CANADA / STURGIS 2000
(INCLUDES: SEATTLE TOURS; TWO FERRY RIDES; VICTORIA,
BC.;
SUNDAY JULY 30 TO FRIDAY AUGUST
18, 2000
20 DAYS / 5,113 MILES $ 205.95GAS / 103.562
GALLONS GAS / AVERAGE MILEAGE 49.37 MPG
NINE STATES CALIFORNIA
OREGON WASHINGTON
MONTANA
2 CANADIAN PROVINCES BRITISH COLUMBIA ALBERTA
On my 1998 Ultra Classic with Dana on her 1998 Dyna Low Rider. Met with David and Elana and Jerry J in Gillette, Wyoming LONG DAY = 432 MILES / DAY 2 / Eureka, CA. To Salem, OR.
DAY 1 SUNDAY JULY 30, 2000 289 (Miles Today) 289 (Total Miles) Motel 6 Eureka, CA. $ 50.13 DINNER Samoa Cookhouse Samoa, CA. Richmond Parkway to Pt. Richmond; San Rafael Bridge/I-580 to San Rafael; north US 101 to Eureka. Dana has three weeks off which in itself is miraculous as she just
started a new job two weeks ago. She tested and interviewed and got the
job but when they offered it to her she accepted with a couple of conditions.
One was that she could keep her planned vacation and that condition was
met. So we are on the way north this time, Dana stating she was kinda tired
of southern deserts and heat since the past few trips had been "down there."
She planned this trip to include sightseeing in Seattle and a couple of
days checking out Victoria on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. She
also stuck in a few days crossing Canada to see the Banff National Forest
and then a day in Sturgis so she could maybe meet a few of her Internet
pals. Good plan. We were up early and surprisingly pretty much ready to
flee the area. But we were moving slow and didn't jam until 11:30. We dropped
by Don's house on the way out to drop off a set of instructions since he
would be taking care of the cat, along with another friend KennyK. Then
we hit the road and headed across the bridge into Marin County where we
found it was warming up nicely as we progressed northward. Today was like
any other first day out - exciting because it was the start of a fine ride
but also boring and dull because it was mostly freeway and roads we have
traveled too many times just to get out of town. By the time we hit Santa
Rosa it was hot. We grabbed a soda at the fuel stop and continued. By Ukiah
it was steaming and Willits was burning up. It was going to be a good one.
I got sleepy from the boring roads and had to take a break in Piercy, guzzling
a couple of sodas at the fuel stop. There were not too many bikes on the
road and traffic in general had smoothed out along the way. The Redwoods
were a wonderful waker-upper as usual and it cooled off soon. We pulled
off the freeway at Holmes to get some warmer clothes on and were met by
a four-foot king snake at the bottom of the offramp. He was in the road
so I urged him off into the grass, got my sweatshirt on and took off. We
pulled into Eureka and checked in at the motel, which was full of some
junior bowling teams and several other groups of motorcyclists. No sooner
had I unpacked that I got a phone call from Freddy, a buddy from home who
was leaving for Sturgis in a few days. He just wanted to say HI and he
was excited about his trip. I told him we'd try to find him in Sturgis
and meet for dinner. We didn't have reservations for Sturgis and knew we
may be screwed because of this but we really didn't care if we stayed or
not. We have been there three times before and planned to simply cruise
through if there were no vacancies. After a short rest we took my bike
over to Samoa to have dinner at one of our favorite places, the Samoa Cookhouse.
Dinner was great this evening as it always is and there were a few bikes
in the lot as well. We visited the gift shop while waiting for our table
and then bought some Cookhouse post cards afterwards. I mailed one to Freddy
as this is also one of his favorites and I wanted to rub it in a bit. On
the way back to the motel we toured the "Old Town" area where many Victorian
mansions sit. We stopped at the Versateller to suck the rest of the money
out of our accounts then hit Ray's Supermarket for some snacks and stuff
for tomorrow. We were back in the room at 9:00. We hung out, stayed in,
relaxed and prepared for the rest of the trip. It was kinda cold here tonight.
DAY 2 MONDAY JULY 31, 2000 432 721 Motel 6 Salem, OR. $ 50.13 LUNCH Frontier Café
Happy Camp, CA.
North US 101 to Arcata; West SR 299 to Willow Creek; north SR 96 to Happy Camp; north "Jefferson National Scenic Byway" (north Indian Creek Road to Oregon border; north Happy Camp Road to near Takima; north Waldo Road) to near O'Brien; north US 199 through Cave Junction and to Grants Pass; north I-5 to Salem. We rolled out of bed at 7:30. It was cold and foggy and our bikes
were wet. So much for the fresh wash and wax. We took our time getting
around and left the motel at 9:30. Our original plan was to continue up
the coast but it was so crummy with no visibility that we turned around
in Arcata and rolled back south five miles and took the route along the
Klamath River which is always a lot warmer. It was a great country ride
with much scenery and is actually the second time we aborted the same foggy
coastal route for this same detour. By the time we hit Willow Creek it
was hot and we turned north along the river. There was hardly any other
traffic out here and it was a nice relaxing ride. We stopped in Happy Camp
for a great lunch then found that the only gas for miles was at a local
unattended CardLok with a steep gravel driveway. We got in and out with
no problem and got to talk to a local woman who was there filling up a
carload of gas cans. I wondered who she was mad at. We had been along this
route a dozen times and it is a favorite of ours but I had seen a new road
on the map that cut north over the mountains into Oregon so we decided
to try that. The folks at the restaurant and the gas can lady said it was
a good road. Since we had changed our route we stopped at the payphone
at a nearby market to change our reservations from Florence to Salem. Then
we hit the mountain and found this road to be so very interesting and saw
that it had cooled off a bit, too. Towards the summit the road gets very
curvy on the uphill side and even with a heavily-loaded dresser it is a
temptation to cruise in a fluid manner. That soon came to a halt when twice
I scraped the frame in tight corners causing the bike to sit straight up
and stop turning, more or less heading straight for the edge. It has quite
a bit of lean but its limits are easy to achieve so I slowed a bit. In
my mirror I saw that Dana was digging the curves on her scooter as well.
There were only a couple of cars along this 40 mile stretch and the scenery
was superb. At the bottom of the mountains it heated up again and we stopped
at a Dairy Queen in Cave Junction for some drinks. After a few free refills
and a rest in the air conditioning we split and were soon on the freeway
where we would stay for the next four hours. Just before Canyonville I
heard oncoming truckers on their CB radios talking about a motorbiker who
had slid around and fallen down after apparently suffering a flat tire
on the freeway. They said he had almost gotten it stopped and looked okay
and I slowed and kept an eye out. A few miles up the road I saw the guy
on our side of the road. His bike was up on its stand on the shoulder and
he was walking around and several cars had stopped to help so I kept on
rollin'. Traffic got heavier of course but never slowed and only got what
I'd call heavy upon approaching Salem. We rolled into town around 8:15
and got right to the motel. We unpacked and rested a short time but were
soon hungry. It is customary for us to take only my bike to dinner so Dana's
can guard the parking stall in front of our room and soon we were two-up,
cruising for dinner at a place I had seen near the offramp. It was a good
seafood dinner despite a temporary absence of greeters, hostesses and waiters.
When the service did show up the visit was very good. I wanted to shop
for snacks and stuff afterward but The Gurl was tired so I dropped her
off at the room and rolled over to Fred Meyer for stuff. There was a large
billiard parlor across the street so I stopped there to see of I could
find a souvenir tee shirt for pool-shootin' KennyK back home but they had
none. I was soon back at the motel where we rested and read and watched
TV for a bit. It was pretty quiet around here this evening.
DAY 3 TUESDAY AUGUST 1, 2000 337 1,058 Motel 6 Seatac, WA. $ 60.68 LUNCH Subway
Castle Rock, WA.
North I-5 to Seatac; later south I-5 to Tacoma and north on SR 16 to Bremerton and back to Seatac. We awoke at 7:30 again but were pretty lazy and got out at 10:00.
It was cool this morning. We fuelled up a half-hour down the road then
continued to Portland where we pulled off I-5 in search of the Harley store.
Dana had checked the HOG book and saw the mini-map there but it seemed
that there was no offramp for the streets we were seeking. She figured
it out quickly and we were soon at the H-D dealer. When Dana had lowered
the rear of her Low Rider the stock kickstand prevented the bike from leaning
much so she ordered a shorter kick stand; it was on back order all year
and arrived a couple of days before our trip. We couldn't get it installed
at home so I just packed it with us in hopes that some dealer along the
way could put it on for her. It was no surprise to find the benches at
Portland's H-D shop lined with sad-faced Sturgis-bound customers awaiting
repairs and a smaller surprise that they had no time for a non-critical
kickstand install. We visited the store and I found a belt buckle I had
been looking for so I snagged it along with a magazine. A few minutes later
we had crossed into Washington and found the sun had peeked through the
clouds and it was warming up a little. We pulled off the freeway for a
sandwich at what was somehow the World's Busiest Subway. There must have
been a tour bus stop there and it emptied out soon. After a while we were
coming up on Tacoma and Dana knew where the Harley shop was there so we
pulled off and found it easily. The shop guy said he may be able to install
Dana's kickstand if we waited around for a while and could for sure do
it in the morning but it was simply not important enough to wait two hours
for so we visited that retail area too then took off. The motel was only
a half-hour up the road but we were low on gas so we stopped for that then
rolled into the motel at 4: 30. I had bought a large "CobraLinks" locking
chain to lock up our bikes with on this trip but after I bought it I found
it was just too damn bulky and heavy, too hard to get between the bikes
and took up too much space to pack. I left it at home but at $200 I didn't
want to be unable to return it when I got back next month so I called the
shop at home to see if I could return it a little late. No problem. I also
called the H-D shop in nearby Seattle to see if they had time to do Dana's
kickstand but it seems they were busier than Portland. No biggie. We rested
up a little then I phoned Denny P over in Bremerton as I was scheduled
to stop by his place. He was in and expecting us so Dana hopped on my bike
with me and we took a ride out into Washington's "commute traffic" which
I had to laugh at since it lasted only 15 minutes instead of the three
hours it does at home. We jammed over Puget Sound and met Denny and his
son Nick in his home town. They were on Denny's purple Road King and led
us back to their place where we got to meet his wife Linda and their older
son Chris. We visited for a good long while and I got to check out their
fine, beautiful mountainside, shoreline multi-level house with a tremendous
view of the Sound. Exceptionally radical dwelling with a big-windowed morning-sunny
dining room that affords a splendid view of the water and a garage and
shop sufficient for all the bikes, cars, tools and stuff that anyone could
reasonably accumulate. He has a great family and is lucky to live in this
area. Knowing Denny is a blues fan, I gave him a few homemade CD's with
a selection of .mp3 blues music for his collection. We couldn't stay too
long but had a great time and were soon heading homeward in the dark. We
got the hungries on the way in and pulled off at what looked like a busy
interchange and found a couple dozen eateries. I spied a Red Robin and
since it is a favorite of Dana's stopped there for a late dinner and a
gallon or two of iced tea. We got back to the room at 11:00. While Dana
rested up I walked over to the Texaco next door and grabbed a few snacks.
It was time to relax.
DAY 4 WEDNESDAY AUGUST 2, 2000 49 1,107 Motel 6 Seatac, WA. $ 60.68 LUNCH World's Best Chili
Pike Place Market / Seattle, WA.
North I-5 to Seattle; around town (to Harley shop, Pike Place Market, Space Needle, etc.) south I-5 to Des Moines; later north I-5 to Seatac. I awoke at 8:30 and was somehow pooped out. I went down to the office
to get Dana's coffee while she was in the shower and slowly got ready for
the day. I phoned the nearby home of Jim Bloomer, an Internet friend with
a very special H-D dresser that was built for and previously owned by Kenny
Bernstein, Budweiser's top fuel drag racer. I was hoping to hook up with
him today for a quick visit and to check out his cool bike but he works
a real job and was not home. We'll see how late we're out. We left the
motel at 10:30 and a few minutes later were at Downtown H-D in Seattle
checking out their new huge store. In the lot I saw my first 2001 model,
a fuel-injected Fat Boy being piloted by Jerry Beem, a retired Seattle
PD motor cop who has a good gig at the shop. It was fairly warm and a bit
cloudy - a good day to tour Seattle. Our first stop was to the downtown
area where we found a convenient underground parking area to house our
bike while we walked the very cool "Underground Tour." We had a quick snack
at the coffee shop while waiting for the tour to begin. I had no idea (Dana
knew, though) but there was an old downtown area that was covered with
new streets and shops when the renovation occurred. This underground section
remained in business for some time and is still there for folks to see
on this guided tour. Pretty weird but I enjoyed it and recommend it. We
grabbed souvenirs and postcards from the underground gift shop as well.
We retrieved the bike and cruised down to Pike Place Market, a huge marketplace
that Dana was aware of (but not me…) that houses hundreds of stores, shops
and restaurants. One main attraction here is the fish market where the
fish guys hurl huge fish back and forth from ice piles to the counter to
the register, etc. It is quite a show. We walked around a large part of
this marketplace and had a good chili lunch served by a nice gentleman
in one of the small cafes there. As a plus, it was "Fleet Week" when all
the big US Navy ships come into port and as we strolled the waterfront
we got to see numerous battleships, a huge hovercraft, helicopters, parasailers,
etc. parading back and forth. It had warmed nicely and the clouds were
gone and it was quite a thing to see. We bought some fruit from one market
then once finished there we rolled up to the Space Needle and went up for
a view and a couple of sodas. We took quite a few pictures up here and
got to see the town, all the landmarks and much of the surrounding area,
including snow-capped peaks of the Olympic Range sixty miles away. Fantastic.
We visited the gift shop below then walked around the rest of "Seattle
Center," took more photos then headed back towards the motel. There was
much traffic trying to get out of town to the freeway and it took a few
hot minutes but once on the freeway it was a fast crawl back southward.
We were hungry by then and needed shipping supplies and I had seen signs
for stores and cafés yesterday so we bypassed the motel and cruised
a bit farther south and got off in Des Moines. There we found a shopping
center with a few cafés and were trying to decide where to eat when
we were approached by a wooly hippie kid who handed us a "buy-one-meal
- get-one-free" coupon for a bar and grill in the center. He said he worked
there and led us around and got us in and took off. It was a righteous
meal and the price was right. We walked down to Safeway afterwards and
got some snacks and some shipping tape to send stuff home. We looked for
boxes but they had all been crushed. Upon leaving we cruised the rear of
the center and Dana spied a couple of prefect boxes so she grabbed them
and off we went. We didn't make it back to the room until almost 9:00 so
we had missed any chance of hooking up with Jim Bloomer that day. To make
things worse, Dana's schedule had our ferry from Port Angeles to Vancouver
Island leaving tomorrow at noon and that was a 130 mile ride so we'd have
to vacate this area early and I'd miss Jim completely. Damn. I phoned him
and spoke for a while in lieu of a visit and since our plans were not solid
and the possibility existed that we'd come back through the area later,
I told him I'd call if we headed back this way. Since Denny wanted to ride
with us from Bremerton to our ferry ride I phoned him and said we'd give
him a shout on the way in the morning. Dana took our clothes down to the
laundry room and done laundry while I showered. My cell phone had a missed
call from Freddy back home so I phoned him back. Freddy was leaving for
Sturgis the following day and was very excited about it. He is part of
a four-man crew who has opted to trailer their bikes and get to Sturgis
in 24 hours rather than ride and take three days. Before this trip was
over my belief in Motorcycling Karma would be reinforced and I would also
receive a reminder to never give someone a bad time about trailering his
bike. More on that later. I tried to call KennyK too but his line was busy
so I missed him. I packed the boxes with stuff to send home and had a bunch
of sodas and kicked back and relaxed.
DAY 5 THURSDAY AUGUST 3, 2000 138 1,245 Stay And Save Motor Lodge Victoria, Vancouver Is., Canada $ 83.98 LUNCH Aboard the MV COHO Ferry Boat Port
Angeles, WA. to Victoria, Canada
South I-5 to Tacoma; north SR 16 to Bremerton; north on SR 3 to Port Gamble; north SR 104 to Discovery Bay; north US 101 to Port Angeles; ferry ride north to Victoria; around town. We got up, packed and rolled out at 9:20, just a bit later than planned.
Traffic was moving well. We stopped in Gig Harbor and phoned Denny at his
house and told him we were on the way. A half-hour later we pulled into
Bremerton and found him and Nick waiting for us on their bike. It was already
warming nicely and they led us on a fast cruise around the islands and
hills to Port Angeles with one short pit stop along the way. At the pit
stop Denny showered us with goodies including two types of waterproof gloves,
a wrist-rest Throttle-Rocker for Dana's bike, a slick H-D key chain and
a cool pewter Christmas ornament. Thanks, dude! He also agreed to mail
my box back home for me. We had made it just on time and the attendant
directed us to get our tickets then park in a special motorcycle area,
so we had to do some too-fast good-byes with Denny and Nick and roll over
to the boat. We didn't have to wait long at all and were soon securing
the bikes in the boat's hold. It was a cool ride of about two hours and
we had some lunch and snacks on the boat, sat inside, sat outside, took
pictures and relaxed. We rolled in at Victoria, Canada around 2:30 and
cruised together in line for the Canadian Customs Port of Entry. After
all the work we had done getting together our Canadian Insurance verifications,
our birth certificates, titles, registrations, insurance papers, etc.,
and after sitting in line watching the stern-faced officers going through
peoples' papers and cars, we pulled up to a hippie kid in uniform who simply
wished us a great trip and flagged us through. "Hey, man, I know my rights
- you have to search us and look at our papers!" Not really. We cruised
the main heavily-touristed area and fled straight to the hotel where we
checked in, unpacked and turned on the air conditioner. It was a great
room right on the main drag. As was routine I first phoned the H-D shop
to see about Dana's kickstand and by now I was due for an oil change as
well - too busy, as was expected. I then phoned Phoenix Cycle, the aftermarket
/ independent shop nearby, and the guy there said to bring the bikes in
anytime so I made an appointment for the first thing tomorrow. We wanted
to go sight-see, so knowing parking could be an issue we left on my bike
and found parking at the famous and ritzy Empress Hotel. We strolled the
flower gardens and walked through the hotel's restaurant and shop areas.
Dana had said it is customary for folks to have "high tea" at this place
and I noticed it was available to us for a mere $40 each. That's what I
call HIGH tea - somebody must be HIGH if they think I'm having any of that.
We kept on strolling. We walked over to the Crystal Gardens, which is a
climate-controlled (read: warm and humid) indoor garden and sort of a zoo
where we were able to see loads of tropical plants, a bunch of small animals,
birds and reptiles. The best part of the place was the butterfly room where
you walk through a bunch of butterflies living there. There is one display
where cocoons are hanging and we lucked out by just happening to be looking
at one as it split open and the new butterfly emerged, hung on, unfolded,
dried off and got on with life. It was a good visit. We walked around some
more, checking out shops and sights and decided on dinner at the "Sticky
Wicket" Pub. There were a load of "pubs" and other English style things
here and we picked a winner, although not speaking the proper English I
had to ask our waitress what a wicket is and how one's wicket becomes sticky.
We had good British food - I had Shepherd's Pie and Dana decided on Bangers
and Mash. Delicious. When done we walked down by the waterfront and took
pictures of the historic Parliament Building, strolled the promenade where
the street vendors are set up then went to a gift shop where Dana shopped
and I grabbed a soda and hung out in front. It was getting dark and I just
happened to be peeking at the Parliament when the outside lights came on.
It was quite an effect. We fled town, stopping at the Fairway Market for
snacks and stuff on the way back to the motel. A guy was asking for a handout
in the lot and I fumbled him a few coins then later wondered if I gave
him a lot - not being used to the Canadian $2 coins which I believe he
got. Dumb tourists… Back at the room we relaxed and watched TV and just
hung out.
DAY 6 FRIDAY AUGUST 4, 2000 157 1,402 Stay And Save Motor Lodge Victoria, Vancouver Is. $ 83.98 LUNCH Ashley's Café
Chemanus, Vancouver Island, BC.
North Canada 1 to Nanaimo; returned to Victoria by starting south on Canada 1 but taking smaller parallel streets through Chemanus, Maple Bay, Mill Bay, etc., lost most of the time. We were going to tour part of this huge island today and while Dana
had first thought a scenic train ride would be nice, she later opted for
a bike ride.We were up fairly early and shoved off on the bikes around
9:15. We got to Phoenix Cycles for the 9:30 appointment time and the crew
took both bikes in as soon as we rolled up. The shop was nice and located
a bit out of town where it was quiet. We talked to Ted, the owner, checked
out the parts and photos hanging on the walls, had a couple of sodas from
the machine and in no time at all Dana's kickstand was on and my bike had
fresh oil and was clean. We fuelled up nearby and hit the road. The road
followed the east coast of the island but was seldom close to the water.
I saw a cool radar trap where one hidden car identified the speeders and
a few cops a half-mile ahead would just walk out into the road and stop
them. Time to be careful. There was a load of traffic heading north but
southbound seemed light in comparison. We cruised through Duncan, a place
famous for its totem poles around town, then got off the highway for a
cruise through Chemanus, a small town famous for its many murals on the
sides of buildings. We walked that town and took a few pictures and had
a good lunch as well. We were soon riding again and went through Nanaimo
which would be our turnaround point. It seemed like just another pretty
town but we stopped alongside the harbor just to peek. We done a U-turn
and fled back southward. As we didn't want to see the same road all over,
we took off at Chemanus and tried to follow the small roads south, but
they were not marked too well. We ended up way down by the water in Maple
Bay at a dead end then cruised around a while trying to get back to the
highway finally finding it in Duncan. We stopped at the A&W in Bamberton
for a couple of cold root beers then took off. There had been two lengthy
constructions zones on the way north and they kad kept us slow and hot
for quite a way but on the way south these zones were fairly quick. We
pulled back off to re-visit Phoenix Cycle as I wanted a shirt from there,
mainly just to buy something extra as the shop had helped us out where
the others had not. After another brief visit we tooled around on the back-town
roads to Victoria. We stopped in at the "real" H-D shop and looked around
but didn't buy anything. We were hungry by now and cruised back downtown
where we had seen an Old Spaghetti Factory, yet another favorite place
of ours. We had a great dinner at an outside table and were soon walking
around the gift shop area again. Last night Dana had seen some cute fuzzy
stuffed animal in the window of a place that was closed but tonight it
was still open so she picked up the item for her granddaughter Myah. We
cruised back to the room, arriving there just before 8:00 p.m. We got a
cool parking place right outside the office where the bikes could be watched
all night. I phoned Big Don back home to see how things were but his wife
Dina told me he had a week-long surveillance gig that would keep him working
8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. He's a P.I. and gets some weird-hour jobs from time
to time. I tried to call our friends David and Elana who had left home
about the same time we had but who had headed first to Montana to visit
another friend Jerry and ride to Sturgis with him after a week visit at
his house. They were to be in Billings tonight and I found their motel
and room but they were out. Dana and I wrote a few post cards, relaxed,
watched TV and just hung out. A while later David and his crew called and
said they were having a good ride and planned to be in Sturgis the following
day. We would try to meet them there for a quick dinner the following week
and I asked him to keep an eye out for vacancies he may be able to grab
for us. It had been a nice day and we enjoyed the island but tomorrow was
to be an early day as we had to catch another ferry to take us to the mainland.
It was pretty quiet around here.
DAY 7 SATURDAY AUGUST 5, 2000 306 1,708 Super 8 Motel Kamloops. BC. $ 59.77 BRKFST Aboard the Queen Of Victoria Ferry
Between Victoria and Vancouver, BC.
North Highway 17 to Swartz Bay; Ferry to Vancouver mainland; east Canada 1 to Hope, Cache Creek and Kamloops. We were up at 7:00 and had time enough not to hurry. I ate the leftover
fruit from the day before and slowly got ready. We were out of the room
at 9:00 and discovered that our cool parking spots were not too cool after
all - they were partially beneath a tree that had drizzled crap all over
our bikes like a fine mist. Ah, well… We hot-footed it up the road about
20 miles to the port where we were to catch the ferry. The gal in the car
beside us was friendly and talkative and gave some good tripping hints
for the rest of our day. Now we knew which roads to avoid, what was scenic,
etc. She worked for Canada's environmental branch and was just off for
a weekend trip to her friend's place. We soon loaded up in the ferry and
were on the way. It was a larger boat that the last and we explored it
and checked out the scenery. When the lines went down we got into the cafeteria
for breakfast and sat down just in time to watch the island scenery as
we passed through the curvy channel between four islands. After breakfast
we took a few pictures and bought some postcards from the on-board store
and by that time we were approaching Vancouver. We rolled off the boat
at noon and got gas a few miles towards town and took off on the side roads,
avoiding the city traffic we had been warned of. As we edged away from
Vancouver the traffic lessened but it was still a fairly busy highway.
Flat and mostly straight roads passed the occasional town and some mountains
could be seen in the distance. We soon turned towards the mountains and
were on a nice two-laner. After ninety non-stop miles we pulled to the
roadside for a quick break. We were next to a train track and the train
was approaching slowly so I put a coin on the track trying to make a flat
souvenir but the train bounced it somewhere and I never found it. A short
time later we stopped for gas and a break in Yale which was looking more
like a mountain town than anything we had seen yet. We stopped a bit later
at "Hell's Gate," a place where the mighty Fraser River passes water at
200 million gallons each minute through a narrow 100' wide, 500' deep canyon.
It's quite a little current. When Dana first saw the wrist-lock Throttle-Rocker
that Denny gave her she had a skeptical look on her face but today I watched
all along the route as she placed it on her throttle grip and began testing,
adjusting and checking it out. We finished the last leg to Kamloops non-stop,
pulling into town at 6:00 p.m. It was warm in this town nestled into a
deep but small valley. We dumped our gear and rested up for a minute. Dana
called ahead for reservations in Montana a couple days ahead then we took
my bike to a nearby restaurant that the desk clerk had suggested. It was
a big place with a great menu and I had some great chicken and pasta while
Dana had some weird kind of goat cheese, spinach and sun dried tomato pizza.
Good stuff. It was destiny that placed us in a motel next to a car wash
and we knew better than to shun that idea so after dinner we grabbed some
rags and stuff and spent a while washing the bikes. The mist from last
nights trees came off easily and the bikes were clean again but I had no
illusion that they would stay that way for long. We took off on my bike
after dark just to peek around the town. We cruised for a short time only
and it was apparent that there was much more town a thousand or two feet
down in the bottom of the bowl-shaped valley but we stayed up in our own
neighborhood. We stopped at Safeway to pick up supplies and headed back
to the room where we stayed in for the rest of the night.
DAY 8 SUNDAY AUGUST 6, 2000 285 1,993 Mountaineer Lodge Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada $ 120.51 BRKFST Humpty's
Salmon Arm, BC.
East Canada 1 to Lake Louise. We were up and out by 10:30 - another late start but today was a
relatively easy day. We gassed up at the station across the street and
climbed back on the highway. It was warm in town while standing still but
the breeze and speed of the bikes made it a little cooler out on the road.
It was starting to cloud up in a few places as well. It had warmed up nicely
in the next hour or so and the road cut through some pretty country, which
included a mix of riverside curves, flat farmlands and small hills. We
encountered an increasing mass of traffic as we approached Salmon Arm which
seemed to be a water-recreation area and fisherman's paradise. We stopped
for a decent breakfast around noon (I had something called "Scotch Eggs"
- boiled eggs wrapped in sausage and fried) and upon leaving town a little
over an hour later found that traffic east of town was very light. It stayed
warm for the next hour and a group of shirtless bikers passed down the
road. We gassed up in Revelstoke where the gas station was the busiest
in the world. The road begins to climb here and as we rolled through the
canyon it began sprinkling so we stopped along the river and I wrapped
my luggage in its raincoat but left my own rain suit in the saddlebag within
easy reach. We continued to climb into rugged, mountainous ski areas and
could see very threatening clouds ahead. We had to stop for warmer clothes
next to a closed rest stop but allowed the raingear to stay in the bags.
The roads were wet and the sky all clouds by then but it never got any
wetter than a light sprinkle. We passed through the town of Golden but
as we climbed the hill on the other side of town we ran into the rear of
a long, stopped double-row of cars. It was hardly a crawl and was on an
uphill grade so I feared our clutches and engines may overheat. I switched
on the CB radio and heard that it was a bad crash a ways ahead and they
had cleared one car but were having trouble with the other. I had Dana
follow me to a wide parking area a few yards ahead where we simply shut
'em down and stood around taking a break, waiting for the traffic to flow.
We could only see a half-mile ahead and cars were still crawling. While
sitting we watched many cars in the inside lane spinning their tires while
trying to start from a stop. I figured they were just in a hurry and didn't
think any more about it but should have. We also saw the first involved
car being towed down the hill. It was in pretty bad shape. After a half
hour or so the traffic began to flow and once we saw a clean road to the
horizon a half-mile off we cruised on. The other car was still at the summit
and was mangled beyond belief. It didn't look like anyone in it could have
survived but we never heard. As we rolled onto the now-moving traffic and
still very wet road I saw the tell-tale rainbow streaks in the roadway;
not just a spot or two but a full trail of oil or fuel through the straights
and the curves. I pointed it out to Dana and we managed to avoid it but
it continued for over five miles. I finally saw it end - beneath a new
Dodge truck pulling a travel trailer which was stranded in the lane at
the bottom of an offramp. I felt lucky to have noticed this stuff as it
surely would have been enough to make the bikes slide off any of the many
curves along this route. The drizzle came and went but it never truly rained.
It did, however, get colder. We stopped in at the Alberta Welcome Center
for a pit stop. It had gotten a bit clearer by now and we could see the
sun most of the time. A short half-hour later we pulled into our lodge
and checked in and unpacked. Lake Louise is a mountaintop ski resort with
plenty of business in the summer as well and our hotel and the town in
general was great. We relaxed for a very short time then took my bike out
cruising the town and found there was not much to it. We decided to eat
in the village center next to the hotel and had a pretty good dinner at
a casual place where I had delicious salmon and prawns and The Gurl had
curry chicken. We walked over to the small market for goodies afterward
and went back to the room. It rained all the time we were off the bike
but stopped for us to return to the room. We had been back in the room
only a half hour when David phoned us from Gillette, Wyoming with news
of the shittiest kind. At a fuel stop just 70 miles from Sturgis, their
destination, Elana hit some oil in the gas station islands and fell slowly
to the ground on her bike. Her leg protected the bike's paint and chrome
but the bike responded by breaking one of the bones between her knee and
ankle. She had spent the previous night in the hospital in Gillette awaiting
a bone surgeon who today announced that she may need surgery to pin her
bone together. The bone had not snapped in two across itself but had split
longways! Ouch! At any rate he could not determine if surgery was needed
until the swelling went down but he guessed that it would indeed be necessary
and that Friday would be the day. So David and Elana's Sturgis vacation
was turning into what would end up as two whole weeks in the Best Western
hotel in Gillette, Wyoming. Crap-ola! They had a bit of luck (if things
can be considered at all lucky at this point) as one of the responding
paramedics was a rider who lived nearby and let them take the bike to his
house for as long as they needed. And if they had to be stuck in a hotel,
this was a good one as it had its own restaurant and was next to an all
night minimart. There is more to this story and I'll get to it later. After
the call I walked over to the minimart across the street and grabbed some
snacks and made a phone call from there (the rooms had no phones.) While
there I saw some lottery tickets with Harleys on them so I had to grab
a couple. Back at the room a short time later I gave one of the tickets
to Dana and scratched the remaining one myself. I won a whopping $2. It
rained a bit more during the night and was very cold and quiet except for
the periodic freight trains rolling through a few blocks away. This was
a fine place to have a stop.
DAY 9 MONDAY AUGUST 7, 2000 320 2,313 Motel 6 Kalispell, MT. $ 68.63 LUNCH Old Salzburg Restaurant
Radium Hot Springs, BC., Canada
South Highway 93 to US Border at Roosville; south US 93 to Kalispell, MT. I got up early and walked over to the lodge to get ice for the cooler.
When Dana was ready we turned in the key and dropped off some post cards
in the mail basket and rode across the street and gassed up. I turned in
my big winning lottery ticked and got a couple more Harley scratch-off
tickets. Another two dollar winner. Got two more tickets. No winner. Wah!
It was chilly at this altitude but I left in a sweatshirt and no jacket
and found that was sufficient. Today was the last day of a Canadian three-day
weekend and there was a lot of traffic in the opposing direction but we
did not have a lot going our way. The roads were somewhat straight for
being in the mountains and the highway ran alongside a small river for
a ways. I saw a lone deer having a roadside snack and we soon turned off
into the hills that took us over the Continental Divide at Vermillion Pass
at a comparatively low 5,500 feet. It was clear and warming but still cool
at speed. After the pass the road began winding up and down, twisting back
on itself and then dropped into a narrow canyon where we passed a herd
of about 15 small deer that were so close to the road I braked hard in
case they spooked. A second later we rolled into Radium Hot Springs, a
touristy resort town, where we spied what looked like a good eatery and
stopped. It was warm when sitting still and we dined outdoors on good German
fare. I had jaegerspaetzel, some kind of mini-dumpling stuff, and it was
terrific. It had warmed nicely and we continued dropping off the mountains
so a tee shirt was comfortable upon leaving town. We took a short sidetrip
into Cranbrook to fuel up and get a shot at the last Harley shop we would
pass in Canada but the shop was closed. A little over an hour later, after
passing through more Canadian flatlands, we rolled across the US border
at Roosville. The Border Agent simply stepped out of her booth and waved
us past. It made me feel kinda bad for the two young guys who were standing
aside as an inspector was tossing their car pretty thoroughly. At the small
community of Eureka a few minutes down the road, we stopped, put away our
helmets and had some cold sodas. It was just about hot by now and the Montana
countryside was mostly flat with small rolling hills. There was not too
much happening in this area. We jammed pretty much non-stop to Kalispell
and rode through the town's commute traffic to the motel on the other end
of town. We didn't rest too long because it was laundry day and Dana used
the phone book and its map to pinpoint three Laundromats. We cruised town
on my bike looking for the places, hoping to find one near some eats. The
third one looked promising and we stopped in and washed our clothes. As
they washed I spoke to a local guy who works a lot in the town where Dana
works. He was pretty talkative but left when his stuff was dry. We piled
our stuff into the dryer and asked the attendant about the food in the
casino next door and she gave it a thumbs-up so while the clothes were
drying we were having a feast and gallons of iced tea. We collected the
clothes and rode down to Albertson's for supplies and another box to send
yet more stuff home in. There were a few bikes in the lot at the market,
three from California and some from New Mexico. Afterwards we returned
to the room where we relaxed, read, packed stuff to ship home and just
hung out. I phoned David and Elana at their temporary home in Wyoming and
found that Elana would definitely have to have surgery in a couple of days.
Dana had planned a route that would have taken us into South Dakota north
of Wyoming but when we heard that the surgery was a sure thing we changed
our route so that we could stop in Gillette to check on our friends. It
was a relaxing evening and this town is ultra-dead at night.
DAY 10 TUESDAY AUGUST 8, 2000 307 2,620 Super 8 Motel Belgrade, MT. $ 61.66 LUNCH Pop's Family Restaurant
Seely Lake, MT.
East US 2 a short way out of Kalispell then south on SR 83 past Salmon Lake; east on SR 200 past Ovando; south SR 141 to Avon; east US 12 through Helena to Townsend; south US 287 to Three Forks; east I-90 to Belgrade. We were up at 8:00 and didn't waste too much time getting out. I
grabbed some coffee for Dana and then while she was showering I phoned
the motel in Custer where David had cancelled his rooms. He asked them
to keep a room for me and they had it available so I reserved it for a
couple of nights. We rolled out at 10:00 and found it was already warm.
We had heard on the news that there were over a dozen major fires in Montana
but no smoke was apparent here. We had been up and down the west side of
Flathead Lake a few times so opted to roll down the eastern route and what
a road that was. After gassing up in Bigfork, the town where Jerry lives
(he was gone and was in Gillette with David,) we cruised a great two-laner
that edged many lakes for a hundred miles. It was the best road yet and
the air was great and the traffic almost nonexistent. We stopped at a post
office in Condon and shipped stuff home with the help of a postmaster who
sounded exactly like Charlie Sheen. I told him this and he mentioned that
Sheen has a house just a few miles away. Towns and services are few and
far between out here but we soon spotted a café with loads of bikes
in the lot so we figured it must be good. It was a smallish place and they
seemed to be overwhelmed by the all-seats-full business they were getting
but the food was worth waiting for. Dana finished eating before I did and
walked over to the casino next door to phone a few motels and cancel reservations
due to our route change. We pulled out and headed along several more lakes
and soon we could see a couple of fires burning in the distant hills. The
skies had been getting increasingly smoky the past hour or so and it was
now apparent that we were in fire country. We pulled into Ovanda, a town
way off the road, for some fuel and the guy was out of premium but we done
okay with the regular. Dana's rear valve cover gasket had been seeping
a little for the past day but since they usually take a month or two to
get bad I had told her not to worry. The gasket decided it was time to
drip now and by the time we reached the Avon interchange her bike was fairly
coated in oil. We stopped to try and call a shop with her cell phone but
the signal was too lousy. We were close to Helena so we jammed into town
to see what we could do. It was close to 4:00 p.m. when we rolled into
town and we stopped at the Circle K and phoned a few shops. One aftermarket
H-D shop was closed for Sturgis, one shop that advertised "we service all
makes" did not do Harleys and Jeff's said it was too late in the day to
mess with it. He invited us down to see if he could do a temporary fix
so we were soon at his shop. Jeff explained that he couldn't do this job
on a hot bike and it takes a couple of hours to cool off. In other words
he wanted to head home which I understand. He phoned the next H-D shop
in Belgrade, 85 miles down the road, and spoke to the service manager there.
I got on the phone and was told that they would be happy to fix The Gurl's
bike if we were first in line when they showed up at 8:00 the next morning,
but he warned me that it would be wise to get in line at their gate at
6:30 since many folks need repairs and are told the same thing. Jeff stuck
a rag under Dana's drip and we rolled towards Belgrade. This caused a slight
problem as Dana had just changed the reservations to stay in Livingston,
35 miles past Belgrade. Now we needed to stop and get a room in Bozeman,
only 10 miles from Belgrade but Dana's reservation was on a 48-hour cancellation
and it was time to show up. We stopped and phoned the hotel in Livingston
but the clerk there said she could not cancel due to our late call and
that the manager would not be in to help until tomorrow. She said the room
may be charged to us. So did we want to take the chance of losing $85 and
stay closer to Belgrade or not risk the money and ride an extra half hour
tonight and tomorrow morning in an oil shower? Just before this I had pulled
up alongside Dana at highway speed and I could actually see a drip of oil
every 10 seconds so it was definitely a mess. We decided to risk the cash
and stay in Bozeman, 25 miles closer. We made another call and secured
a room at Bozeman Super 8. With that taken care of we jumped on the interstate
and fled. As we approached Belgrade, we saw two billboards - one stating
that the Harley shop was at the next exit and one stating that another
Super 8, not listed in the book, was also at the same exit. We were going
to piss off a lot of motel people today but this was too good. We rolled
off the exit and went to the Super 8 which was a half-mile from the H-D
shop. I explained the situation to the clerk and he phoned Bozeman and
got us out of that motel and set us up here. It was hardly 7:00 and this
was a welcome oasis and a fine time to stop. We unpacked and cleaned up.
Dana's pants were soaked with motor oil and her shirt was spotted as well.
We hopped on my bike and went down the road to a nice place for dinner.
The folks were friendly and I had a great pot roast dinner. We cruised
around town and went down by the Harley shop to check the layout. There
isn't much to Belgrade but judging by the new buildings it is growing.
We stopped at Albertson's for snacks and sodas then came back to the room.
We had to do laundry again so Dana set out to do that while I showered.
When I had last spoken to David he told me that Jerry had gone along to
Sturgis and was now suffering from a weird flu or something and had spent
two days in bed. I called him to find that he was feeling better and was
planning to ride back to Gillette tomorrow night so we could visit. I hadn't
been able to get hold of Freddy for several days and I wanted him to know
not to look for anyone in Custer for a few days so I called his girlfriend
Lori's house and left a message for her to have him call when she heard
from him. I went down to finish the laundry for Dana and she came back
and relaxed. I got the stuff into a dryer soon and came back to the room
as well. While there Lori called me back and said that while she has been
hearing from Freddy at least daily she had not heard from him today. He
was staying at the Elk View Campground in Sturgis and if the phone service
there is like other places I have stayed it would be common to be unable
to call sometimes. I assured her he's okay. I told her of Elana's mishap
and the schedule changes and asked her to tell Freddy to get with us in
Custer Friday afternoon. Cool. With that taken care of I fetched the laundry
which was dry around 1:00 a.m. Lori called back a while later and said
she had heard from Freddy and that all was cool and he would meet us Friday.
It was late by now and we just fell asleep in preparation for tomorrow's
early adventure. I noticed over the past couple of days that Dana's throttle
wrist-lock has become an integral part of her hand. It is always in place
and in use and she doesn't spend any time moving and adjusting it anymore.
She says it makes those long stretches at steady speeds easier. Cool!
DAY 11 WEDNESDAY AUGUST 9, 2000 413 3,033 Days Inn Motel Gillette, WY. $ 96.30 BRKFST McDonald's
Belgrade, MT.
I-90 to Gillette, WY. The cell phone was ringing at 3:00 a.m. but I was slow getting to
it and missed the call. I called the voice mailbox to hear Freddy's message
that all was cool and that he'd see us in a few days. We woke up at 6:00
and hurried to get out and ride to the Harley store, arriving at their
gate at 6:30. There was already one guy in line, having his bike parked
across the gate as he slept in a sleeping bag next to it. Some guys you
just can't beat. When Dana was settled in for her wait I rode off to a
nearby truck stop and got her some coffee and myself some chocolate milk.
I grabbed a roll of paper towels and a bottle of Windex as well so she
could start getting the oil off. I returned to see the other guy had awakened.
He lived in a nearby town and was in line for a new tire so that was good
news. Dana cleaned her bike and as my breather had been spraying a little
oil, I too cleaned up my own oily bike. The smoke was so thick here that
you could look right into the rising sun and see only a red circle, not
bright at all. I took a picture of Dana with the red ball above her and
the bike. A few moments later a couple of riders from South Carolina came
in, one with a battery and clutch problem and the other with a malfunctioning
Power Commander add-on fuel-injection module. We all visited for a while
and right at 8:00 the service writer came out and started taking information.
There were three mechanics in attendance so Dana's bike was in the shop
by 8:05 and she had also added a request to change the oils as well and
we were gone a minute later. Since we had a couple of hours to kill we
cruised first to McDonald's and had a couple of cheap breakfasts. Back
at the motel we got things packed up as best we could, Dana hopped in the
shower and we fled the room around 9:40. Back at the shop we found her
bike was just getting down off the rack. We checked out their store and
I bought Dana a souvenir tee shirt. That worked out well as she bought
me one, too. There was an advisory board in the store that warned eastbound
bikers of construction and grooved pavement a bit up the road. The bike
was ready to go a minute later and we jammed back to the motel, packed
everything up and jammed off before 11:00. Not bad timing as we sometimes
don't get out this early on a good day. We ran them up to freeway speeds
and pretty much stayed there for 157 miles, slowing only a few times to
check Dana's bike for spray. It was a solid repair. We soon ran into the
grooved pavement and it lasted for about 20 miles and cleared up at Billings
but it was no problem to ride on. At that first stop we gassed up, had
some sodas and a snack and took off again. Around 2:30 we pulled off the
road to visit Little Big Horn as we had never visited before. Seems that
about 125 years back General Custer brought a couple hundred soldiers to
kick some Indian ass and upon arriving found the whole fam damily waiting
for him. Many morals have come into existence as a result of George Custer's
miscalculation and most apply today. We picked up a Little Big Horn shirt
for Rooster, our favorite H-D parts guy back home, took a good look around,
visited the museum, took a few snaps and headed back out. An hour later
we were approaching Sheridan and I saw a sign for "Taco John's" restaurant.
I had been seeing them for days and they had gotten the best of me since
I had never been to one. So I pulled off and led Dana to lunch. It was
good but like Taco Bell, nothing really ultra-special. I managed to fill
up, though. We fuelled up at the edge of town and I phoned David from the
station telling him I was on the way and would see him soon. I knew Jerry
would be itchin' to take off after his visit so I asked him to keep Jerry
there so I could at least say hi. The weather was great although it was
still so smoky you could only see a mile or two. I know Montana is full
of mountains but we may as well have been in Kansas for all we could see
- road and brown grass. We kept it at 75 all the way into Gillette and
skirted a huge thunderstorm that managed to get a few drops on us but no
more than that. The hotel was jam-packed with bikes and Highway Patrol
cars as it was apparently the lodging place for all the overtime cops at
Sturgis and the area. We got our room, unpacked and jammed on my bike over
to David and Elana's hotel. David and Jerry were out front as Jerry was
chompin' at the bit. He had to get back to Custer for the parties tonight
but he visited for a while before splitting. While in the lot, Elana came
rolling out in her wheelchair, being pushed by her sister Pat, who had
ridden from her home in North Dakota to Custer planning to meet up there.
Pat had ridden her bike over to Gillette with Jerry earlier. Elana had
on a new shirt that Jerry had given her that read, "If you don't limp you
ain't shit!" Despite all the bullshit, Elana was in good spirits. After
Jerry split we went to their room and visited for a while then took off.
Judging from all the stacked up pizza boxes, they had been livin' large.
They had planned the ride where they would be riding their two bikes alone
for two weeks then hook up in Custer with Elana's ex-husband John, his
wife Marie and Elana's son Christopher. John and his crew were trailering
his bike to Custer and once there, John and Marie would split on his bike
leaving Elana with Christopher and the truck and trailer to haul her bike
on the rest of the trip while David finished up on his scooter. It was
a plan with much balance and compromise but it worked out well since John
would be there in a few days with a truck and trailer in which to get Elana
and the bikes home. It didn't seem there was anything we could do to help
the situation so we made plans to jam in the morning. We stopped off at
Smith's on the way back in for some supplies then just hung out in the
room. The lot was still full of bikes but it was very quiet in the area.
We watched TV and wrote out a few post cards. I phoned home to check my
messages and found a message that an old friend had died. It seemed weird
in a third-hand kind of way and I'd eventually find that the info was inaccurate.
DAY 12 THURSDAY AUGUST 10, 2000 232 3,265 Custer Motel Custer, SD. $ 103.68 BRKFST Breakfast Buffet at Days Inn Hotel
Gillette, WY.
East I-90 to Moorecroft; south US 16 to Custer; north US 16 to Rapid City; around town and out to Buck'n Gator; south US 16 to near Keystone then south US 16A (Alt) through Iron Mountain Road to near Custer State Park; U-Turn due to low fuel and lost anyway, back to Keystone; SR 244 to Spring Creek; south US 16 to Custer. We had the slows this morning as I had opted for a morning shower
instead of the customary nighttime shower. While Dana was showering I went
to the lobby and had some of the hotel's "Continental Breakfast" and brought
some coffee up for her. We left the hotel at 10:30 and soon rode past the
crowd at the Harley store just off the freeway. We were only on the Interstate
for 30 miles and exited onto US 16 at Moorecroft. We fuelled up at that
exit at a large and very busy Conoco station that I would later find out
was the very station where Elana had become one with the concrete. The
wind had come way up here and would have been a pain to ride in except
the road we would take from here would head east with the wind. The cowboy
at the gas pumps ahead of us told me of some good cruising roads around
the Black Hills and I thanked him. Off on the two-laners now we rolled
with the wind and enjoyed the warm weather. Dana had seen several large
herd of deer and elk along the road but I was daydreaming and only caught
the last herd she had to point out to me. Around 11:30 we stopped in Upton
for lunch. It was a small town and there wasn't much moving except the
occasional bike cruising through. I don't think the cook was moving either
as it took a while to get our food but once gotten it was fine. After Upton
we began to see a few more bikes and by the time we got to Newcastle there
was the typical Sturgis spill-over. Dana was hot and thirsty and I was
falling asleep so we stopped for a couple of roadside sodas. The wind had
died down here also. A short time later we entered Custer which had built
up a lot since our last visit five years earlier. We made a beeline for
the motel and had to wait fifteen minutes for the manager to show up before
we could check in. We got a room two doors down from the room we had the
last time and got in, cranked on the air conditioner and relaxed for a
bit. There were hundreds of bikes cruising back and forth and all around
town. The motels were doing a very brisk motorcycle business as well. We
didn't waste much time getting back out, cruising through town and on over
to Rapid City. Our first stop was at the Harley store there where I found
stuff to buy. The vendor areas at the shop were way bigger than the last
time and it was quite a crowd. After that we cruised through to the other
side of town to the Buck 'n Gator, a bar where Dana had wanted to stop
and meet some of the folks on the Harley newsgroup she frequents on the
Net. They had arranged and advertised a 6:00 p.m. "eyeball" for the folks
to get together. It was pretty easy to find and there was a small group
of a dozen or so e-bikers there and the group was growing steadily. We
had a beer inside then went out to the patio where she spoke to a few of
the folks she had previously only known from the computer screen. I saw
a few folks I had communicated with on the Digest but in watching the interaction,
it seemed that there were a handful of major players and if you were not
one of them or someone already well-known to them, then there was not much
interest in your presence. I just kinda hung back until Dana was ready
to leave and we jammed through town and had a great Chinese dinner at a
place I have eaten at a few other times since the 45th Sturgis. It was
a pretty good dinner with a good crowd. As Dana is in constant and continual
need of sunglasses and assorted related paraphernalia, we then cruised
to the Rushmore Mall and visited the Sunglass Hut. I got lost trying to
get us there but a stray cop set me straight. On the way back to Custer
I got us lost once again on the Iron Mountain Road. I took a wrong turn
and ended up seeing the greatest sight of the trip; I saw Mount Rushmore
get lit up after dark, framed through one of the dozen narrow tunnels along
the way. This is an extra-twisty road with an actual "corkscrew" at the
beginning and the tunnels are too small for even a small motorhome to pass
through. About every third tunnel had a framed view of Rushmore and it
was just grand. But we had not fuelled up and I didn't know where we were
so we stopped at a pullout where a truck full of country boys were partying.
I got my map out and with the homeboys I found that it would be wise to
turn back and get gas. It was after 10:00 by now anyway so we rolled back
down the road, getting to see the lit-up Mount Rushmore from other angles
this time and were soon in Keystone gassing up. It struck me at this time
that the road we had just accidentally found was the road the cowpoke at
this morning's gas stop in Moorecroft had told me about. It is also a road
I have always wondered about as I have seen numerous photos in magazines
of guys on bikes in the tunnels with Mount Rushmore in the background.
And I wondered, too, how in hell is it that I have been to this area on
three previous occasions, and have spent countless hours at what I figured
were all the tourist spots and cool roads and never found this place before?
We were glad to have been lost this evening. And it wasn't even cold yet.
After fuelling we took the other road back to Custer and rolled into town
at 11:00 p.m. It had cooled off on the way in but never got cold enough
for more than a sweatshirt. We cruised town but the only thing open were
the bars so there was little to do. We stopped at the mini-mart at the
west end of town and picked up some bike post cards and snacks then hit
the room and stayed in. The lot was packed with bikes but it was quiet
in town.
DAY 13 FRIDAY AUGUST 11, 2000 148 3,413 Custer Motel Custer, SD. $ 103.68 LUNCH Rapid City Chamber of Commerce Tent
Rapid City, SD. (Convention Center)
North US 16 to Hill City; north US 385 to Deadwood; east US 14A (Alt) to Sturgis; around town then east I-90 to Exit #46; east Sturgis Road and Business I-90 into Rapid City; around town; south US 16 to Reptile Gardens then on to Custer. We were to get an early start to Sturgis to avoid the later crowds
so we had set the alarm for 6:30. Somehow I woke up fifteen minutes before
the alarm went off. I walked across to the Chief Café to get Dana's
coffee and then watched a full episode of ChiPS while she showered and
got ready. We were out at 8:15 and it was already warm. John, Elana's ex,
and his wife Marie had arrived last night sometime and found us by our
bikes as we were ready to leave for the day. They had thankfully had an
uneventful trip and were set up in the same motel for a few days. We spoke
for a few minutes and then Dana and I split. We took the hilly back roads
out through Hill City, Lead and Deadwood because these roads would be unbearably
crowded in a few hours and we wouldn't want to explore them later. The
road was great and there were loads of bikes heading in the opposite direction.
Deadwood was starting to get heavy in the traffic department and it was
downright hot by the time we reached Sturgis at 10:00. It was already very
crowded and there were many more vendors set up than I had ever seen before.
Not only was Main Street so tightly packed with temporary vendor areas
that there was no room to squeeze between them, but the next street over,
the I-90 Business Loop, was packed as well. We parked up by the courthouse
a block from the main strip. The City had displayed a totaled Camaro at
the courthouse with pictures and a story of the young, local, recent graduate
that had tried to drive it home one night while drunk, along with pictures
of his young widowed wife and baby. Bummer. We walked the loop and then
came back up Main Street, buying the requisite post cards and stuff. I
picked up a cool Sturgis scarf for The Gurl and grabbed an official H-D
Sturgis shirt for David since he was still vacationing in Gillette and
would not make this one. I had picked up a Sturgis coin for Elana yesterday
as well. We went through a few sodas and waters at it was steaming out
here and we walked through several more shops and booths. We figured it
would be wise to head out before things got jammed up so we went back to
the bikes and took the side streets out of town. There was much congestion
up by the freeway but we slid through and were on our way back to Rapid
City. The freeway came to a halt when a motorhome caught on fire so we
exited and took a side road into town, but of course it got jammed up,
too. Once in town we found that traffic was very crappy going towards the
Convention Center where the H.O.G. Headquarters was, so we done a U-turn
and jammed around it. At the H.O.G. center we took a break and walked around
checking things out. Inside the member Hospitality Room we found that Dana's
winning Ladies of Harley "Motorcycling Memories" story had been printed
on a large board and was on display with other winning stories. I took
her picture by the story board which also had her picture. Cool. This was
the third time we have seen her stories displayed at H.O.G. functions.
We picked up our event pins there and walked outside to the vendor corral
looking for stuff to eat. There was an indoor food court but we had missed
it. Upon arriving a couple of folks in the lot had told us to have some
"hot mamas" at the booth outside. We found the food booth attended by the
local chamber of commerce and had a couple of these hot sausage sandwiches.
They were pretty fine. It was starting to cloud up over the mountains by
the time we fled and we just headed back through town towards Custer. We
found an empty gas station up the road and fuelled up. On the way back
in we had some extra time so we stopped at the Reptile Gardens, a place
we have passed dozens of time. We spent a couple of hours there looking
at all kinds of snakes and lizards, bugs, birds, even an eagle, and all
kinds of stuff. It was a cool stop. Dana bought me a cool hippo and a toothpick
holder, too. We could hear the thunder as we watched the storms pass a
few miles off but all we got were a few sprinkles. We avoided the crowds
at Keystone by slipping back through Hill City and were back in Custer
by 4:30. We stopped at Lynn's market for supplies and went to the room
and kicked back. I called David in Gillette to see how Elana's leg surgery
went but he was not in. I left a message. We hung out waiting for Freddy
and his crew to show up for dinner at 6:00 but it was getting close and
I really didn't expect him. I walked over to John's room and talked with
him and Marie for a bit. They had gotten rid of their truck when they hooked
up with David and Elana and now had only their bike and miles of fun ahead.
They had dropped off Christopher as well so were free for a couple of weeks.
Their plan was to leave Sturgis to the north, cut over into Montana and
run up through Canada. They would be taking mine and Dana's route in reverse.
They had also tried calling David with no answer. Dana walked over a while
later and said Freddy had neither called nor shown up and I was getting
hungry. At 6:45 we decided not to wait and walked across to the Chief Restaurant
for dinner. During my previous trips to the area I had eaten buffalo meatballs,
buffalo stew, buffalo spaghetti sauce and similar ground buffalo meals
but had never eaten a plain buffalo steak. I had heard they were tough,
gnarly, had a gamy taste, etc. I ordered a buffalo steak tonight and found
it to be as tasty and tender as a fine chunk of prime rib. And it was BIG,
too! I'll have it again. Dana missed out by having some kind of taco salad
with regular ol' cow meat. After dinner we walked down to the east
end of town where the City of Custer has its own little Sturgis-style happening.
It was fairly packed with four rows of bikes, a bunch of shops and cafes,
etc. We strolled through a couple of places and walked back to the room.
We could see a lot of lightning to the south but it didn't seem to be approaching.
We sat on the bench in front of the motel for a half hour and watched the
light shows. I went to the room and phoned John and found he had heard
from David. Elana's surgery went well but the pain was so bad afterward
that they kept her in the hospital at least for one night. I phoned David
again but Christopher answered and said David was out for a moment so I
just left a note. Dana and I walked up to the Exxon and bought a bag of
ice for the cooler as the motel's ice machine was too overworked to have
anything. On the way back we saw that the "Purple Ice Cream Place" was
still open at 10:00 but we couldn't stop as the ice would melt so we walked
back to the room, put it away and walked back for some ice cream sundaes.
They were good. We sat for a while and then walked back to the room and
just hung out and stayed lazy. There are lots of "vacancy" signs around
town tonight and most of the bikes are gone from the motel and the others
we passed.
DAY 14 SATURDAY AUGUST 12, 2000 274 3,687 Motel 6 Cheyenne, WY. $ 55.63 LUNCH Nelson's Restaurant
Edgemont, SD. (at travel/truck stop)
South US 385 to Pringle; south SR 89 to Minnekahta Junction; west US 18 through Edgemont to Mule Creek Junction; south US 85 to near Cheyenne; south I-25 to Cheyenne. Time to start the trip towards home. We have a week left but don't
want to rush. We have no route planned. I just figured we'd head south
since there is a lot in Colorado we have not seen yet. Also Speed Week
at the Bonneville Salt Flats started yesterday and some of our friends
are there with a hot-rod Sportster. We like Wendover and it's on the way
home. Then there is Monument Valley down in Utah and Arizona and we have
yet to visit that, but we have been in that general area twice in the last
year so we'll skip that. We got up at 8:30, I packed a box to mail home
then ran over to the Chief to get Dana's coffee . We started packing around
10:00. John and Marie walked over on their way to breakfast and we yakked
for a few minutes. It was already hot when Dana and I cruised down to the
east end of town to pick up a couple more souvenirs. We rode to the post
office to mail the box home, too, and as I was parking I heard a slight
scraping sound from my front end. Probably brakes or bearings - if it is
bearings I'd hear a lot more soon. I peeked down between the calipers and
the rotors and didn't see a lot of thick brake pad so that must be it.
I hoped at the time that the shop in Cheyenne would be open on it's days
off due to the rally. We rolled back through town at 11:00 and saw John
and Marie walking back to the motel. We honked goodbye to them and headed
south. The roads were pretty deserted here as we took a slower out-of-the-way
route. It was nice, quiet cruising for a change. In less than an hour we
stopped for lunch at Edgemont as there was not too much else after that.
There were several bikes coming and going here but it was the quietest
place we'd seen a while. Lunch was decent and we were soon cruising again.
When we hit the crossroads and headed south on US 85 we saw that this was
the more popular route for the fleeing bikers. There were hundreds of bikes
leaving the Black Hills and most of the bikes passing us had plates from
Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. It was breezy but warm. At Lusk we stopped
for gas and the two stations were jam-packed with bikes. We grabbed some
sodas while there and hit the road once more. A lot of the folks must have
left Lusk west on US 20 heading for the faster freeway because traffic
thinned out considerably for us on 85. There were still packs of bikes
but less than a quarter of the earlier crowd. It was easy sailing and I
was glad to be out of traffic where I didn't have to rely a lot on my front
brakes. Dana was getting sleepy so we stopped for a break on the roadside
past Torrington then done a fast burn he last 60 miles to Cheyenne. We
hit town at 4:50 and I was hoping to be able to buy some brake pads and
put them on myself but the shop had moved and although we had the address,
we went up Lincolnway the wrong direction and never found the shop. We
did, however, know where the motel was and were soon checked in and unpacked.
In the lot I had Dana look at my brakes as she has a sharp eye - she said
that yes, there seemed to be material on the pad steels but it was about
as thick as a piece of paper. Dana decided to do laundry again so I hopped
in the shower so she'd have all my dirties and we soon had fresh clothes.
I had been hearing weather reports of thunderstorms on the way over Cheyenne
and it had clouded up a lot in the past few hours but they never developed.
We hopped on my bike and rolled all the way out Lincolnway and finally
found the Harley store which was closed and was also closed the next day,
Sturgis or not. We were in need of some food as well and as we cruised
around we saw a place that looked good and stopped in and had a great,
HUGE Mexican dinner at a decent price. The base price for a plate with
a taco, enchilada, burrito and a chile relleno was $ 6.95. Of course the
extras we ate added up in a hurry. After that we walked over to the Econofoods
for snacks and stuff then rode back to the room. I called Beeg Lou back
home to see what was up and he says all is normal. I phoned David in Gillette
and he told me that the doctors had suggested Elana stay in town for another
week as a second surgery may be needed to fix some tendons or muscles or
something. What a vacation.
DAY 15 SUNDAY AUGUST 13, 2000 232 3,919 Super 8 Motel Steamboat Springs, CO. $ 87.71 BRKFST H-D / HOG Free Hot Dog Booth
Fort Collins, CO.
South I-25 to Fort Collins and Loveland; west US 34 through Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park to Granby; west US 40 to Steamboat Springs. Today was a fun and lucky day. We were up at 8:30, slowly got ready,
fuelled up next door and hit the freeway at 10:25. It was fairly warm already
and a bit breezy with plenty of bikes on the road heading south. I saw
several antelope in the fields along the way. An hour later and quite unexpectedly
we saw Fort Collins Harley-Davidson right off the freeway, open on Sunday
with an open service department. We pulled in to a crowded lot half-expecting
the service department to be too busy to mess with my bike but when I asked
about brake pads the guy said they could get right on it. I also asked
that they change all the oils and that was fine, too. I bought Dana a chrome
eyelid for her bike as her light glares on the inside of her windshield
at night and was a nuisance. We installed that in the lot with much sweating
and cussing as none of the screwdrivers we had would cop the screw properly
without removing the windshield, which was out of the question. We finally
finessed the thing on, got it tightened up then went to the HOG tent where
they were handing out free hot dogs and drinks. I loaded up on freebies
but left a big tip then went in to shop around some more, picking up a
Fort Collins tee shirt for my friend David Collins back in England. There
were a pair of bikini-clad gals doing bike washes in the lot as well and
the guys were starting to line up. My bike was done in less than an hour
and we jammed out of there feeling lucky to have found a shop catering
to the Sturgis crowd. We soon pulled off the freeway and headed for the
mountains which blocked the wind for us. I had been reading about Estes
Park and Steamboat Springs, Colorado, for years and I know it is a popular
spot for bike rallies and other such functions but I had never been in
this area despite passing nearby on many trips. This seemed like a fine
time to finally visit and we were soon well off the freeway, out of town
and cruising on a twisty road through a narrow, rock-walled canyon that
followed a small river. The traffic was fairly heavy in a touristy way
but it was never too slow except for behind a couple of slow-moving RVs
that would not use the pullouts. We began climbing out of the canyon and
were soon approaching Estes Park where we could see a dark thunderstorm
coming our way. We needed a break anyway so we pulled over at a small shopping
center, bought a couple of Gatorades and sat on a bench under the overhang
and watched the storm. It rained but never got too heavy. We walked over
to the hardware store looking for a short, thin Phillips screwdriver that
Dana could add to her toolkit since we had such a shit time getting her
headlamp ring off for the new eyelid. They had no such tool but I did find
a cool Taz padlock for her collection. It was still raining so we stopped
at the small bar and coffee shop next door and had a snack. The rain had
subsided by the time we finished so we mounted up and headed through the
business/shopping/tourist part of town that was so crowded with shoppers
that the pedestrians ruled and autos and bikes were moving like snails.
Moments later we were paying at the gate and entering the Rocky Mountain
National Park. This place was a terrific ride with great scenery, critters
alongside the roads, twisty roads and mountaintop views. We rode, stopped,
looked, pulled over at pullouts, looked, and rode some more all through
here. We saw a huge elk in one roadside meadow. It had been increasingly
cooler as we climbed and just upon approaching the 12,000' summit it began
to rain. We were actually looking down onto nearby snowdrifts but it didn't
seem to be freezing even at the top. Dana had her leathers on and I had
put my sweatshirt on a few minutes earlier and we could see blue skies
ahead so we continued without raingear and about an hour later were halfway
down the other side of the mountains and much warmer, even at 7,000'. The
rain was lessening and before long it was dry. There were a few places
where tourists had stopped to look at animals and Dana saw a bear at one
such spot. We stopped at Grand Lake for a pit stop and sodas and I let
my shirt dry for a while. We went ahead to Granby for fuel then hit the
road for the last 60-mile leg of the day. There was little traffic after
this stop but I could see a couple of heavy, dark storms moving across
in front of us in the distance. These looked bad. I had hit a large bee
some miles back and he was still crawling around the fairing, burrowing
in the recesses of my radio, refusing to fly off or die so I had to stop
and let him off in the grass where he could possibly recover and get on
home. Every time it looked as if we would head into the storms the road
would crest then zig or zag away from the rain and keep us dry. We began
climbing again and at the top of Rabbit Ears Pass the wind was howling
and carrying on. We got a few drops from the storm just minutes before
pulling into Steamboat Springs at 7:00 p.m. and I was happy to see our
motel was way out on the highway and was the first thing we saw as we rolled
into town. As we were unpacking, I noticed that my cool leather cupholder
and huge cup were missing from the saddlebag rails where it has been mounted
since the day I bought the bike. Damn! I have owned that since my first
dresser back in '88 and it has been a part of the other four dressers as
well. Some butthole must have stolen it since it could not have simply
fallen off without a lot of racket. Double- Damn!!! Then Dana, the ever-so-smart
half of the family, simply said, "It's at Fort Collins Harley." That made
sense and I was hoping she was right and that the mechanic earlier had
forgotten to replace it after fixing the bike. It would not have made sense
but I had seen him remove the saddlebags and questioned this and he needed
access to use his tie-downs on the bench without messing up the saddlebags
and, I guess, my cool, cool cupholder. But it was too late to check so
I'd do that tomorrow. We unpacked, checked in, went to the room and relaxed
for a bit. I had seen a free shuttle turn around in the driveway when we
arrived and the desk guy said the free buses run every twenty minutes.
We decided just to bus it to town and look around for dinner and a few
minutes later we were on the way. As we were leaving there was a group
of a dozen or more bikers from California unpacking for their stay at the
motel. The bus took a circuitous route up around the ski resort area and
finally dropped us off downtown. We walked down one side of the half-mile
business concentrate and back up the other side, finding a good many prospective
eateries but somehow decided on this small, nondescript place with a plain
narrow doorway entrance in the middle of a large old building. Once inside
we found it to be a very nice but casual café and bar but it had
a separate closed-off fancy dining room to one side. Something for everyone.
The dinner was good and I had a Black Forest Hunters Stew which had not
only chicken and beef, but deer meat as well. Dana had jambalaya that was
also terrific. We had about a gallon of iced tea, too. When dinner was
over we considered a movie at the small theater up the road but decided
against it as the buses run every hour after a certain time and we didn't
want to be sitting here for an hour at midnight. As it was, our bus had
split its schedule and we had to wait 40 minutes for the next one. We had
entertainment in the form of a gnarly, talkative skater kid about 21 years
old who had been living in town for the past few years after fleeing his
farm life in Iowa. He worked two restaurant jobs in town and was eager
to tell us of his exploits, jobs, friends, etc. The bus came around 10:05
and let us off at the motel around 10:30. It was very quiet, calm and still
pretty warm out at this end of town and the sky had cleared quite a bit.
I grabbed a couple of snacks from the vending machine and we hung out and
had a very quiet, relaxing night.
DAY 16 MONDAY AUGUST 14, 2000 185 4,104 Motel 6 Vernal, UT. $ 62.01 BRKFST Village Inn
Craig, CO.
West US 40 to Vernal. I had somehow messed up the alarm clock at the motel and it didn't
wake us up but Dana woke up early anyway. I was up at 8:30 after hearing
her messing around and I went to the office to get her some coffee. Instead
of a continental breakfast, this place had a "toast bar" with bread, bagels,
English muffins, a few toasters and some condiments but the crumbs were
just getting picked clean by the bikers that had arrived late the day before.
I grabbed a couple of OJs as that was all that was left. Back at the room
I phoned the Harley shop in Fort Collins and sure enough they had my cup
and holder and said they'd mail it to me today. He also promised to beat
the mechanic severely but I told him that wasn't necessary. While I was
carrying my first load out to the bike I spoke to a couple of the other
biker folks and found they were from areas near my house like Petaluma,
Santa Rosa and Lake County. The ones that Dana spoke with later said they'd
be heading north to Green River, Wyoming before turning west towards home.
We left the motel around 10:00. It was warm standing in the sun but a little
cooler while rolling but a tee shirt was all I needed. We passed through
town again and were soon out cruising the country two-laner. We had looked
at the map prior to leaving and found there is not too much between Steamboat
Springs and Vernal, Utah, tonight's planned stop so we stopped in for breakfast
at Craig, which was a little early to eat but the only real town showing
on the map. A couple of local riders were pulling up as we were locking
up and spoke with us for a moment. We had some good food, backtracked a
couple of blocks for gas then hit the road just before 1:00. We cruised
for a while then stopped at a summit for some sodas and a break. There
was very little traffic on this road but that didn't keep a couple of cops
in cool Camaro cop cars from setting up a radar trap way out in the middle
of nowhere. We saw another huge thunderstorm in front of us but the road
was a nice one and kept curving away from it. I saw a turnoff for the Dinosaur
National Monument and pulled off thinking this was the place Dana wanted
to visit but it was the wrong entrance so we turned around in the lot and
continued. The storm was blowing towards us here but once on the road we
got out of its way. Another half hour up the road we were at the turnoff
for the Quarry Site of the dinosaur park so we jammed up to that part of
the park for a visit. From the lot, a small tram takes the visitor up the
hill to the quarry site. It was a very interesting place to see - 150 million
years ago the dinosaurs were dying off and the many in this area floated
downstream in the floods where their hundreds of bodies became a huge dam,
all clogged up and tangled together. The water later stopped, the sand
and dirt clogged up into all the skeletons that had remained and then over
the years all this stuff fossilized into a flat boneyard. Later the earth
buckled and shot the once-flat fossil bed up into a 45-degree angle and
what is now left on display is an upright wall with hundreds of bones sticking
out of it, some of which are still pretty much in their original skeletal
configuration, showing the basic shapes of these creatures. Cool. We bought
some postcards at the shop here and I bought this little dinosaur skeleton
model Dana wanted to put together. We left the park but stopped at the
small outpost a mile from the entrance for a break. We had Hawaiian shave-ice
cups and in the store I bought a cool dinosaur tee-shirt for Dana. She
has been into dinosaurs since she was a kid and the interest for these
old animals is still with her. There is a huge model of a long dinosaur
in the parking lot so we had parked our bikes next to it and Dana crawled
on top of the model for a couple of pictures. As we approached Vernal we
could see the large forest fire smoking up in the nearby hills. The news
had said there were about 40 major fires going on in the western half of
the US this week and that Utah was the site of a few. We were in Vernal
less than a half hour later, just at 5:00, and after running through a
lot of in-town road construction we arrived at the hotel and checked in.
We had stayed out of the rain all day and we'd had an easy, short day as
well. When unpacking I saw that there was a Golden Corral (another favorite)
in the same lot and a supermarket just a few yards away so I knew we were
in the right spot and would not have to use the bike anymore today. We
later walked over for a typically good buffet dinner at the Golden Corral
(I wish they had these places near my home, but then I guess if they did,
I'd not enjoy them so much when I'm cruising the southwest.) There was
quite a crowd and some of the hundreds of firefighters that had been brought
in to help in fighting the many fires in the state were dining here as
well. After dinner we walked over to Smith's for sodas and supplies and
then headed back to the room. We turned on the TV and somehow got interested
in a Disney movie, Smart House, about some kid that won a contest that
netted his family a house full of electronic and robotic things that turned
against them. A while later Freddy called to say he had missed us for dinner
in Sturgis because a last-minute thunderstorm had thwarted their progress
and also to tell me he was already home! His original plan was to head
up to Canada after Sturgis and take the following week to get home but
after all the fun he'd had in Sturgis and after a couple of calls from
home indicating he was needed to help his brother move, he just packed
up and trailered home with the guys he'd come up with. So all was cool
with Freddy and his crew. Dana and I just stayed in and relaxed this evening.
This was another quiet and sleepy town.
DAY 17 TUESDAY AUGUST 15, 2000 272 4,376 Best Western Motor Inn Delta, UT. $ 61.04 LUNCH A&W / KFC
Price, UT.
West US 40 to Duchesne; south US 191 to Price; west US 6 to Spanish Fork; south I-15 / US 6 to Santaquin; west US 6 to Delta. I awoke at 8:30 and it was already nice and warm outside. As I was
packing the bike I spoke with a couple of Goldwingers in the lot. They
had ridden in from the west yesterday and warned me on a long, obnoxious
stretch of fresh asphalt with fresh oil that got all over their bikes but
they couldn't remember if it was on this side or the other of Duchesne,
my planned turnoff. As we were leaving the lobby to depart one of the employees,
a woman who lived in the area, also warned us of impending doom in the
form of a very oily chipsealing project which she stated had gotten oil
all over a bunch of bikes coming in from the west. She also didn't remember
where on the road it was. We fuelled up across the street and cruised to
the end of town where we saw the Harley shop. I had planned to cruise past
but I somehow had to stop. I didn't need anything, just stopped. We looked
around a bit and as we were leaving we were corralled by another rider
and one of the employees who walked us out and talked about our trip. The
employee said to watch out for the fresh oil to the west as it had gotten
all over his bike yesterday. He said it had gotten all over a lot of bikes
yesterday and everyone was complaining about it. He, too, however, was
unable to tell us if it was before our turnoff or not. As we got to our
bikes we met this family of four from West Covina vacationing in their
car. They had two Harleys at home but had opted for a Sturgis-By-Car trip
and had been having a blast. Onward we jammed, back onto two-lane roads
but with a bit more traffic than yesterday. There were few motorcycles
to be seen along the route today. There were several construction zones
along US 40 before we got to Duchesne but only one was fresh, and the oil,
which looked to have been sprayed yesterday, was well covered with gravel
and was not soaking through much. We simply stayed to the right and kept
it slow, pulling over for cars behind us to pass, and made it through without
any oily mess or chips from gravel, although I heard a few pebbles kicked
up by other cars ping on the bike. By the time we hit Duchesne we were
considering some food but we just weren't that hungry and nothing jumped
out at us as a place we needed to stop so we turned off onto US 191. This
stretch of 191 cruises through Indian Canyon before jamming over the 9,100'
summit about half way to Helper. There was very little traffic through
here but quite a few cars and a few bikes caught up to us when we were
stopped at a construction zone near the summit for about 15 minutes. This
road is a great lonely and scenic ride. We were soon at the crossroads
where a right turn would take us along to Provo where we wanted to go but
we wanted some food now so we turned left and a few moments later were
in Price. We took the business loop and I saw an A&W so we pulled in
for lunch. There was a nasty-looking storm approaching from the west but
we managed to get out of town before it hit. As usual, we played tag with
the storm as our road zigged and zagged, however at one point it looked
inevitable that we'd run headlong into the rain. We pulled over ahead of
time, which is unusual for us, and pulled on our raingear and continued.
In less than four minutes we were in a downpour that lasted almost all
the way to Provo. We took a break at the gas stop in Provo, had a soda
and spoke with a couple from Madison, Wisconsin, who had shipped their
bike to Salt Lake City. They said they had been riding the area in the
thunderstorms for five days. It was dry now but the dark storm that had
passed left room for another we saw to the east so we kept our rain stuff
on and took off. By the time we exited the freeway and got to Goshen I
was smoldering so I stopped and took off the top half of the suit. About
15 minutes later we had climbed some mountains and it was again a sure
bet that we'd get wet, so we pulled over and I buttoned up and just two
minutes later we got hit HARD by some pouring down rain. This rain lasted
about 25 minutes and after we dropped down the other side of the hill the
storm had passed and it was bright and warm. We stopped and got rid of
the plastic as there was not a cloud left in our path. There was a short
wait at another flag station while some sweepers took off new gravel from
today's chipsealing and we had to ride through a bit of gravel again. It
wasn't so bad and was only three miles worth and we were soon back along
the flats on a fine two-later, just 40 miles from Delta, our planned stop.
We soon pulled into Delta and were pleased as hell that our motel was the
first thing we saw and there was café right next door AND there
was a small theater in the next lot where Space Cowboys was playing. Another
couple on a bike rolled in at the same time we did and I recognized them
as some folks we had leap-frogged a few times since Provo. We checked in
and Dana called the theater and found we had an hour to get cleaned up,
have dinner and get to the movie before it started. We walked over and
had a dinner of soup, salad and sandwiches because we figured that wouldn't
hold us up. We made it to the theater with time to spare, grabbed some
soda and popcorn and relaxed. The movie was a goodie and is one we wanted
to see so this was a good stop. We could see lightning storms in the distance
upon leaving the movies and stood and watched them for a bit. It was still
warm but the wind had come up a little. We rode into town afterwards and
picked up some sodas for tomorrow and other stuff. We were back in the
room at 9:45. We relaxed a lot and I filled out a few postcards and watched
a bit of TV.
DAY 18 WEDNESDAY AUGUST 16, 2000 331 4,705 Best Western Desert Inn, Tonopah, NV. $ 75.21 LUNCH Silver State Restaurant
Ely, NV.
West US 6 to Tonopah. We got up at 8:00, moped around and slowly got ready to leave. I
got Dana some coffee from the office and packed the bike. It was warm as
we pulled out at 10:00. We gassed up next door and hit the long, flat,
straight road out of town. For the first fifty miles it is mostly sand
with a few short bushes. There was very little traffic or activity out
here. We stopped about 33 miles from the Nevada line to take some pics
with Notch Peak as a background. We hit the Nevada line at noon and stopped
to put on our helmets. We gained an hour here due to the time line. About
an hour later we pulled into Ely, got gas then cruised to the west end
of town for a great lunch at a place we had enjoyed before. I had a weird
sandwich called a "Golden Gate Grill." While dining I ran into the crew
for a hot rod car sponsored by Orange County Harley-Davidson. They had
been to the Bonneville Salt Flats running the car for the Speed Week and
I checked it out in the lot. Cool ride. We left town at 1:20 and took a
route we had not ridden before, finding it to be a two-lane, mostly flat
road with a lot of sagebrush and scrub much like US 50 which leaves Ely
in the other direction. There were four thunderstorms to deal with during
the next 120 non-stop miles but as it had before, our luck held out and
we were steered away from each storm by a curve in the road at the last
minute. We took a pit stop at Warm Springs, a ghost town at a crossroads
that we had encountered when coming in from the other direction a few months
ago. Just over the hill from Warm Springs we were met by a huge thunderstorm
about ten miles ahead, moving slowly across the highway in front of us.
There was a lot of lightning and heavy rain was evident. The interesting
thing was that it had a clear spot between two heavy, dark storms and this
clear spot looked as if it would be across the road in about ten minutes.
We stopped at the roadside and discussed putting on our raingear but opted
just to go for it. The plan was to tool along slowly while allowing the
clear spot to situate itself over the road and we would then jam through
the dry spot, missing most of the rain. As they say, the plan looked good
on paper. So we cruised slowly into the storm. Dana had counted the seconds
between lightning and thunder sounding first at 14 seconds then later at
8 seconds so we were pretty well off. But damn….. as we approached, it
was evident that the clear dry spot was not going to line up with our road
and we were pretty much into the mess by then so I told Dana we'd just
haul ass through it. And we did. There was a little rain at first, about
like the other two storms we had jammed through but within a minute, ka-BLAM!!!
We may as well have been riding through a lake. It was the heaviest, windiest,
stormingest downpour we had ever been in and the lightning was crashing
so close by that the thunder was booming less than a second after the lightning.
It was so loud that it shook the bikes. I was having a real hard time seeing
anything through the rain so I slowed to about 40, kept one eye on the
road ahead and one eye on Dana in the mirror. She seemed to be doing well
and there was no shoulder to pull off on due to recent grading so I just
cruised on. After three or four minutes the rain lessened and visibility
was good. I could see clear skies ahead so I ran it up to 70 and got the
heck out of there. A few minutes later we were under a clear sky with the
thunder crashing behind us. We slowed to a comfortable pace and rolled
the remaining six miles into Tonopah. We were pretty sell soaked and Dana's
boots were full of water. Dana had arranged a motel already and it was
right there as we entered town. We checked in, unpacked and hung up our
wet clothes. Dana got a newspaper at the desk to wad up and stuff into
her boots as this works wonders on wet footwear. At 6:00 we had rested
up for a bit and we walked down through the business district looking for
dinner. There were only a few restaurants listed in the book and we were
able to find just one so we stopped there. It was a nice old place with
good food. We walked around a little after then headed back to the room.
I needed some stuff at the store so we hopped on my bike and went up to
Scolari's for supplies and snacks. By 7:00 we were back in the room hanging
out and relaxing. I walked out several times tonight and saw that there
were plenty of thunderstorms in the distance. It drizzled a bit around
8:00 p.m. but otherwise it was a nice quiet night.
DAY 19 THURSDAY AUGUST 17, 2000 265 4,972 Best Western Sonora Oaks Sonora, CA. $ 90.72 BRKFST Breakfast Bar at Hotel
Tonopah, NV.
West US 6 to Benton, CA.; west SR 120 to Lee Vining; north US 395 through Bridgeport and up to Devil's Gate Summit; west SR 108 to Sonora. For some reason we woke at 7:30 and while Dana was showering I was
having a Continental Breakfast down the hall then went out and cleaned
our windshields. Spotted bikes indicated it had rained more during the
night. Dana's boots were dry and the clothes we had hung up on the warm
swinging lamp in front of the air fan were also dry. We had the slows as
usual and we watched "Holy Matrimony" on TV and finally fled the motel
at 10:30. We gassed up at the edge of town then headed out into the warm
desert. Traffic was moderate until we split off onto US 6 and then it thinned
out quite a bit. We crossed into California at noon and a few minutes later
turned off onto a cool stretch of 120 we had never been on. This twisty
mountain meadow road with loads of dips and great scenery took us to an
8,100' summit where we got a few sprinkles at the edge of a small storm
then dropped us down to the edge of Mono Lake. We had rolled non-stop for
138 miles when we stopped at Lee Vining for gas. Dana had earlier said
she wanted to cruise 108 over the hills to Sonora but now said she wanted
to go through Yosemite instead. At the gas stop we spoke to a guy who had
just talked to a tow driver that had returned from Yosemite. The driver
had told this guy that Yosemite traffic was "bumper-to-bumper and the worst
he'd ever seen it." We talked about this for a minute and decided to head
north a little to avoid the mess. We cruised up to Bridgeport, arriving
a half hour later and stopped for lunch at a place we had tried a few months
back. Their split pea soup was almost as good as Andersen's. We departed
town and were immediately stuck at a construction stoppage but it was only
for 15 minutes. A few moments later we turned off onto the road to Sonora
Pass. It is always a favorite and the trip through was pretty normal. We
cruised slowly and found the campgrounds busier than usual. It was cooler
at the summit but not bad at all. I lost Dana in my mirror at the bottom
of the hill and waited to see her pulling to the shoulder. I got off to
find that I had to play medic or mortician to a dragonfly that had gotten
stuck in her throttle cables. He appeared stunned and jammed up but he
grabbed on to a twig I used to get him out so he was probably okay after
we set him in the grass. We stopped at the pullout which views East Flange
Rock and took a soda break then also stopped at the rest area that overlooks
Donnell Lake but we didn't even dismount, just cruised through. We got
into Sonora at 5:00 to experience their version of rush hour which was
impressive as I had no idea there were so many wild drivers in a hurry
in this mountain town. We got to the motel, unpacked and cooled off in
the room for a while. It was pretty hot here and the desk guy said it has
been over 100° for over a week and has broken several records as well.
We have a few favorite eateries in town but wanted to try something different.
We got the Yellow Pages and the Weekend paper and Dana rattled off info
and descriptions until we settled on an Italian place that sounded interesting.
We cruised on my bike to dinner and found the café to serve huge
helpings of good stuff. I had ten large shrimp in my pasta while other
places usually give about six. Tasty, too. We walked around the shopping
center after dinner and stopped in Albertson's to get road sodas and stuff.
We cruised straight back to the room around 8:00 and just stayed in and
chilled.
DAY 20 FRIDAY AUGUST 18, 2000 141 5,113 LUNCH Denny's
Stockton, CA.
West SR 49 to Angels Camp; west SR 4 to Hercules; west I-80 to home. The roads between Sonora and Angels Camp are short but some of the best, and most of the remainder of the road home is pretty and relaxing as well, but it never seems to matter because when I'm on it all I think about is how this is the last few hours out. That's how it was today, just a blah ride home with anticipation of the horrible traffic once we get into Antioch. We got up at 8:00 and were very sluggish. It was warm out and we just slowly got ready to leave. It Takes Two, a movie with Steve Guttenberg and Kirstie Alley, was on TV and we ended watching most of that because we were in ho hurry to rush home. I ate some stuff we had picked up at the store the night before and Dana had her coffee from the pot in the room and we finally checked out at 11:15. There was lots of weekend traffic showing up in Sonora as we were leaving. We got gas at the edge of town and hit the road. In Angels Camp we found it was even busier with arriving RVs, boats and trailers. We rolled into Stockton at 1:00 p.m. and I proclaimed it to be lunch time. We stopped at Denny's where I had a Grand Slam Breakfast (it's a long story) and then headed off into the farmlands towards home. The rest of the ride was typical - roll into Brentwood, pick up more traffic, roll into Antioch and get on the freeway, pick up even more traffic, get stuck in the frantic flow, squeezed between lanes of traffic then hit I-80 and roll into home base. It's always nice to get home after three weeks on the road but I just wish there was a way to lose the last day or two and get home without the "on-the-way-home" feeling.
So…… what more can I say? It was a perfect trip despite the oil leaks, loss of brakes, thunderstorms, road construction, etc. The new roads and places we got to see and experience were superb. I have been wanting to see Steamboat Springs and Estes Park for a long time and the fact that we got an unplanned couple of nights in the Black Hills was a big plus as well. It's a real bummer that we got the room through the misfortune of Elana and David, who now refer to their trip as "The Vacation From Hell", but THANKS, guys! There is more to their story as well - They spent a whopping two weeks in the motel in Gillette. David's brand-spankin' new H-D Softail Deuce got little use and ended up on the trailer with Elana's scooter. When the doctor cleared Elana for travel after the surgery, they trailered to Custer for a night just to get close to the Sturgis action but by then it was over. They continued to North Dakota to visit with Elana's mother and sister for a couple of days but upon leaving, they had driven a half a day when the trailer smoked a wheel bearing. After one expensive tow to Podunk, a failed attempt at repair by one shop, a night in a Podunk motel, another expensive tow to a second shop where they found an expensive repair, they continued home. It had not been the Best Trip In The World. But it reinforced my belief in and fear of Negative Biker Karma. An example of this treacherous malady is that when I was younger, I was riding with a buddy and he dropped his bike at a light. Being the lighthearted lad that I was, I had to give him a bit of a bad time about his "trip." Well of course by the end of that short ride I had dropped my own bike in a much more embarrassing situation than had my buddy. Negative Biker Karma In Action can be a devastating thing. So, you see, a week before we had all departed for this last trip, David had given Freddy a little bit of hellish chiding regarding Freddy's plans to trailer his bike to Sturgis. It seems that the Law Of Negative Biker Karma is still operating in this part of the world.... Freddy continued to trailer his bike as planned, had it on the trailer for about 48 hours total, to and from, and had a hell of a good week in the Black Hills. David, on the other hand, had his bike on a trailer for three weeks, missed Sturgis altogether and even the trailer messed him up! I still run scared from Negative Biker Karma. And Dana seems to have had a good time and planned the route well as she always does. She remains easy to travel with even after fifteen years. I got to see many things I had never even heard of before due to her research and planning. She is the smart one in the family. So as usual, I'm glad to get home but ready for the next ride.
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