Trip to Sturgis

[sarge1057]

Trip to Sturgis

July 31. Leaving home. It rained for about the first hour of riding; I made it to Elyria OH at 2 in the afternoon. Frank my friend made it there at 5 P.M. he had a lot more rain and construction. Stayed at a Comfort Inn very nice reasonably priced with free breakfast. I stayed on the Interstate (Route 90) the whole day, just wanted to get their quickly.

AUG. 1. We started out on 90 but switched to route 20 at the border of Indiana, Frank was having a problem with his bike. We made it to Elkhart IN by noon where we spent the rest of the day. He needed came chain tensioners and an oil pump. We got back on the road about 6 P.M. and made it to Ottawa IL. This is where I got hit in my ring finger by a bug I thought, until Frank pulled over and said his engine was vibrating more than usual, when we saw the missing engine mount bolts I figured my bug was the nut from his bolt. Stayed in the only hotel we could find not recommended.

AUG. 2. Thank God there was a Mechanic on duty Sunday we got out of there by noon. We stayed on interstate 80 until we got to the west side of De Moines Iowa. At this point we switched to route 44 very nice road. We stayed on this until Logan. We found some really nice dirt roads for about 35 minutes just outside of Logan, yes we where lost. We finally made it to Sioux City by 11P.M. Got to bed about 3 A.M. had to do Laundry along with the rest of the Hotel guests (Holiday Inn very nice).


AUG. 3. With only 4 hours of sleep we hit the road destination Rapid City South Dakota to meet Frank’s brother Tim so we could ride into the Buffalo Chip together. We meet up and had a late lunch early dinner around 5o’clock at the Fire House Saloon nice place. We got to the Chip around 7:30 this is also where I dropped my bike foot slipped on gravel and the rest is history only hurt my pride a little. We watched Toby Keith that night and saw a lot of interesting people.


AUG. 4. We walked around the town of Sturgis in the Morning; it was just crazy with people and bikes. Obviously HD was the #1 bike there but I did see a lot of Vulcan’s and Nomads. In the afternoon we went to the Badlands and stopped by MT. Rushmore. On the way back to the Chip we had to stop for a sever thunderstorm high winds rain and hail.


Aug.5. I got to shoot the Tommy gun in the morning before we headed out to Spearfish Canyon which was a great ride. From there we headed to Devils Tower also very amazing to see. Finally ended the day in Buffalo Wyoming and stayed at a Super 8 nice place and had a full size Laundromat next door.


Aug.6. Today we rode through Bighorn National Forest great ride to start the day with we had to stop on our way up the pass to put on more clothes it got a little nippy. Next we hit the Chief Joseph Highway on our way to Cooke City Montana. High wind rain and marble size hail finally made us pull over and wait out the storm. We got to Cooke City about 6:30 P.M. you could see your breath when we pulled in.



Aug.7. we headed of to Yellow Stone and the Grand Teton National parks. Saw lots of buffalo elk and I had scenery sensor overload. We stayed in Jackson Wyoming another nice none brand hotel.




Aug.8. On our way to Flaming Gorge we had to stop and get a kickstand spring, unfortunately they didn’t have one. So it was of to Vernal UT where they said they had one. The bad part in all this is I did it again Dropped the bike this time while riding making a turn on a side street I was running out of room to make my turn and panicked grabbed the front brake and down I went. Again only my pride was hurt looks like someone needs low speed practice. On the brighter side the gorge was magnificent, and we made it to Vernal UT in time to get the kickstand spring.

Aug.9. We stayed on route 40 right into Golden Colorado with a quick stop in Steamboat Springs. The Rockies were great to ride across, once we got to Golden we stopped at the Coors brewery for some original Coors. Then it was of to Limon CO to spend the night this was also my first experience with a tornado warning a little unsettling at first, all turned out okay.

Aug.10. we took 385 to 34 for most of the way into Grand Island Nebraska.



Aug.11. We got our oil changed today at the HD dealer I had to bring my own filter. This is where Frank found out he needed a front motor mount, problem was they didn’t have one. Rode to Cedar Rapids at some point we stopped at a dealer and got it fixed.


Aug.12. On our way to Milwaukee to see the HD Museum we stopped at the National Motorcycle Museum $7.00 to get in but had all kinds of bikes worth the stop. Had lunch at the Grumpy Troll in Mount Horeb WI good food and beer well worth the stop. We got to Milwaukee in time to do the HD tour more expensive but still worth it.

Aug. 13. We rode to Mackinaw MI with one more stop at a HD dealer to get a loose shifter linkage fixed. The ride around the Upper Peninsula of Michigan was a great ride. The only part I didn’t like was the steel grated bridge we had to cross into Mackinaw.

Aug. 14. Rode through a portion of the tunnel of trees, and rode along Lake Huron in to Port Huron. We had lunch in at the Frankenmuth Brew pub in Frankenmuth nice place.


Aug.15. All highway driving through Canada crossed at the Lewiston bridge at this point we split up there was a lot of stop and go traffic and his bike was over heating, I think they crossed in Buffalo. Any way I got home around 7:30 P.M.

Overall it was a great trip had lots of fun and would do it again in a heart beat. And I learned that HD dealers have real nice and clean restrooms.

Total miles 5375.7
Gas 132.262 Gal.
Avg. Miles 40.6 MPG.







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