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

August 8^th

Like every morning for the last 10 days, I woke up a bit dizzy but it goes away after a minute. I think it is the hours of head-shake from the helmet is wearing on me. For some reason, Sam’s helmet does not shake his head like my or his full helmet. Next time I do this, I’m going to find a more aero-dynamic helmet.

We got what we thought was an early start, only to find out I left my headlight on all night. The coal-mining town we were in was very small (not even a restaurant for dinner), but fortunately we were parked next to the fire house, and the guys there enjoyed the break in their day. Jumping the battery was not working well, so they hauled out a huge battery charger and we put it on it for 20 minutes. Unfortunately, while we were waiting, they taught Sam how to make a bomb out of sparklers.

Crossing the continental divide in Wyoming at 7000 ft, my bike was having trouble keeping up with Sam. It was way down in power, and I figured it was too rich at the high altitude and had an air-filter with 8000 miles on it.

One the road, we passed by Independence Rock, a stopping place for westward travellers for hundreds of years. Many travellers over the years have climbed to the top and carved their names and dates into it. Next time, we gotta bring a hammer and chisel.

It was very windy today, as you can see in this picture of Sam leaning into the wind.  Obviously, it’s also the Mobile 1 synthetic that causes his pants to slip off. Riding the bikes in this wind was like riding a mechanical bull down a free-way.

We made it into Green River late in the day, but with all the bikers and vacationers travelling, there was no hotel room within 100 miles. Fortunately, a fellow biker who knew we were looking for a room, chased us down when he heard of a cancellation at his hotel.

August 9^th

Sam woke determined to make it to Las Vegas today.(700+ miles away) We rode hard all day, and hit St George Utah at dinner time. We stopped at the Harley Dealer and changed my air filter.

My friend Joe treated us at a Texas Roadhouse, and we told old and new stories for a couple hours. We probably should have taken him up on his offer to stay at his place, but we pressed on.

The sunset ride out of St George was awesome. Anyone who has seen the red-rock canyons around there knows how cool the sight is.

The sky was perfectly clear at night, dark with lots of starts and no moon. The air warm, and the Road King lights lit up the desert. I hooked up the MP3 player, and had one of the nicest rides of the whole trip. In the pitch-black, a line to 6 prototype test cars (all covered up and disguised) came flying by us like an alien attack. Very cool. In two hours, we crested a hill, and there were the lights of Las Vegas all laid out below. Just a great night of travel, but a tiring day.

We got a hotel just off the strip, but after 14 hours on the road, and 700+ miles, here is Sam doing Las Vegas.

August 10^th

We left Las Vegas and it was only 90 degrees but soon got up to 100+. Just then, we ran into a traffic jam on the 15, due to an accident. Traffic was moving at 3mph, which with air-cooled motors and 100 degrees air temp, is a real problem. We finally pulled off the road, and let the bikes cool down.  After the dropped 20 degrees we decided to use the shoulder of the road, and pass by everyone in the backup. Probably not legal, but the only way out of the situation. A bunch of other bikers followed suit.

It was smooth until we hit Riverside (on a Friday afternoon), and again, miles of traffic jams at 5-10 MPH and the motors hated it. The 270 degree motor running between our legs with little air-flow heated the bikes to the point we almost couldn’t touch them. We took another cool-down break, and then made the final run to home. I asked Sam when we got to San Diego if he wanted to make a left turn, and do another lap.  He said no.

Emily made us a welcome home poster and we both were very glad to be back.

 

Thanks to everyone who read our Blog for riding along with us for the 8800 miles we rode. Being able to share the trip made it even more fun, and special thanks to those who posted and encourages us along. Its been great!

August 5^th

We got an early start, and with only 300 miles to Sturgis, the roads were already covered with Harleys. It seemed half were on trailers being hauled to the rally, and each gas stop was an experience meeting people from across the country.

There are about 500,000 people attending the rally, and 100,000 bikes going into the town each day. We rolled in around 3:00pm, and parked right on main street.

The variety of bikes at the rally is just amazing. 95% are Harleys, and most all the rest are some type of custom chopper, crazy 3-wheel vehicle, and a few Jap crotch rockets. The Sturgis Rally started in the 60s as a motorcycle race in the Black Hills, and about 25 years ago grew so big, the race became secondary to the parties, food, and cruising. Dad, it’s basically the Dayton Hamvention for Bikers. Now that I’ve been to both, I can say for sure – bikers play a little harder than the hams.

Finding where we parked our bikes is like the Find Waldo game.

We stayed at Buffalo Chip camp-ground, the largest in the area. We found a spot for our tent in the back on a nice hill. The camp-ground is HUGE, with tens of thousands of people, dozens of restaurants, bars, a lake, laundry, and good facilities. It has a concert park surrounded by vendors, restaurants, bars, mechanical bull, elevated ride-up tavern, burn-out competition area, and tattoo parlour.

We saw the 80’s bands Rat and Poison in concert Monday night. Poison put on an excellent show and it was nice having the concert at the camp-ground, so we could come and go as we pleased. The stage had something going on from 6:00pm till almost 1:00am. The camp-ground was surprisingly laid-back at night, and we got a good night sleep.

August 6^th

For years, Sam has been itching to get a tat in Sturgis, and there was no changing his mind. He zeroed in on a few designs, and we spent the morning walking the streets of Sturgis, visiting the dozens of tattoo artists who descend on the city each year. He found a way cool American flag theme graphic by a guy Rich Helton, and he spent the next 3 hours in the chair being jabbed with needles. It turned out really well.

So this is Sam’s side of the tattoo story: “After sitting there anxiously waiting to get it and watching the preparation to be the first one of the event for this artist. I finally get to sit down in the chair and he preps my arm. He says that he is gonna do a short line so I get the feel of it and when I said I was ready he went for it. Initially it wasn’t so bad but after he had outlined the bottom 3^rd of the tattoo I had to take a break. I was feeling a little nauseous so he got me a water and gave me a cup of some super intense energy drink to get some sugar in me and then we started at it again. Its hard to describe the type of pain it was but It was like taking 3 sharp needles and scratching just deep enough to get under the first couple layers of skin over and over. The only way I was able to keep my mind off it was to talk about random things unrelated to the tattoo I was getting. After about 2 hours we had finished the outlining and so he had to set up to start colouring it. The colouring wasn’t as bad as outlining because the needles are spread out more and not so concentrated. I had gotten to the point the pain didn’t bother me any more and was doing good, until he was almost done and just needed to do some shading. That was the worst part because he would hit areas that had already been done and were tender. All in all the pain wasn’t to bad and it was totally worth it.

We stopped in at a exhibit called Thunder Road put on the same magazine, where many of the top custom bike builders exhibit their rides. Many were truly great works of art. I just can’t imagine how the V-8 powered bikes could actually be ridden, but there were lots of them running around. We even saw an LS1 powered bike.

The warm-up band that night was a group Rock Legends, made up of 60s and 70s band members. One of the guitar players played with Iron Butterfly, and they did an amazing rendition of A Godda Da Vida (SP?).  Hearing it in a crowd of bikers made if feel like 1967. Later, Toby Keith played on the main stage.  He’s played for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his patriotic music made both of us feel pretty good about Sam’s new art.

At night, the campground was totally out of control. We saw this guy who must also use Mobile 1 synthetic oil in his engine, as it was so slippery and fast it made his wife’s top blew right off.

With the rally in full swing, the camp-ground was noisy all night long, so we did not get much sleep.  This guy had real train whistles on his bike.

August 7^th

We’re finally on the last leg, heading home for San Diego. We took the scenic route out of the Black Hills, and headed across Wyoming. We were both quite tired so we did not ride too far today, but we did get a classic father-son picture taken just outside of Deadwood South Dakota. We’re both sun-burned, tired, and yes, badly in need of haircuts.  We are ready to be home.  Its been a great trip, and we are looking forward to getting back to family, friends, and our own beds.

August 2^nd

We got up early to ride from Michigan’s UP down to my parents place in Appleton, WI. But had to wait an hour for a morning rain storm passed by. The ride along the shoreline all morning was nice, but I kept waiting for one of those elusive boogie deer to jump out. We’ve seen a few deer, a wild turkey, and assorted small critters, but all-in-all not a whole lot of wild life.  Happily, we have not had any close-encounters of the 4-legged kind.

We got into Appleton just after noon and dropped the bikes off at Appleton Harley Davidson for fresh tires and oil. Sam gave me a “Guardian Bell” for my bike and thanked me for the ride. I’s an old biker tradition to give someone a small bell to ward off the road gremlins. Legend says that by attaching a small motorcycle bell onto your bike, the Evil Road Spirits will become trapped inside the motorcycle bell where the constant ringing drives them insane, making them lose their grip until they fall to the ground. (Ever wonder where potholes come from?) And after 30 days on the road, I’m thrilled we are still having a good time and enjoying the miles.

We went over to Chaska golf course for 9 holes of golf with Grandpa. My dad taught us who still is the boss on the golf course, as he soundly out-shot us both.

Sam and I played in my old back yard, swung on the tree swing, and threw a football around. Mom and dad took us all out to a huge classic Wisconsin buffet, and we all ate too much.Â

August 3^rd

We picked the bikes up, washed 6000 miles of grit off them, and packed up for the next leg of the trip to Sturgis. We shipped a box of souvenirs for the family back home to Encinitas (and no we have never shipped any dirty laundry back, yet…)

In traditional Wisconsin style, Dad and I added another good-luck charm to the Harley – a Bret Farvre Packer head.

We rode from  Appleton down south-west to the highpoint of our America Ride. Ripon Wisconsin the birthplace of the Republican Party!

As the excitement of our stop in Ripon wore off, we continued on to the Wisconsin Dells, a big tourist destination for the Midwest. Sam whooped me at mini golf two games in a row. The stakes were high (winner chooses the restaurants for the rest of the trip). It looks like it will be McDonalds and SubWay for now on.

After the Dells, we rode on till sunset, and hit a small hotel too tired to do anything but sleep.

August 4^th

We had planned on making this our furthest ride-day yet, shooting for 500+ miles. Morning brought cool weather and pouring rain.  We had to institute a new riding rule.  We have very few rules, but this one became a necessity after a serious problem yesterday.  From now on, no one is allowed to hum an ABBA song at any time, at the risk it gets stuck in the other person’s head and he has to ride to the tune of “Dancing Queen” all day.

We rode for 6 hours covering only 250 miles before the rain finally broke. I figured today would be our first day with no photos, as we were passing through 500 miles of corn fields in southern Minnesota. But, as luck would have it, riding in the cold, Sam’s hands turned purple and made a cool picture opportunity.

Once the weather broke, we got on I90 with hundreds of other Harley riders heading for Sturgis SD, and easily knocked off almost 200 more miles coming very close to making our 500 mile goal.

We stayed tonight in Mitchell SD, the home of the corn palace. We took a quick tour of it after dinner, and then headed to the hotel to watch the X games.Â

Tomorrow, its 300 miles and we’re in Sturgis SD, with 50,000 other crazy Harley riders. The pictures will be epic, but I suspect you’ll have to have the children leave the room for some of them 🙂