Trip to Sturgis 2010 Comes to End

We got to Grand Forks on Wednesday after coming through the border south of Creston. On Thursday we went to Laurel Beach and Jane and I stayed in the river until our hands were wrinkled. It was incredible. Thursday evening we went to the Station Pub and here's a picture of me and my 19 year old niece Kimmy having a beer there. Our trip home today was under clear skies, except for the smoke at Keremeos where three helicopters and a water bomber were trying to put out the forest fires on a hillside near town. The trip to Sturgis was a great adventure. We recommend it to all who dare.

Change of Plan - Re-routed to Libby, Montana

We left Bozeman this morning at 7:30. It was cool, so we wore our raingear over top of our clothes. When we got to Townsend, Montana we met a woman with a pickup truck full of dogs. She was driving with them in the back with the tailgate down. They use the dogs to round up their thousand head of cattle and they were on their way to chase cows this morning. The two breeds in the back of the truck were Blue Healers and Australian Shepherds. The Shepherds have one or two white eyes.
I missed the secondary road that cuts from Seeley Lake over to St. Ignatius, so we carried on to Kallispell, Montana. The Oak Ridge Boys were giving a free concert there so the motel owners decided to charge double. We carried on to Libby. Today was our longest travel day of the trip at 425 miles. This makes our trip to Grand Forks a lot shorter tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing the gang there!

Back in Montana Again

Jane and I started the day off at McDonald's singing Happy Birthday and eating birthday cake with a group of seniors. We left Cody, Wyoming and made our first stop at the Buffalo Bill Dam. It is a pretty cool dam built in 1910, narrow and 300 feet tall. It feeds four small powerhouses. Yellowstone Park is looking burned up still from the huge forest fire in 1988. The lake is huge. The geyser was better than I thought and the park must be about the size of New Brunswick.
We hope to make it to St. Ignatius, Montana tomorrow and Grand Forks, B.C. on Wednesday.

More Pictures of Sturgis

I put 20 pictures of Sturgis in an album on my Facebook page if you want to get a better idea what it was like for us there. Here is the link, if you are a friend of mine on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=474100&id=766335503&saved

Hello from Cody, Wyoming

We left Buffalo for Buffalo Bill Cody's namesake town in Wyoming. We left at 9:00 a.m. and when we went over the Powder River Pass at 9,666 feet, it was really cold. As we came down the hill it warmed up considerably. A great sunny day overall. We stopped for breakfast at Worland after we accidently went past our turn. We picked a restaurant with four motorcycles outside and inside we found they belonged to Rob Hodgins, who works at Burrard Generating Station with me and his group. Here they are in the picture with Rob on the left, his girlfriend Lori, Loralie and Gary. They were heading for Jackson. What a surprise! Once in Cody, Jane and I went to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. It was very interesting. Tomorrow we are off to Jellystone Park. Hey Boo Boo!

Made it to Buffalo, Wyoming

Needless to say, we woke up late today. We had to scramble to make checkout by 11:00. We got pulled over in the park by a State Trooper. Jane told him she liked his outfit, then asked if she could take a picture of him and did before he answered. Fortunately, we only got a warning. Shortly after, we ran into a massive buffalo and realized they were free to travel on their own throughout the park. It was blowing pretty hard and partly cloudy all day. It slowed us down, but we didn't get wet. Tomorrow we will leave Buffalo and head for Cody to prepare for a motorcycle tour of Yellowstone National Park on Monday.

Last Day in Sturgis

We had another great day in Sturgis. The Full Throttle Saloon is the greatest! Main Street was a little cooler than the day before and we covered more area by foot today. Guns 'n Roses took too long to take the stage. It had to be an hour or more after Alice in Chains. People were leaving and throwing things at the stage. We came too far to leave early. When they came out, they were phenomenal! Axel still has his voice. His new guitarist DJ had a flawless performance. We made it home at 3:30 a.m. and have to check out now. Our target today is Buffalo, Wyoming.

The Real Arrival in Sturgis Picture

I had some technical malfunctions yesterday. This is the picture that should have been posted with our arrival in Sturgis. I don't know what happened. Sorry about that.

Arrival in Sturgis

We made it to Sturgis! I can barely contain my excitement. There is a big party going on here! We rode down main street when we arrived, too. That parade of motorcycles goes all day. Tomorrow we will make a couple of loops again before taking our motorcycle to secure parking in a shaded yard. After checking into our room in Rapid City this afternoon and getting some supper, we went out to Mount Rushmore and then the Crazy Horse Monument. That is one crazy sculpture! Tomorrow we are going to see Guns 'n Roses. It should be a blast.

Almost at Sturgis

Our plan today was to get within shooting distance of Sturgis and we were successful. We travelled 352 miles to Ekalaka, Montana. The morning was spent getting to Billings. It was a bit cool, but sunny. We took the motorcycle to a car wash in Billings because it was just too dirty. Later in the day we took a detour on 25 miles of dirt road due to road construction. Now the bike is even dirtier. Just before arriving at Ekalaka, we toured Medicine Rocks State Park just north of here. Amazing rock formations. We should be at Sturgis by noon tomorrow. We are very excited!

Moving through Montana

Our morning was spent today dealing with cold, wet weather. After lunch it cleared up and we made good time along some of the most scenic roads in Montana that were referred to us from bikers we met at morning coffee (ZZ Top look-alikes). Jane is pictured at a lookout at the top of a mountain pass we took on the way to Helena from Lincoln. We travelled 363 miles today, and if we can do the same tomorrow, we will be within 100 miles of Sturgis.

Made it to Montana

We went 234 miles the first day to Wenatchee and we travelled 286 miles today to get to Thompson Falls, Montana. We went up a big hill north of Wenatchee and came onto the prairie. Then we saw something similar to the grand canyon. They called it a coulee. Just a beautiful day and another great ride. The road from Kingston on I-90 here reminded us of Grand Forks, B.C. Everybody was tubing down the river. Jane used up the battery in the camera. There is a hydro generating station here built in 1915 that provides 95 MW of generation (Click on the picture to make it bigger).

Heading out to Sturgis, SD

It was pretty damp in Vancouver this morning. When we got to the border my jeans were wet from the knees down just from the mist. They were dry by the time we stopped at the Vintage Cafe in Everett for lunch before heading out Highway 2 East. We wore our rain pants for the ride over Steven's Pass. It was cold up there, but down here on the other side it is like a typical summer day in the Okanagan. We are enjoying the pool and hot tub at the Best Western and we might go have a burger at Dusty's. It looks like a cool place. Maybe tomorrow we can make it to Missoula, Montana!

A Ride Across the Line

Blake took the day off yesterday and he and I rode to Bellingham for the first service on Blake's new Fat Boy Lo. We explored Bellingham a bit while the bike was in the shop, but the best part of the trip was stopping in at my cousin Shannon and John's place in Birch Bay. Kacey and Graham were there with Joad and Graham's parents and aunt Nadine. Johnny served us a great barbecued cheese burger to help get us home.

A Ride out to Cultus Lake

Sunday afternoon we took a ride out Zero Avenue to Abbotsford, then on to Yarrow and Cultus Lake. It was a great ride along the border and back. The lake is a real hotspot!

Off to Vancouver Island for the Weekend

On Saturday morning the boys and their buddies dropped in for breakfast on their way to Victoria for an overnighter. That's quite a motorcycle gang!

The Burn Ride

The HOG ride I went on last weekend was the best. We escorted a few busloads of burn kids out to their first day of camp near Stave Lake. More than a hundred Harley Davidsons took part. When we got there we had a big barbecue and gave rides to the kids on our motorcycles. They were very happy to have us there. I am looking forward to next year's burn ride. In the picture, a group of burn kids are making their choice for the best motorcycle award.

Overnight Trip to Lillooet

Jane and I took a trip to Lillooet for a stay overnight earlier this month. It turns out that there is a free concert outside every Friday night there all summer. The concert we attended featured the Blue Voodoos blues band. They were exceptional. We had a good trip up through Pemberton and back through the Canyon. Maybe we will make another Friday night concert in Lillooet this year.

New Handlebars for the Big Green Bike

Since Blake got the big Apehanger handlebars for his Fat Boy Lo, I took a shine to his stock handlebars and got some 1 1/4" risers so I could install them on my bike. I like them a lot - they lower my hand position just enough to improve comfort, they are internally wired and I think they look great, too!

Collector Plates for the old Kawasaki

Dusty applied for Collector Plates for his 1979 Kawasaki EH100 a long time ago. He received them in early July. We took our bikes for a ride down to Starbucks at Robson and Thurlow. A fellow there remembered that we had the Kawasaki there once before. That was amazing. It is a great little 2-stroke bike with only 1000 km on it!

Blake's New Bike

#2 son Blake decided to buy his new Fat Boy Lo in June. He got the big black apehanger handlebars and blacked out signal lights. I like the license plate holder. With the lone leather HD saddle bag, it is a great looking bike!

First HOG Ride of the Year

One of the first Harley Owner's Group rides of the year was one to Harrison Hot Springs in May. What a great destination for a ride out the Lougheed Highway. It was awesome! And the pub we stopped at in Harrison Hot Springs had some great food. Conversation at lunch centred around Sturgis. The ride back included a tour of Rosedale. I had never been there, it was very beautiful. Very nice ride.

Ride Down to Demo Day

Dusty and I wanted to go to Demo Day at Trev Deeley's in April to try out the new Sportster lineup. I put the video camera back on the handlebar of my motorcycle and followed the young folks all the way from our place to Trev Deeley's. This time I sped it up a bit and set it to a little Blackeyed Peas music. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUfzXc8Q_VQ.

Robson Ride

In early April #1 son, Dusty and I went to the Car Show at GM Place. I attached the video camera to my handlebar and taped Dusty riding up Robson toward the Garage, then I put in a little George Thorogood music after that. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37zF09pWcbc.

Put my bike on the dyno

While I was busy in February volunteering for the Olympics driving speedskaters to the Olympic Oval, I had the guys from Trev Deeley's come and get the bike and put it on the dyno. With the new modified pipes and an Arlen Ness Big Sucker air filter, I wanted them to tune my Power Commander V for the best air/fuel ratio and power settings. I got 74.3 horsepower and 87.5 ft/lb of torque!

Dusty got new handlebars for Christmas

Although we had company for Christmas, Dusty and I spent the better part of the holidays in the driveway installing new Roland Sands designed handlebars on his bike. It was fun and they look amazing!

Modified Pipes

Since Dusty put straight pipes on his Street Bob when he bought it, in November I looked at his stock pipes with the idea of modifying them for sound and power. I welded in an automotive pipe and cut and shaped it to look like the old screaming eagle slip-on baffle. Sounds great! I eventually put together a youtube video of the process of taking the Harley to Stage 1. The sound is good, but the performance is even better. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOlhq_bKGSI.

Hallowe'en Pumpkin

For Hallowe'en I carved the Harley Davidson skull logo onto the pumpkin. It was the first pumpkin carving job I did that received a bunch of positive comments from the trick or treaters!

The Toy Ride

I just got back from the IPE National AGM in Winnipeg in early October when Dusty and I rode in the Toy Run to the PNE Grounds.

A Horse in a Drive Through?

On our way back, we stopped in Squamish and saw some horses going through the drive through at Wendy's.

First Good Ride

A week after we bought it Jane and I rode to Pemberton and took in a car show. It was a beautiful day and a great ride!

Buying my first Harley Davidson

Here I am in the store having a look at the 2009 Softail Custom that I bought when they dropped the price $3,000. This was Sept. 19, 2009.