Sturgis, 2008, 4000 miles, 7 states

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Aug. 1
Left Walnut Creek early in the morning for my trip to Sturgis, SD. This was my first big rally and really did not know what to expect. I read up on the Black Hills area, marked down some good riding roads, and off I went. First leg was 720 miles to Salt Lake City.

It was tough riding through Nevada on I-80. It was hot and straight. The highlight of the day was stopping at Bonneville Salt Flats International Speedway. It was a lonely place but my mind eyes could see all the fast cars and bikes making all those records during Speed Week.

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Second day, coming through the mountain roads near Park City finally put a smile on my face. Then I took Hwy 191 to 28 in Wyoming to get away from the slab. Continuing through Casper, I started to see more Harleys on the road. But then I also saw my share of trailer queens heading towards South Dakota.

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The wind picked up in the afternoon at Wyoming and it was nerve-racking. I continued on 387 to 450 to 85. The scenery started to change and it was beautiful.

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The road started to get more twisty and 14A, Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway, was breath taking. The only problem was that I caught up to a whole group of riders doing 30 mph and would not let anyone pass. That turned out to be the norm for the week to come.

The Sturgis Rally is an eye opener for me. They told me that attendant was down this year because of the gas price, the economy, and Harley has the 105 anniversary in Wisconsin at the end of the month. Last 2 years, there were about 560,000 people there, but this year maybe down to 70%. But that’s still 400,000!

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Out of all these bikes, I noticed about 80% Harleys, 10% other cruisers like Honda, Yamaha etc., and 10% custom, trikes, CanAm Spyders etc. I noticed about 50 sport bikes the whole week and maybe 10 BMWs.

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The best part for me was the people watching and checking out all the different bikes.

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I saw Arlen Ness riding down the main street and he had a group of bikes there.

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Well, Sturgis was a fun experience for me.

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During the week, my buddies and I went on rides around the Black Hills area. Beautiful country. The only drawback was the fore mentioned big groups of slow riders. Most of them had no helmets nor riding gears. They were so slow that they held up cars behind them. I had to change my mind set and went with the flow and just enjoyed the scenery.

I visited Deadwood, a quick rising lawless mining town from the old Wild West days. Wild Bill Hickok was killed in Saloon No. 10 there, and Calamity Jane was buried next to him according to her dying wish twenty something years after his death.

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I also visited Mt. Rushmore,