For us, Sturgis '06 would be but a nice little break in the middle of a ride that would take in many other sites worth beholding...Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Needles Highway, Devils Tower, Shell Canyon, Red Lodge Montana, Beartooth Pass, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Jackson Hole, Flaming Gorge Utah, Arches National Park, Albequerque New Mexico, Historic Route 66...for me, all seen from the saddle of my '05 Harley-Davidson Softail Deluxe. We had a group of eight riders coming from various points East and North for our Western Tour. Three of us met up in Knoxville, TN and headed out around 3:30 Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 1. The three of us made our way up thru Kentucky, and stayed the night in Clarksville, IN...just across the river from Louisville, KY.

This little group I was leadin outta Knoxville was made up of Tequila John (yours truly - TJ for short), my buddy Cuz from SC, and a local Knoxvillian called Qwaz who I had only met once before. The little band of misfits I ride with the most has a rule against assignin yerself a ridin handle...and "Qwaz" was self-assigned...soooo we were on the lookout for a reason to rename Qwaz. Well, it didn't take long. Within the first eighteen hours of our trip, Qwaz had to make two Wal-Mart stops to pick up a few things he forgot to pack...like a tent, sleepin bag, pillow, etc...just yer basic necessities. Anyways, he is now known as Wally.

We were to meet up with the other five riders in Indy for breakfast at 'round 8:30 the next morning...Wednesday, August 2. When we got there, Yank from Buffalo, NY was the only one there. The other four were sixty miles short of Indy on the side of the interstate where Jim suffered a broken throttle cable. Luckily, they were only fifteen miles from a Harley dealership which sent a wrench out to replace the cable roadside. Anyways, we all end up meetin at the Rock Island KOA just south of Davenport, IA in Rock Island, IL instead. This was our first night with the whole group.

We awoke the next mornin (Thur., Aug. 3) to a drizzly rain which faded away just before we hit the road. Within a few miles we were in Iowa and ridin under sunny, blue skies.

After a hearty breakfast, we continued across I-80 to Des Moines, IA where we stopped at Zook's H-D to meet up with a fellow that led us across back roads to the western edge of IA. It wuz sure good to be off the interstates.

We took a couple of beer breaks at some Iowa hole-in-the-walls before makin our way on over to the Blue Lake KOA in Onawa, IA. Is it just me...or does this gal look just a little young to be the proprietor of such a fine establishment? Anyways, she looks to be a little sweet on our Road Captain, Muthuh.

We had a damned nice setting at the Blue Lake KOA with lake front Kamping Kabins, brats and dogs on the grill, and, of course, various flavors of liquor and beer. This was what we all considered to be the real start of the ride...off the interstates, consuming man food, and imbibing heavily of our spirits of choice. Here's another view of the kabins...and of Muthuh and Cuz hammin it up for the camera.

The next mornin we head on up into South Dakota, but not without another li'l mishap for Jim (remember him...broken throttle cable?). I didn't mention it, but Jim also had a flat tire in our road captain, Muthuh's, driveway before even gettin underway. Those particular mishaps weren't exactly Jim's fault, but just give him time...he manages to cook up a few things of his own doin. Anyways, back to Jim's folly that ended up crownin him with a nickname. About eight miles shy of SD we stop to gas up. We get back on the interstate (just a short hop), and stop at the SD state line for pics. At this time I ask Jim what's up with his scoot because it seems to be runnin rough, and I've been chokin on his fumes for the last several miles. He says he doesn't know, but that it's been runnin rough ever since the last fuel stop eight miles back. I drag my hand over my face in a disgusted fashion, and tell him, "Listen up Jim, this is important. When we fueled up, did you take the handle from the right side, or the left side of the pump?" He squints his eyes, holdin his hands out in front of him and replies, "The left handle." I throw my hands up in the air and tell him, "Drain yer tank...you filled up with diesel." You'll only need one guess as to what Jim's newly acquired nickname was.

Future ride invitees are droppin like flies, eh.

Anyways, we drain Diesel's tank and siphon enough gas from another bike to get him to the next exit.

After Diesel's transfusion, we cross into SD and hit the back roads again takin a detour into Nebraska for a ride across some dam I can't recall the name and the Misouri River, and a visit to the Lewis and Clark park. Then we head on up the highway and back into SD. We're on SD 50 for a ways when our Road Captain, Muthuh, has a breakdown with his little one-wheeled trailer he's haulin behind his bike. Seems the pivot bolt in the trailer's swing arm decided to take its own route. We ended up pushin an allen key thru the hole and duck-tapin the hell outta it to keep it from backin out. Muthuh finished the entire trip on this bit of roadside engineerin.

We were gonna stay off the interstates the rest of the way, but SD 50 got pretty rough, and we were worried 'bout our roadside fix survivin the bumps...soooo we begrudgingly jumped up to I-90 and hauled ass. By this time the temps had risen well above 100 and a damned strong crosswind was hittin us hard from the South. If it wasn't so uncomfortable, it would be comical watchin us headin across I-90 leanin like we were hangin a hard sweeper...but still travelin a straight line. We enjoyed these conditions for the next 200 miles...200 miles of nuthin...with a little bit 'o nuthin plugged in here 'n there. This store's name kinda says it all.

It's late Friday afternoon, and we finally hit the exit for the Badlands National Park. After a nice break at the first scenic pullout and visitor's center at the Badlands...we head on over to the Badlands KOA for the night where we set up a trap for a suspected beer thief. LOL It's just my bud, Bulldog, clownin 'round. He had the lid of his trailer propped open, lookin like a damned animal trap of sorts...so we set up this sequence of shots.

After gettin settled in to our cabins, Bulldog and I head off to the town of Interior 'bout four miles away for supplies (read booze) and gas. Turns out there's only two ways to gas up in Interior...1) pull up to a lonely pump sittin on the side of the road, pump yer gas, and walk over and pay the bartender at the dive across the street, or 2) go around the corner and buy some gas outta a barrel from the bed of Joe's pickup. For whatever reason, we chose the bar pump...go figure.

Anyways, we turn in early that night 'cause we're gettin up before daybreak and headin into the Badlands to watch the sunrise from an easterly facin pullout. As our Road Captain said, this was a religious experience. Here's four of our crew enjoyin the sunrise...from left to right...Bulldog, Cuz, TJ (yours truly), and Monk. Here's my bud, Cuz, goin tribal on us. And a few other shots of our early mornin experience in the Badlands.

After our early mornin jaunt thru the Badlands, we head on over to Wall, SD and wander 'round the shops of Wall Drug. Check out this shot of me and a li'l hottie I met in Wall.

After breakfast and picking up my first (and proly most important) trip gift...a silver and turquoise bracelet for my OL...we make tracks to Sturgis, arriving somewhere 'round noon. Now I don't know what Muthuh did for the little campin coordinator lady at the Buffalo Chip Campground...hey, what happens on bike rides, stays on bike rides...but she had us fixed up proper when we arrived. Most campers were packed into the open fields like sardines...but we had this nice little what looked like a little island reserved just for us...roped off with Budweiser banners that read "VIP Camping Annex - Reserved for Muthuh". It was an oasis of green grass and shade trees in the midst of dirt and rocks. There was only one way in and out thru a covered bridge, and was surrounded on three sides by a little creek. Ahhh, paradise.

After settin up camp and relaxin for a few minutes, most of the guys head off to the airport to pick up their OL's. And me...well, I sauntered over to the main concert/vendor area and got MY trip souvenier.

Let's see...I had never been to Sturgis...and never been inked...popped both those cherries within the first hour-and-a-half of arrival. Damn...thought I wuz gonna be a virgin the rest of my life. hehheh

Anyways, I'm not gonna go into a lotta detail 'bout Sturgis or the Buffalo Chip. We wandered 'round the Chip a little...didn't see all that much to write home about. Sure, there was plenty of partyin goin on...and plenty of topless hoochy mommas...and plenty of whatever...but if'n you've seen any pics of Sturgis then you've seen all the shit I didn't take pics of. Tell you what though...you'd think most of those Homers there had never seen a set of tits before. Did go down to Main Street Sunday afternoon...walked 'bout half a block...told the others I couldn't take any more of that shit...hopped back on my scoot and made tracks back to camp. I'm not knockin it fer the rest of ya's...but I just can't take that many fuckin people in my face every damned step of the way.

Of course, we did take the obligatory day rides around the area, takin in sights like Mt. Rushmore, Needles Highway, etc. I enjoyed those sights, but it was like ridin in a fookin parade. Like I said in my previous post...the big rallies are not for me. We ended up in Hill City, SD where we picked up some t-shirts at less-than-Sturgis prices, and I picked up the first of several fossils for my son.

Here's Cuz tellin one more lie before we struck camp and got the hell outta Dodge 'bout 9:00 Monday morn, Aug. 7. We ran up I-90 a short hop, and then jumped off on a li'l highway that took us to Devils Tower in Wyoming. For those of you that don't know, Devils Tower is the core of an ancient volcano. The core solidified, and then over the eons, the surrounding mountain terrain eroded away. This thing is one huge chunk 'o rock...twas a pretty impressive sight.

After Devils Tower, we landed in Buffalo, WY for the night. After settlin into our cabins at the Indian Campground, we fired up the grill, laid upon it dead animals of our choice, and proceeded to wash down the road grime once again with the desired spirits. Here's a rare shot of me tendin to the grill. If you had ever sampled my cookin, you'd know why they don't let me do this all that much. hehheh

We had met an Australian couple earlier in the afternoon, and invited 'em to join us. They had shipped their bike to somewhere in California, and was ridin it on a tour of the US...even asked me how to get to the Dragon in my neck 'o woods...so they must be plannin on hittin the Eastern US also. They ended up teachin us Aussie slang words and phrases...err...ya'll excuse me for a minute while I go take a slash in the dunny. Ok I'm back. The Aussies gave some of us some souveniers from Australia...includin a t-shirt for me to take home to my son. Nice folks they were. Discovered a discomforting tidbit though...they said that bikers in Australia weren't that friendly towards one another...said they never ran into situations like us invitin them to dinner that night. Thinkin back on it...they did seem a little hesitant to join us at first...but soon joined in the festivities...and a good time was had by all. I say if a biker is unfriendly over there...they can just rack off! Hey, I'm pickin up this Aussie shit rather well, eh. Sorry, but I seemed to have failed to get any pics of the Aussies.

The next mornin (Tue., Aug. 8) we hop on I-90 and head West for a little piece. We jump off at Ranchester, WY onto 14 which runs up over the Bighorn Mountains. We stopped at a little museum and fossil shop where I picked some more fossils for my son...and did a little clownin 'round. Now the Bighorns wuz a pretty ride. One thing I noticed 'bout mountains out there...back here at home, you ride up one side, and then almost immediately, yer droppin back down the other side...out there, you ride up one side, spend miles upon miles toolin across the mountain top in meadows, forests, etc., and THEN you drop back down the other side...or sometimes you just start up another mountain. Here's some shots from our climb up the Eastern side...and a couple shots of Fallen City, which was a large rock formation that had collapsed down the mountain side...and a couple shots of us toolin across the Bighorns...and a shot of our Road Captain, Muthuh, and his OL, Kim, as we're makin our way across the top of the Bighorns.

Well, this puts us 8 days into my 18 day journey...and that's all I have put together so far...

...stay tuned...there's more to come...