"Life is the great adventure ride. Twist the throttle hard."

August 13

All day we rode across Wyoming.  The weather was perfect, and we all enjoyed the day.  We had expected the day to drag on, but the scenery was great, lots of wild life and road kill to see, and a great sunset. 

At sunset the boys stopped at sunset to take a special picture for their mom.  I promised not to post it, so you’ll have to come over to the house to see it when we get back.  The moon rose as the sun went down.  After dark, we stopped at a very small town, and checked into a hotel that looked straight out of a B horror movie.  Memorable.

August 14

We crossed the boarder into Colorado.  We dodged rain storms all day, and the radar weather app once again was very helpful.  We stopped at Independence Rock again, and climbed to the top just like thousands of west-bound travelers have done for thousands of years. 

Here’s one for Emily:

To get around a storm, we took a less-traveled route through northern Colorado.  From Craig CO we took the 64 west to the 139 south.  These 150 miles of riding was the best motorcycle riding of the trip, and some of the best I’ve ever seen.

Sam having a good time:

Along the way, we took a break at at a reservoir and checked out the dam. 

Tonight as we got to the hotel in Green River Utah, it started raining as the sun went down, creating a perfect rainbow.

August 16 – We got on the I-70 today. The I-70 is one of the most spectacular inter-state highways in the USA, and a must-see for everyone.  It passes through southern Utah, and then connects with the I15, which takes us down to Las Vegas. 

 I’m getting quite good at taking pictures while doing 80mph.  Here’s a couple of the boys taken in Utah where they don’t have helmet laws. At least one of them kept their helmet on.

We turned southbound down the 15, and got into Saint George for dinner. It was 110 and Chris’s bike was acting up in town becuase of the heat, so we decided to wait till sunset to leave, so the air would be cooler.  We had a drink with my good friend and old boss Joe Banos.

The I15 out of Saint George is also beautiful.  The boys enjoyed it, and I had a hard time keeping up becuase I have 170lbs of stuff on my bike, and the box with the musket is not very aerodynamic.  50% of the time, this is my view of the guys.

The night-ride into Vegas is one of my all-time favorite.  The desert is warm, wind calm, little traffic, and stars in the sky.  Its one of the few times I turn on music.  When we got into Las Vegas, we decided to ride down the strip to the hotel.  Little did I know, it is VERY busy this time of year in Vegas, and the traffic was stop-and-crawl, and the air 105 degrees.

I don’t have a picture of the next activity, but you’ll have to visualize this one for yourself…  We’re riding very slowly down the Las Vegas strip to get to our hotel.  Traffic is jammed, and we’re only moving one block every 5 minutes.  Its 105 degrees out.   Then, Chris’s bike over-heats and dies.  It isn’t going anywhere, and a hundred cars are backed up behind us.  Horns honking; tourists laughing.  I realize he’s stuck, so I park my bike on the pedestian-packed sidewalk and run back to him.  I begin pushing his dead Harley down Las Vegas Blvd while Chris steers through traffic. We do this for a couple hundred yards till we get to Ceasar’s Forum where we can pull off the road.  All safe. 

{Insert picture of exhaused dad}

That was one of those priceless moments that only air-cooled Harley riders appreciate.  Had we been on a Honda, we’d have missed this father-son moment that we’ll cherish forever. 

The next morning, we rode out to Las Vegas Extream Sky Diving at the Jean Airport and all three of us did a tandem sky-dive. Las Vegas Extream is an outfit Andy P. recommended we try.  They were great and we all had a good time doing our first sky dive.  It was from 15,000 feet and we all got to jump together.   Sam went out the door first and Chris second, so I got to see both go all the way down.  Cool.  In fact, we all were suprised how easy it is.  The roller-coasters at Cedar Point were much scarier. 

After another afternoon nap, we hit the strip on foot.  The boys were like a kid in a candy store. 

Somehow they think they’ll get 5 lbs of M&M candy acrosss the 110 degree desert tomorrow as we go back to San Diego. 
I let them run loose in the arcades, and I sat down at Diablos and had a margarita.  That was one fine margarita.

Its been a great trip, and thanks for following along with us.  We’re home tomorrow afternoon.

August 9

We split up today.  The boys spent the day wandering the tattoo shops in town trying to decide what to get and who should do the ink.  I went to Rapid city to find WiFi to do some work, and check out the antique shops.  In an antique shop, I found what will be Uschi’s Christmas present.  It’s too heavy to carry back, so I and had it shipped to my office.

Back at camp late in the afternoon, Chris was deep into the biker book (Outlaw Biker).  He wanted to keep reading it, so Sam and I rode out to Deadwood for a beer.  Nice relaxing day for all of us. 

That night, another long-hair rock band Poison opened up the show.  Sam and I saw them here 4 years ago. 

Times sure have changed…  See all those lights in the audience.  No, they aren’t lighters.  They are iPhones.   And there even is a rock-concert app for the iPhone that is an animated cigarette lighter you can hold and wave.   

 After Poison, Toby Keith took the stage.  Great show and according to Chris, the Toby Keith show was “Amazing”. 

August 10 – Tattoo Day

Well… we went into town to get inked and browse the hundreds of vendors selling biker-stuff.  Harley’s are truly a work of art, and people who ride custom bikes like Sturgis, and there are many bike builders showing modified Harleys and their custom creations here.

We found a bike for Uschi so she can ride along with use next year and haul our camping gear to Sturgis:

We made an interesting observation.  The cost of a tattoo is the same as the cost of new exhaust pipes.  Chris had been talking about putting “fishtail” pipes on, and soon  Sam decided to go for new pipes also.  By noon, the new pipes were being installed.

There is the on-going debate over “loud-pipes save lives”.  The boys just like the sound, but the truth is, the louder they are, the more likely other drivers will know they are there.  I took a different approach, and had an air-horn installed on my bike.  So… new bike parts, no tats. 

We then had a change of plans.  We’re staying another day because Stevie Nicks is performing Friday night.   Chris went back to camp to continue reading the biker book, and Sam and I checked out the Vietnam tribute at the camp.  It’s a traveling replica of the Vietnam memorial in DC, and a sea of flags.

Daily, a storm or two moves through the area.  It’s made for great sunsets.  And tonight, it was truely spectacular.  Everyone in the campground stood around and watched it in awe.  

This Evening, Greg Allman (Allman Brothers)  took the stage.  He was opening for Lynard Skynard, who did not show up beacuse of health issues. Greg played lots of classic 80s rock.  Didn’t interest the boys much but I enjoyed it.

August 11

With an extra day at Sturgis (free because I bought a week-long pass), we got up early and headed out for a ride to Devi’s Tower.  It was another beautiful day to ride the Black Hills.  They are so green now.

Along the way, the boys agree to give me ONE stop at an antique shop.  In a very little town in Wyoming, there was an amazing antique shop. Almost a western museum, and bing-go! Muskets!  After being educated about native-American rifles by the owner, I bought a 1862 Springfield muzzel-loaded gun.  It was used by Confererates in the Civil War, and ended up in the hands of Indians during the Indian wars.  It’s in rough shape becuase it was used a lot, and modified by the native American owner for use in battle.  If it could talk, I’m sure the stories would be epic.  Ya can’t ship a gun in America, so I’m bringing it home on my Harley.

We left the shop, and 30 minutes later, Devil’s tower came into view.  It’s kinda like the Grand Canyon. You really need to see it to appreciate it. 

We stopped at the gift shop to buy Uschi a sweatshirt and Emily a snow-globe, and then ride up to the tower so we cold climb it.  You can get about 1/3 the way up, and then it goes vertical.  The boys are sitting under the pine in the next picture.

Once again, I took the opportunity to make some work phone calls and take one from Larry.  Kinda weird standing on the side of the tower and having someone ask “Is this a good time to talk?”.   Cell coverage was excellent.

Back in town, the guys got the urge to put some LED lights on their bikes.  I walked around town and talked to vendors about why my bike is running hot.  Ran into the owner of Reinhart exhaust, and he told me its a software issue.  Fuel-injected Harley’s are programmed to run lean, and any Harley shop can richen it up with a download and about $100.  

That night, Stevie Nicks opened the show.  The boys rode their bikes into the concert area, and watched her from their bike seats.  Stevie did not play very long, but John Fogerty took the stage after her and did a great show we all enjoyed.  As a massive lightning storm rolled past, he sang Who’ll Stop the Rain.  He did his own songs and the old CCR stuff. 

Its a good thing there are tee-shirt vendors everywhere because Sturgis seems to have a lot of wardrobe malfunctions.

Towards the  end of the Fogerty show, we climbed up the tower up to the zip-line, and rode it over the heads of the concert crowd.  Riding a zip-line while Fogerty sang Center-field was cool.

August 12 – Departure

We packed up camp which took almost two hours, and headed west.   The musket’s in the brown box.  Had fun checking out a road-side stand that sold western artifacts, pelts, skulls, antlers, skins, and the like.    We only rode for a couple hours, and then checked into a hotel.  We’ve not had a shower in 6 days…  Its going to be great sleeping in a bed tonight.  Goodnight.

August 6

We stopped by Wall Drug (everyone stops there who crosses southern SD).  Along the highway, we rode with hundreds of other bikers and made it to Sturgis for dinner.  We are staying at the Buffalo Chip campground.   With 400,000 people in a town of 2000, there is very limited Internet access so I’ll post more pictures when we find WiFi. 

At that Wall Mart stop, we bought a big canopy to put the bikes under and sit in if it rains.  It’s been nice as there is a shower once or twice a day. 

Alice Cooper did a great concert tonight.  An amazing showman.  You would not think a 70 year old guy singing about high school would work, but he pulls it off very well. 

August 7 – Decided to ride to Mt. Rushmore, but got 15 miles out and turned around because I miscalculated the route, and there were no gas stations on it and we were very low.  Back at Sturgis, Chris’s front back had issues, so we took it into one of the many mechanics here in town and they replaced the pads for us.  Here’s a picture of main street.

I made the call to kick-back the rest of the day and do nothing.  Sam read a biker-book I gave him;  Chris and I took a nap and just enjoyed doing nothing. 

We had dinner at the Taco Bell inside our campground, and went to the concert stage.  Sam rode in, and Chris and I walked in with our chairs.  There’s about 30,000 people at this camp ground, and many don’t go to the concerts so its great to be able to walk in with a beer, stroll/ride up to the stage, and watch the show.  I’m on the young side of the crowd, and Chris is one of the youngest here.

Tonight, Bachman-Turner Overdrive opened and Styx closed both doing very good shows.  I was skeptical about BTO, but I think those old guys did great knocking out classic after classic.  Aunt Karen should have been here for Styx Come Sail Away.  Very moving.

August 8

I got up early, went into town to find a coffee show with an AC power plug to charge the laptop and update the blog.  Found one, but no WiFi.   I also found a way-cool leather vest and had a ride-to-live eagle sewn on it.  Now it fit in real well with all the leather-clad, over-weight, over-the-hill Harley riders here 🙂    Went back to camp and met the boys having cheeseburgers for breakfast.

We rode out to Mt. Rushmore this morning with full tanks of gas. The Black hills are emerald green now, and the weather great when it’s not raining.  We got rained on for about 30 minutes, and we had all of our rain gear at camp, so it was a character-building experience.  At one point, we pulled over for a bit to let the worst of it blow by.  Big rain drops hitting arms and face at 60 mph down- right hurt.

Despite the rain, we did make it to Rushmore and had a nice afternoon walking around the monument. 

I did take some time to call the office.  Not a bad place to have to work.

Back at camp we were all tired so we took naps, some of us in more comfortable places than others.  As you can see, we’re getting very comfortable sitting on the bikes now.

On stage tonight was Def Leopard, one of the long-hair rick bands I grew up with.  As anyone who’s walked in on me late at night in my lab knows, Hair Nation is what I crank up when programming C code.   I’ve written more software to Pour Some Sugar on Me Honey than any other song.  Sam thought they were OK, and Chris passed on the concert.