An easy day

Thursday was an easy riding day. We left Duane's dad's place relatively early, and I promptly got us lost (although I prefer the term exploring) going to I-90. Evidently, I zigged around a semi when I should have zagged, and missed the exit. About 40 miles down the road, we tried to correct this mistake, and took South Dakota hwy 34 due west. It did add some color to the ride, by allowing us to see some of the numerous small towns that dot the landscape in this state.
We eventually got back to the interstate, and raced our way across to Al's Oasis, a neat restaurant and gift shop about halfway to our destination of Sturgis. The place was packed, but we got in and seated right away. Duane, Richie and myself ordered the salad bar, since it was quick and available, and actually looked pretty good. Josh ordered a cheeseburger and fries. I also ordered this Wisconson cheese soup. I was amazed at how good it was!! I have had cheese sauce over broccoli before, and thought this would be a watered down version. NOT! It was rich and cheesy, and had some spices added to it. In a word, YUM!!
Our salad bars were good, standard midwestern fare -- iceberg lettuce, some toppings, cottage cheese, etc. At the end of the bar was a (I kid you not!) tater-tot casserole. It looked like some sort of medieval gruel, but, adventurer that I am, I had to try it. It was nice and hot, and tasted pleasantly of meat, potatoes, green beans and various spices. Most filling, and definitely good country fare.
We gassed up (Duane's back has been giving him some problems, and so we are helping him put his valiant Gold Wing up on the center stand) and hit the road again. The weather, which has been unusually good for this area of the country at this time of the year, began to turn. I pulled us over under an overpass, and Josh and I put on our rain gear. Duane said he would push on, and push on he did. Geared up, Josh, Richie and I followed.
Rain came and went the entire run into Sturgis, where we finally caught up to Duane. The four of us headed to the Sturgis BMW/Yamaha/Suzuki shop, to pick up the new bike, but the paperwork had to be done, and the salesman said it would take about an hour to complete. He also needed proof of insurance on the new bike, so we decided to go get a room at the Holiday Inn and get out of the rain, which had begun again.
The room is pretty nice, two queen beds, a small but serviceable bathroom, and a restaurant attached. I got on the phone to Geico, and in less than 10 minutes, the insurance was transferred to the new bike (and I saved $80 on my annual rates; the new bike's payment to BMW Bank is about $10 a month less as well, and it is a MUCH better condition machine to boot!). We went to eat at Phil's, a great meal which Richie picked up. Back to the room, where Duane, Rich and I decided to take a walk downtown; Josh was going to the spa.
Sturgis is dead after the rally. Where less than a week ago the downtown thronged with thousands of bikes and bikers, now it is a veritable ghost town. We stopped at a shirt shop which discounted shirts and hats, then wandered about some more. Duane and Rich decided to shop in the morning while I am doing the final paperwork; I did my shopping and got several shirts and hats.
Back to the room, where I did some laundry and we watched the olympics. I must say, Josh has really turned into a good rider this trip; he has put more miles under his butt in the past two weeks than a lot of people do in a year. And he is riding well and responsibly, alert for danger (like the two idiots who almost hit him on the way to Sioux Falls) and ready to react. I hope that he, like Erik, develops as big a love of riding as I have.
Best wishes tonight. Tomorrow we push on across Wyoming, Montana and into Idaho. There is some discussion about skipping Glacier National Park, since various disasters have come up at home, but it is not yet determined.
NOBAMA 2008

Been a long time

Hey folks, sorry so long, no write. Been on the road, and nowhere to upload. Since I last wrote, we have been to the mayhem that was the Sturgis Bike (and RV) Rally, in Sturgis, SD. After the damage to Josh's bike was repaired, we arrived in Sturgis Wednesday afternoon. We camped at the Bulldog Campground. Nice place overall, and very nice people running it. We pitched our tents, then decided to go into town for a bite to eat and to see the madness. And what madness it was! People everywhere, although we were told attendance was down this year. We wandered around town quite a bit, and below are some of the pictures we took.

It was wacky, wild, and wonderful. The shot of the guys above are from the campground as we were getting ready to go into town. We saw some things that were pretty cool, and some that were downright strange.
We went to the Sturgis BMW/Yamaha/Suzuki shop, where I asked about fixing Josh's clutch. We were told it couldn't be done until the following Wednesday or Thursday at the earliest. So I took option number two. The shop had taken in a 1996 K1100LT, and I bought it. I traded the GS in pretty much straight across (they paid most of it off) and my out of pocket was just $420. My payments are actually about $15 less a month, and the bike has been well maintained and only has 40k miles on it. We will be picking it up Thursday, Aug. 14, and using it for the remainder of the ride. It will make a wonderful backup bike for me, if my bike needs to be down, and both my sons can ride it when they wish. Yeehaw!!


We left Sturgis Friday morning and rode down to Sioux Falls, SD, to visit Duane's dad and step-mom, Gary and Lori. On the way we stopped at Wall Drug, in Wall, SD, and had some free ice water (atrocious!!) and did some shopping. What a neat place! They have a restaurant, all sorts of collectible items, and even some historical (and hysterical) displays.



After Wall Drug, we went riding through the Badlands. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Stark, picturesque, astounding, astonishing -- add any more descriptive adjectives you wish. The sedimentary layers, the wildlife were all amazing.







We eventually arrived in Sioux Falls, and got to meet Gary and Lori. What wonderful folks!! Gary is almost 80, and Lori is 74, but you would never guess from seeing and meeting them. If I hadn't know Duane is over 50, I would be these two were just barely 60. They are so lively, wonderful, active and just fantastic. They put us up in their home Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. Gary pulled out his bike and took us around town. What a great city Sioux Falls is! There is a wealth of historical wonder here. The falls, the various old buildings and quarries; too much to mention.
We took Gary and Lori out to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner, and it was fantastic. I have never eaten at one of these restaurants, but I loved it! Great food, great atmosphere, great company. Duane insisted on picking up the $$$ tab, and wouldn't let anyone else chip in. Darn him!!
Sunday was a nice relaxing day, where we did some laundry and some shopping, then Monday morning we headed out.

Our next stop was in Bloomfield IA to visit one of Duane's old friends, Walter and Joan Scott. Walter writes a syndicated outdoors column, and also sells advertising. They also have the coolest underground house. Made of four interconnecting domes, the walls are 3' thick concrete, and covered by 4' - 6' of soil. There are skylights to let in natural light, and the front of the house was relatively conventional. And they are salt of the earth, wonderful people. They hadn't seen Duane in nearly 30 years, yet opened their home to him and his biker friends.

Their home is set on 40 acres, and is so homey and comfortable. It has absorbed the personality of these two fantastic people and their family, and radiates love, comfort and caring. Their home reflects their obvious love for each other and their children and grandchildren.
Walt also took us over to their 500+ acre ranch, where they have a cabin and a 26 acre lake, well stocked with fish. We started to dip some lines, but the light drizzle that had started became quite the downpour. We pulled in our lines and headed for the dry cabin, where we chatted and laughed and wished we had brought some beer to drink.
Heading back to their home, Walt took us to a decent little bar, where we had a bite of lunch, then went back to his place, after touring some Amish stores. Wow, what wonderful furniture and keepsakes they produce. Duane and I are thinking of importing some out to Chico, starting a shop called Almost Amish. Think it will go over?
We arrived back to their home, were we napped for a bit before dinner.
Walt and Joan outdid themselves for dinner -- prime rib, fresh corn on the cob, green salad and the best prepared cottage cheese I've ever had, along with a couple bottles of wonderful red wine.
Ahhhhhhhhhh.......... words cannot express the grandeur of that meal. Taste buds overloaded and the senses swirled and spun with delight.
Damn fine meal, folks.
This morning (Wednesday) we left bright and early, saying fond farewells to these two wonderful folks and promising to keep in touch. We headed out into a light fog, and soon were racing through Iowa back to Sioux Falls and Duane's dad's place. Tomorrow (Thursday) we head back to Sturgis to pick up the K1100LT, then on to Glacier National Park. I promise to write more whenever I get to another hot spot (thank God for Barnes and Noble!)
Best wishes to all, and remember, NOBAMA 2008.

Another fine day on the road- Tuesday, August 5

I wrote Sunday about the catastrophic breakdown of Josh's bike, the 1995 BMW R1100GS. It turned out that there was more wrong with it than I had known, due in large par to my failure to have it properly serviced. We had the bike towed in Sunday to Motorcycle Repair and Rendezvous in Salt Lake City. The owner, Jeff Thrumond, was in the BMWMOA Anonymous Handbook as being able to store and repair BMWs. His shop was closed Sunday and Monday (as are most cycle shops) but he said they would be able to get on the bike Tuesday morning. When one is stranded, one must make the best of things, so we toured Salt Lake City. Huge city, great rail system, pretty darn good food. Here are a few pictures we took.




















Tuesday morning, Jeff's Certified BMW Master Technician Ron Schmidt was as pleasant as could be (especially since, in my mind, I was a bit of a butthead), and told me what needed to be repaired. They were able to reschedule a couple appointments (thankyouthankyouthankyou) and able to repair the rear bearing, replace the brake pads, tighten the front left rotor, and synchronize the injectors, as well as some other maintenance. He was very kind about pointing out that my attention to maintenance had been lacking. The only thing they were unable to repair was the clutch and rear seal, because it is a major job and would have been grossly unfair to push aside regular customers for two days. They assured me (and I had my good friend Mike confirm) that, with proper caution and care, the clutch will finish out the trip.
I said very fond farewells and departed the shop nearly $800 lighter (a very fair price and worth every penny and then some!) on my way to catch Duane and Rich. They had left earlier in the day; I had told them we would be on the road and catch up with them, and not to wait. They called with updates on my cel phone and left voice messages.
Utah and Wyoming are starkly beautiful states; you must enjoy desert landscape to truly appreciate the scenic wonder. Personally, I like forests and oceans and beaches, etc., so I would really never willingly live in such a place. But they are fun to travel through, even when traveling on the interstate to make time.
Josh and I left Salt Lake City around 4:40 pm, and I set the cruise control at 70 mph. This kept Josh's bike running at less than 4k rpms, which was the point at which he noticed clutch slippage. We pushed on until we hit Little America, WY, where we stopped for a drink and to refuel the bikes. Duane and Richie called then, and said they had made Rawlins, WY., which had been our target. A nice ride of about 350 miles from SLC, and leaving us 360 miles from out goal, the RV/Motorcycle rally known as Sturgis. All things considered, things are going well; even with the bike failure, nobody has been hurt, the repair was done quickly and with a minimum of pain, and we got to see an interesting city.
Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow. Da Guyz!

Travelling with Joe

Enough of the politics for a while. Myself, my good friends Duane and Richie, and my son Josh, have embarked on a cross country trip to the big motorcycle (and rv) rally in Sturgis, SD. We left the Oroville, Ca. area relatively uneventfully. We rode up Hwy 162, coming into Quincy, and then up Hwy 70 to Hwy 395. The ride was beautiful, and we ended up in Reno at a pretty decent Super 8 motel. We had a great dinner buffet at the Silver Legacy, and I did a little gambling, losing only $20. Not bad for two hours of fun!
A good night's sleep, and a decent dinner at the Bonanza, and we were on our way. We rode I-80 through to Salt Lake City. Let me tell you, it is the most BORING road. Nothing but desert, with occasional oases of casinos and small towns. I cannot understand why any human would live in the desert; no big jobs except gambling, some recreation if you like the desert. No thanks.
Our Microtel suite in SLC was really good, and we started the day out in high spirits. That ended about an hour and a half into the days ride. We were supposed to do a short 425 mile ride to Caspar, WY, and from there a short 225 mile run Monday to our goal, Sturgis.
Fate intervened. Josh pulled his R1100GS over about 65 into the day, as he felt a bad vibration from rear. We all pulled over and looked, and it seemed to me he had lost a brake shoe. I tried to remove the Brembo unit, but didn't have the proper allen wrench. Richie took his rocket Hyabusa, and Josh followed on Duane's classic 1977 Gold Wing into Evanston, WY, to find me the proper wrench. They returned in about an hour, and I figured we would remove the brake unit and zip tie it up, and Josh could return to the road, and we could limp into Cheyenne or Caspar, and get some new pads.
However, the rubbing pad had heated up the rotor, which in turn heated up the rear drive bearing, which in turn caused the bearing to leak all the rear drive fluid.
NOW we were up a creek. After speaking to my wonderful friend and mechanic Mike Moakley, I ended up calling the BMWMOA Platinum card, and arranged for a tow. A call to my wife Jeri netted me six numbers from the BMWMOA Anonymous Book, where people offer their help in one way or another.
Five of the numbers were disconnected. The sixth was gold. I reached Jeff, who owns a motorcycle shop specializing in BMWs. We arranged to have the bike towed there, where Jeff said his mechanics would get on the repairs Tuesday. I asked if he could also replace the clutch, which was starting to slip a bit, and he said he could. Hopefully, we will be on our way Wednesday morning.
Monday will find us exploring the metropolis of Salt Lake City. We plan to ride the UTA Trax rail system all day. Should be a gas.
All for now. Remember -- if someone claims to be in the throes of Obamagasm, ask them why. Ask what he has accomplished. Ask what he claims to stand for. Ask if they think a junior senator, in his first term, has what it takes to be our leader. And ask them to answer honestly what they would say if the Republicans fielded such a candidate.