Summer Trip 2010 #7 Sturgis

Our final week in Sturgis was very busy and lots of fun. Mason, (Jim's brother) and his wife Judy came to Sturgis to camp with us and tour the Black Hills. They arrived on Saturday, the last day of bike week so we rode the camp bus into town to show them all the bikes and crazies. We did some T-shirt shopping and enjoyed the sights. That night, our friends from Fredericksburg had to leave early and gave us their concert tickets to see the Doobie Brothers at the Buffalo Chip. Again we rode the camp bus out to the Buffalo Chip. The concert was great but it got so cold we had to go and buy long sleeve t-shirts to put under our jackets. The next day we went to Deadwood and Judy and I tried our luck at gambling and the guys waited for us in the bars. I finally won a little so I was pretty happy. On another day we went to Custer State Park. We saw lots of wildlife; it was such a fun day. Our first encounter was a buffalo walking along the street. He was so close to our truck we could have reached out and patted him. We continued to see lots of buffalos and lots of buffalo babies. Then we came upon a white donkey. He came right up to the truck so Mason fed him a fig newton. He loved them so we ended up giving him the rest of the figs in the box. Needless to say he was Mason's buddy. Then we came upon some baby burros. They were so cute. I wanted to take the one above home but Jim said no way. What a party pooper. From there we went to Needles highway. It is a very curvy road with the most unusual rock structures. We went to 3 rock tunnels and they were very tight, so tight that Mason scraped his mirror going thru. One evening we had a cookout and our friends from Sturgis came. We had such a nice visit with them. Mason and Judy had met them on a previous trip so it was fun for all of us. On other trip, we went to yhe Broken Boot Gold Mine. It was really cool. Mason and Judy had never been inside a gold mine so it was a real treat for them. From there we drove through Spearfish Canyon. It is so beautiful and lots of streams and a neat waterfall. We all took our shoes off and soaked our feet. We ate lunch in a little town and decided to check out an antique store. Mason found a wall phone he couldn't live without and the lady sold it to him for half price. He was one happy camper. Every night, we played canasta with Mason and Judy and just had so much fun. We all departed Sturgis on Saturday. Mason and Judy got home to Tulsa on Sunday afternoon and Jim and I have made it as far as Iowa. We plan on getting home by Wednesday afternoon.

Summer Trip 2010 #6

Jim and I have had a wonderful time riding around the Black Hills. I have ridden nearly 500 miles on my bike since we got here! I've gotten so comfortable on my motorcycle and have really enjoyed the rides. Our longest ride was out to Crazy Horse. It is the largest mountain carving honoring the Indian hero, Crazy Horse and all North American Indians. The carving was started in 1947 and as you can see, only the face is done. The second picture is a replica of what it will look like when finished. We've ridden to Deadwood, a gambling western town. We rode out to Spearfish Canyon which is a beautiful ride and had lunch at the Spearfish Lodge. Along the way we stopped with other bikers at certain picture spots. Jim was really testing me as I had to back into narrow spots on hills and curves. I was sure I would tap a bike while backing in causing a domino effect of falling bikes, but I actually had no problem. Now pulling out from a hill on a curve with bikers coming from both directions was tricky but I actually had no problem. I really surprised myself. The third picture is of Main Street in Sturgis taken from a tower. Our friend took the picture and Jim and I are actually standing on the right hand side of the street about a fourth from the bottom. I actually parked my bike downtown in all that traffic too. We rode out to the famous Buffalo Chip Campground to see Credence Clearwater. What an awesome concert. It was wonderful. The traffic getting there was unbelievable. It took two hours to get there and it is normally a 20 minute ride when it is not bike week. The 2nd concert we went to out there was to see Bob Dylan and Kid Rock. We decided to take the campground bus to that concert and it still took 2 hours, but the bus driver did the driving not us. I loved the Kid Rock concert - he has so much energy and he had the crowd roaring. It was really fun being a part of the excitement.

The last few nights we have been going down to Main Street to watch all the people with our camping neighbors and our friend, Ed Steckler. It has been a hoot watching all the crazy people and seeing all the different bikes. Bike week ends Sunday morning, and tomorrow Jim's brother, Mason and his wife Judy are coming in. We plan on having a quiet week and doing some more touring around with them.

Summer Trip 2010 #5

We have been in Sturgis a week now and we have already done so much. Poor Jim, everywhere we go people crowd around my bike and they never acknowledge Jim's Harley. I even had a guy lay down on Main St. and look underneath my bike and taking all kinds of pictures. Friends here at the campground have been teasing Jim, letting him know he is only along for the ride with me. One evening the guys put my pink sheepskin on Jim's bike and told him maybe if he put the sheepskin on his bike people would look. I'm sure they would but for the wrong reasons! I have been getting a lot of good experience riding out here. Some of it not planned, like riding in the rain, and riding in the dark. But some of it planned like riding the Black Hills in the National Forest Park. Got lots of experience riding up and down hills and around curves. I was a little intimidated at first but quickly got comfortable. We have ridden about 300 miles since we got here. Our trip to Crazy Horse Monument tomorrow will be 130 miles round trip. We have had rain almost every night but most days are sunny but one, it rained during the day. That was the day we got caught in the rain. Thankfully, we were only two miles from the campground, but I tell you it was pretty scary for me, especially since 1 1/2 miles was on the freeway. Once we got back we watched the storm on the TV and the campground owner had his kids running around telling everyone hail was expected. We put quilts on our bikes then our covers and they did just fine. We had strong winds and pea size hail so we lucked out. But 20 miles away in Lead, SD they had 8 inches of golf ball size hail and they had to bring in plows to clean up the streets for the stranded bikers to get through. Our friend, Ed Steckler arrived this week. Him and Jim are happy right now because the scantily clothed ladies are coming into town.

Summer Trip 2010 #4

We left Forest City, Iowa on Sunday morning and headed for Sturgis, SD for the motorcycle rally. We were having a great trip, enjoying the beautiful scenery, and the beautiful weather, when all of a sudden, Jim said the motorhome lost power and was belching black smoke out the exhaust. We could barely make 35 miles per hour on even a very small grade. It was about 10 anxious miles to a rest area, where Jim call the Freightliner help line. It was comforting to know that we were still under warrenty and Freightliner would cover a tow if we needed it. After talking to customer service at Freightliner and to customer service at Cummins (engine), we decided to drive the RV the 40 miles to Sioux Falls, SD to the Cummins Engine Service. We spent the night in their parking lot and the next morning they started on the RV promptly at 7:30am. Jim had already looked at the engine and found a turbo boost hose on the engine had blown off. Cummins found the cause to be a broken clamp. We were on our way in an hour. The rest of the drive went great. We reached Sturgis, SD Monday afternoon and got our motorcycles unloaded and the RV set up and we are again happy campers. Our little trailer hauling our motorcycles has done just fine. When we got to the campground, the owner (Matt) came out and gave us a big hug and big welcome. (This is our third time here). We are camped up on top of a hill where we have wonderful views of the Black Hills, and a constant breeze. We are looking forward to being here a few weeks. After we unloaded the bikes, and parked the bikes and RV, Matt hooked up our trailer and brought it up the hill for us and parked it near the motorhome. Our tattoo artist friends from Germany are already here. They come every year all the way from Germany. They say the money is that good. We also got reacquainted with the little kids that walked our dogs for us during the day, only they are not little anymore. Brady and Layton are now 15 and 16 years old. I was worried they might feel to big to be dog walkers but Layton said he would be glad to. Brady the 16 year old will be working the campground resturant this year and he is really excited about earning lots of money. Next week is the pre-rally for bike week. We have been told that they are expecting 700-800 people this year. Jim and I were going to ride out to the grocery store and the Buffalo Chip campground to get concert tickets this afternoon but it looks like rain. Since we have no car, we will have to wait til the rain clears. I am definitely a fair weather biker!

Summer Trip 2010 #3

The rally went into full swing starting Monday. The day was full of RV seminars, entertainment, arts and crafts - you name it - there was something to do everyday all day. Some of my favorites were a tribute to Elvis by a young man named Brad Boice. He sure was great. He put on a show in the morning and then again in the afternoon. Janet and I enjoyed the morning show together and when he sang Blue Hawaii, he picked me and this other lady to get up and be his hula dancers while he sang. It was a riot. Of course we didn't have the camera with us! Then in the afternoon, Jim and I watched his show again. Jim thought he was the best Elvis impersonator he'd ever seen and we've seen a lot. Jim and Joe spent most of the days attending various seminars. Jim must have asked a million questions at each of them. Joe said he had to leave after an hour; it was just too much technical info at once, but not Jim he stayed to the bitter end. Monday evening they had a Comedian, Jeff Allen from TN, for the main entertainment. He talked about his wife and kids (teen boys) throughout the whole evening and if you ever raised teenagers, you couldn't help but laugh your ass off. Jim and I were thinking we sure can relate to a lot of his stories with Donnie and Davie stories. They offered hot air balloon rides, first come first served, in the evenings starting around six. I almost forgot about it when Janet reminded me and we rode over to the balloon location on our bikes and were able to get in line right behind two other people so we were assured to get on. I have always been fascinated with watching hot air balloons but never went up on one and never realized how much work it was to get it up. It took several people holding ropes to spread out the balloon on the ground and then they used this powerful fan and blew air into the balloon. It took quite a while to get it set up and then they no sooner got it up when a storm brewed up real fast and they immediately took it down and deflated the whole thing. After about a half hour they started the whole procedure again and this time we were able to go up. It was tethered to the ground so we didn't fly off anywhere but we definitely got the feeling of being up in the air. Tuesday was the row parties. All the states cook up a meal or treat special to their state and you go around sampling all the different treats. Virginia row cooked up Brunswick Stew. Our state got a lot of compliments on how tasty our stew was. They also had a polka band that drove around the campground going up and down all the state rows playing and cutting up with the audience. One of the performers in the band is a guy dressed up as a woman. I think he called himself Melvina. As you can see from the attached picture, he was having a ball cutting up with everyone. He sat down in my chair with me and wanted to know whose boobs were bigger mine or his - and of course his were! Wednesday night the entertainment was the Blooze Brothers Band from Chicago. There were excellent. Two of the singers were called Jake and Elwood imitating Joe Balushi (sp?) and Dan Akroyd from Saturday night live. It was a great show and the band had so much fun they even played an extra half hour. Jim and I and Janet and Joe enjoyed dancing to the oldies but goodies from the 70's. So much fun. The last entertainment for the rally was Thursday night. It featured Barbara and Frank (the concert that never was) from Las Vegas, NV. They were great too and if you didn't know better you would have thought it was really Barbara Streisand and Frank Sinatra. Thursday night we had a terrific rain storm after the show. The campground was a muddy mess on Friday, when a lot of people were leaving. Lots of folks got stuck and some even swerved into other motorhomes as they were trying to negotiate their way through the mud. One of our VA state row friends RV got struck. Thankfully they are scheduled for service on Monday at the factory so they will be able to get their paint job fixed. That is one thing you do not want to do is slide when your trying to negotiate those big motorhomes. Jim and I and Joe and Janet stayed on an extra day so we didn't have to get caught up in the slippery getaway. Joe and Janet are leaving for home in Oklahoma on Saturday and Jim and I will leave on Sunday. Jim is scheduled to tour the Historic Minute Man Missile Site near Wall, SD. It is now a national park offering tours of a cold war missile silo. After that, we will go straight to Sturgis for Bike Week pre-rally and rally. After the rally, Mason and Judy are joining us to finish up our trip. We will be back home about the 3rd week of August.

Summer Trip 2010 #2

We have been busy enjoying the pre-rally this week. We've been checking out the little stores down town and have enjoyed eating breakfast in town. Thursday night, we had a row party with all the RV'rs from VA. We really had a grand time and have met some people who have a home not far from us in Stafford, but they rented out their home and decided to full time it for two years. Friday night, our Winnebago club from VA met at the Branding Iron (a steak resturant) in a little town of Thompson not far from Forest City. Every time we come to the rally we travel to this steak resturant for a delightful dinner. The pictures above are of Jim and I and Joe and Janet at the Branding Iron. We've been stopping in everyday at the little Winnebago surplus store here at the campground. I bought several bolts of upholstery material. Don't know what I'm going to do with it but at $2 a roll, I had to get it. Janet got a beautiful queen size bedspread for $5. Joe bought a sheet of Iron On Winnebago logos for 25 cents. Jim wouldn't spend the 25 cents because he wanted to see how Joe's logos turned out. Well Joe ironed the logo on a hat and Jim was like a puppy dog asking Joe if he was going to share some of the logos with him. And being the good guy that Joe is, he cut off a few for Jim to iron on. You would have thought Jim had a real prize there. He was routing around in the closet looking for shirts to iron on the logos. Saturday was Puckerbrush Day in town. So we went to town to watch the parade. They also had entertainment all day on the courthouse lawns and out in the main street. We thoroughly enjoyed watching the little kids catching candy from all various parade units and after the parade they had a tractor pull for little kids. It was so cute watching them. We took Baxter to the Parade with us since we are crate training him I didn't think he could hold himself for the time we were at the parade. He wasn't the least bit impressed with all the noise and people. He preferred to sleep the whole time. But as soon as we got back to the campground he knew where he was and he was fired up. He was running all around and greeting people and other dogs and just having a ball. There must be 40 or so other little Yorkies here. The last pic above is Baxter in his puppy diaper. We are crate training him but we don't want to keep him in the crate all the time in the motorhome so when we're there with him we put the diaper on him and let him have the run of the place. He doesn't seem to mind it and I'm sure it beats staying in the crate. The Grand National Rally kicks off Sunday evening. Prior to that our VA row is going to have a wine and cheese party before the festivities.

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Summer Trip 2010 #1

Well we are on the road again in our RV. We left home July 6th and our first stop is the Winnebago Grand National Rally in Forest City, Iowa. Our next stop is Sturgis, SD. We don't have a tow car on this trip but we are towing our motorcycles in a trailer. This will be a new experience for us, not having a car. We met up with friends from our Winnebago club from Virginia and also our two friends, Joe and Janet Utley, from Tulsa, Oklahoma at Amana, Iowa. Then we all caravaned to Forest City Forest City on Sunday. After getting set up, the four of us took a ride around town and pointed out the Winnebago factory to Joe and Janet and the grocery store, etc. The town is very small, only about 4,000 population. But it is a very family oriented town. After our ride and ice cream at A&W, we went back to the town square and listened to the Forest City Municiple Band under the shade of the oak trees. It was a very enjoyable first night. Jim and Joe go back a long way as airplane buddies. Joe and Janet recently bought a Winnebago motorhome and we invited them to meet us at the rally. This week is known as the pre-rally. Not a whole lot is going on, except trips downtown Forest City and lots of happy hours. We have a pot luck dinner planned for all the Virginia RVr's here at the rally on Thursday. Then our club is going to go to a steak resturant called the Branding Iron just outside of Forest City. The town of Forest City celebrates Puckerbrush Day (I told you it was a small town) and they have a parade, and all kinds of entertainment and they close off the main street in town and set up these big cookers for chicken and corn. So we'll be going there on Saturday. Sunday is the kickoff day for the Grand National Rally and all kinds of activities are planned. Oh and before I forget, we have a new addition to our family. We have a little 12 week old Yorkie, named Baxter. He is the cutest thing and he has really gotten in to this camping. He loves going for walks and greeting people and when we head back to the motorhome he goes racing across the lawn and knows which motorhome to stop at. That is pretty amazing since they are expecting 1200 motorhomes this year and most of them are already here.