August 5, 2013
Well it has been a long time since last that I posted
anything in my travel blog. There hasn’t
been anything to post. We have made
three trips to Leslie’s this spring and summer but each was a mission. The first trip we took Mom up for Mother’s
Day weekend and demoed their basement in preparation for a complete remodel.
Trip number two was ahead of our SHOWeR trip (Schroeder,
Hamilton, O’Brien, Westerfield and Robinson).
This was also a working trip removing the rest of the galvanized plumbing
and relocating the laundry equipment in the Schroeder’s basement. Two day estimate of work and a long three
days to complete.
Trip three was the annual July trip to spend time with
Hailie and Connor during Rockfest. This
time we spent several days at Bunker Hills so Hailie could finish summer school
then moved to Blue Mound SP for the weekend before returning home with the
grandkids. Leslie and Paul came down the
next weekend for Leslie’s 20th class reunion (that made me feel old)
and to pick up the kids.
Which bring us to a real trip the annual Motorcycle Rally in
Sturgis SD. We left home Saturday 8/2
and drove as far as Presho SD and stayed at the New Frontier RV Park. Nothing special but it was close to the
interstate and clean. Then Sunday we
moved to Rocky Creek RA east of Belle Fourche SD. We are about a half hour ride to Sturgis.
After a late lunch we unloaded the bike and headed to
Sturgis. It took us over a half hour to
drive thru town on US 34. The population
is 5900+. Coming back into town from the
south we spent 45 minutes stuck in traffic before we could find a place to turn
off and park. My thighs and junk were
toasted. We walked around for a while
and just looked around. I saw Rick and
Corey Harrison from the Pawn Stars strolling the streets but they were past me
before I could get a picture or say hello.
Monday we rode to Black Hills Harley Davidson in Rapid
City. We made the mistake of going thru
Sturgis so I cooked myself again. As
you’d expect Black Hills Harley Davidson is huge and there were many vendors
selling tons of motorcycle related products and accessories. We looked at a number of things that I’d
seen adds for. Some of it was really
cool and others well not so hot. In any
case we learned a lot and saw a bunch of cool stuff. On the way back to the campground we got
caught in a shower on I-90 so we had to slow down for a few miles. About the time we could pull off the highway
we were out of the rain. We bypassed
Sturgis on the way home and are currently nursing TB (tired butts). Debbie is using a nap and ice packs with a
margarita. I’m working on a Bud. So far I think it’s working.
It sure is nice to have someplace different to ride. The trailer worked great so far. It’s different than pulling the Jeep but so
far so good.
August 7, 2013
Yesterday we spent the day in Sturgis. We started the day at Sturgis Brown High
School. The school serves breakfast
daily as a fundraiser. I asked the
little girl cleaning tables about how well they do and Monday they did over
$10K breakfast business. After breakfast
we searched for a place to park then visited several vendors looking for a new
seat and other goodies. About 1:00 we
made our way to the History Channel area to meet Rick and Corey Harrison of the
Pawn Stars program. We got a quick
picture and a hello before we were moved away.
The next stop was to get some patches sewn on my vest. After I decided what I wanted we went to the
Knuckle to sit down and cool off. We
enjoyed a beer and listened to ”The 2nd Amendment” perform, they
were very good. We visited with a lady
from Indianapolis and a lady from Spearfish.
After picking up my vest it was back to the History Channel
area to Meet Kevin and Danny from Counting Cars. These guys were as pleasant and fun as they
appear on TV. Danny greets everyone with
a handshake and a hug and asks your name.
Then they actually visit with everyone for a couple of minutes. They asked about where we were from and how
far of a ride it was. We told them we
were sissies and came in the RV, they flew in.
He also noticed my Air Force patch and recognized my service which is
always nice.
We also saw Frank Fritz of American Pickers wandering in the
crowd and the guy from American Guns who signed my hat.
Today we got lost on the way to Deadwood which is fun when
you are not in the Winnebago. We saw
some pretty country. Sturgis is not in
the Black Hills so this was the first ride to that area. Deadwood was no real big deal other than all
of the bikes. We got a couple more tee
shirts and ate a late lunch at one of the casino buffets. We took the scenic way home down the twisty
roads. Great fun on a Harley!
Right now we’re watching a thunderstorm move through in the
camper. It’s cloudy overhead but we can
see sunshine to the west, maybe we’ll get a rainbow. I’m back, it was a double rainbow to the
south and a single to the east.
August 10, 2013
Thursday was a ho hum day as far as things new and
exciting. As with any similar event this
place is packed with vendors. We looked
at several seats and decided on the one we liked best and also a center stand
that makes it easier and safer for Debbie to get on the bike. We decided to go ahead with those upgrades to
save shipping costs so we went back to Rapid City and had them installed. I’ll not go into details on the stand but the
new seat is 18” wide for the driver and 15” for the passenger. When we were discussing the need for the new
seat I measured the stock seat. It is 15”
for driver and 11” for the passenger. We
discussed measuring our a$$es but decided we were better off remaining ignorant
on that point. J!
After leaving Rapid City we returned to the campground. We caught up on some cleaning and did a dump
and fill of our holding tanks. See I
told you it was not an exciting day.
Friday we got kind of a late start. Just couldn’t quite get going. We just made it to Sturgis Brown HS for
breakfast. The traffic into town after
breakfast looked a little nuts so we took the cutoff to the Ft Mead Cemetery. It was a very windy dirt road which took us
to an old cemetery on top of a hill.
Then we went on to the Black Hills National Cemetery which lies on the
southern most part of Ft Mead. If you’ve
never visited a national cemetery you should put it on your to do list.
When we left the cemetery we took I 90 to SD 34 then west
into Wyoming. At Hulet we turned south
to Devils Tower. (I purchased my Golden Eagle
Passport) We went to the visitors center and walked around looking at the
tower. We did not take any of the trails
because riding cloths are not the ideal hiking attire and time was limited.
After leaving the tower we took WY 112 north from Hulet to
Alvda MT which is nothing more than the intersection of MT112 and US 212 which
took us back to our campground. That was
about a 240 mile ride, a record for us.
We’ll leave here on Monday and are thinking of going to
Custer SP for a few days.
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