locating rooms at AmeriInn. (Very nice hotel chain originating from Minnesota. Highly recommended. Advertisement over.) - Pack takes horse carriage ride around Cody. X/B-Man look away every time bikers roll by. - X is hornswaggled into buying new chaps. Never buy under pressure. - X is hornswaggled into buying 'a lovely yellow gold turquoise and opal ring, very hard to find' by Runt and the sales lady. Never say 'You can get the yellow gold turquoise ring you have been looking for if you find it' until you have confirmed none exist. (Ask the manager, not the junior sales clerk. She did not know.) Tues - Cody to Jackson WY - 120 NW, 308 W, 212 SW, NPR Sout to Canyon, West to Madison, South, 89/287 S - 08:30 AM to 08:15 PM (Big day) - 342 miles - Construction site number 1 - gravel/dirt on 120 - 120/308 are nice. Locals mentioned 296 as nice route but that misses BearTooth pass and that is unacceptable. - Rolled into Red Lodge for gas and turned 2000 miles for the trip. - 212 thru Bear Tooth is exceptionally/very pleasing. Swiss Alps type 'look turn mountain and see the 5 layers of road switchbacking up the hill'. Chilly on top, we were higher than the snow. Local said they get first snow this time of year, we saw old stuff that never goes away. Did I mention this was pleasing? - Arrive Yellowstone Park. Tower to Canyon is 16 miles of ROUGH road. Idiot in van wants to see how close he can get to Bagger's bumper. X is glad he did not bring the Glock. - 2 sections of dirt totalling 12 miles between Norris and Madison. North bound traffic was waiting in a line 1.7 miles long. Very glad we were southbound. - Inspiration point was scenic. - Old Faithful was worth the 1 hour wait. - Most of route was through areas that were fire damaged in 88 (according to tour guide B-Man). Biigg fire. - Roads south of Faithful turned pleasing. LOTR B-Man refuses to remain behind the 'Rolling Large Furry Mammal Flatteners' and proceeds at brisk pace through the national FOREST at dusk. X remains at proper dodging distance. - Decision/Map check. Sign says detour off 89 to avoid construction. Getting late and detour is into hills. Pack charges on and conquers another gravel zone. - Now for an editorial on travelling in WY in August. Turns out (for those not aware) that this is a big tourist area and empty hotel rooms are hard to find. Since they are hard to find the owners of said hotels have no problem charging very high fees. They are also irritating. Upon arrival in Jackson the guy at Wagon Wheel Cabins said 'hahhahahahahahahaha, good luck getting a room tonight, I do have a lovely condo that sleeps ten for the price of a Subaru'. Upon reviewing the 38 (I counted) No Vacancy signs, we took out a mortgage on the lovely condo. I hope the pictures come out. Summary: Make reservations and be prepared for summer rates. - Chuckle of the day: Runt turns on Jacuzzi tub jets just as water gets level with outlets. Resultant splashing/Water in face/Yelling cause X to exit room so chuckles are not held against him. - Bubba's BBQ gets a special mention for their Sloppy Bubba. Great sandwich. - Did I mention Bear Tooth was pleasing? Wed - Jackson to Vernal UT - 89 S, detour WY 89, 30 W, 89 S, 30 E, 189 S, 412/414 SE, 44 S, 191 S - 08:45 AM to 05:15 PM - 384 miles - More random construction patches on 89 and 412. - 89 out of Alpine is pleasing/you go dooowwwwn for 6 miles. - X makes mistake by demanding we see Bear Lake in Idaho even after traffic gods detour us onto Wyoming 89. Lake, while pleasing, does not offset the additional high plains miles. (It actually was pretty nice but B-Man would have scoffed so I put this disclaimer in.) Above applies to most of Wyoming, plains are cool for 25 miles and then you start looking for a curve. - Speaking of curves, 44 and 191 are veerrry nice. They even countdown the switchbacks (10 to go, 8 to go, etc) as you wind down 191. 44 might of been second best road we road the whole trip. - Pack goes to the Dinosaur Museum to look at various replicas of large extinct creatures. Demanded our money back when we saw the 2 foot wingspan dragonflys. Clearly a fake, since they are bigger than that in TX today. - Per standard DFWVROC planning, Shadow pulls into the hotel lot just as we dismount. Had not talked in 36 hours, had no agreed on meeting place/time, just the spirit of the road brought us together. (Runt wrote that part.) Thur - Vernal to Salida CO - 40 SE, 64 E, 139 S, I70 E, 50 S, 92 SE, 50 E - 08:30 AM to 04:15 PM - 355 miles - Little chilly in the morning, full gear on. Love the goggles look. - Note that gas gauge reads half full at 55 mile mark in Rangly as we blow by gas station. This will later be seen as a mistake. - 139 is very pleasing set of sweepers. Unfortunately, LOTR is proceeding at 65 MPH on road that screams for brisk/spirited. Three requests for authorization to POF are rejected by command central/Runt. X stews./Shadow continues to fighter pilot behind X. - 110 miles on odometer, gas is low, Loma is 18 miles away. Light bulb has been burning for miles, once X realized pace was based on gas conservation, not need for scenic observation. Wise decision (Butch Wise, get it) but still an opp lost on 139. Runt's need to point out that we would have run out of gas is nonvalueadded. - 92/Black Rim Canyon has fresh pavement. Verryy pleasing. - Blue Mesa Lake is veerrryyy low. That drought thing must be real. - Monarch Pass is very nice. Very nice. Fri - Salida to Las Vegas NM - 50 W, 149 SE, 160 SW, 84 SE, I25 N - 08:30 AM to 08:00 PM - 481 miles - Pack decides to drop the 285/114 loop. Later proved to be wise. - Monarch Pass is just as nice the second time. - 149 is the best motorcycle road in the world. It has mixture of everything. - Construction on Wolfe Pass gave photo opp. - Some idiot in a blue pickup plays chicken with oncoming cars. Pack backs off and watches cars scatter to side. No harm, pack continues. - Back to the 'No rooms' situation in Sante Fe/Intended stop point. Shadow's handy 'Hotels of New Mexico' gives us numbers in Las Vegas. Third call gets 'Inn on the Trail of Sante Fe' or something like that. - Concern that motel that does not know what city they are in turns out to be false. Very nice, Blackjack Grill serves steak and beer, and they deliver beer to the hot tub. Most pleasing. - Best day of the trip. Best day of the year. Sat - Las Vegas to Plano TX - 104 E, I40 E, 287 S, 380 E, 35 S, 190 E - 08:30 AM to 08:00 PM - 598 miles - Pack discusses goal of Wichita Falls vs home. Decision will be function of temp. - 104 would have been most nice 100 mile run if it was not gravelly. B-Girl's shades explode when hit by a rock from passing car. Pack regroups and carries on. - Overcast skys/We are following a raincloud keep temps comfortable. Best death march across Texas yet. - Hit Amirillo at 1:00. X confidently predicts we can be home by 7:00. Shadow smugly points out it is 2:00 local/we lost an hour. X adjusts time to 8:00. - Arrive Hooter's in Plano for traditional post trip wings/beer. Very pleasing. Anyone want to adopt me so I can do this all the time?