Sturgis Ride 2008

Sturgis Ride 2008

Started out in Costa Mesa, California, Wednesday night, 6pm. I rode to Vegas by myself, hauling ass. Four hours from my door to my mom’s, with typical LA traffic.

In Sin City, two good buddies and traveling companions, Sam and Dennis from Keyboard Motorcycle Movers awaited. We met at Hooters Hotel for breakfast so we could plan our ride to Mecca, known to most as Sturgis, South Dakota.

Our original plan was to leave all together from the “OC,” so in that plan the first stop was Mesquite, NV, just 90 miles up the road. Obviously, that wasn’t going to work. So instead of planning it tightly, I called up all of our reservations and cancelled them. We were going to wing it.

It was hotter than shit. About 95 degrees out, t-short weather for sure, but we still wore our helmets, as the law in Nevada dictates. Our first leg was straight up the I-15, through that little corner of Arizona, and all the way through Utah. We cut off of the 15 at Provo, heading northeast on US-189 to Heber City. 

I’d suggest everybody stop in this town, super-friendly. We found a house converted to a restaurant, but I can’t remember the name. Utah’s not a dry state, but it’s got pretty stringent alcohol content laws, as well as alcohol licensing laws, so it’s hard to get a beer, and when you do, its not packin’ a punch. This restaurant had a band and a bar, and the locals knew how to party; we all got real friendly that night. In fact, I thought we’d picked up an extra passenger the next morning, but we managed to get away without any extra payload.

Continuing up 189, it joins up with I-80 for 80 miles, leading us into Wyoming. You can tell when you cross the border, besides the sign with the cowboy on it, there’s also a ton of porn stores in the first town, Evanston. The 189 splits off again before too long, and heads towards ski-town Jackson Hole, so we headed out that way.

At one point on US-189, halfway to nowhere, stopped at a liquor store to get our bearings (and a little something for later on), an old local walked up to us and started talking about our bikes. He gave us some suggestions for gas stops and directions. His best recommendation was to take his road. Right at the end of the parking lot there started a street (named after him) that went on for a hundred miles across his land. He claimed it was a short cut, but we didn’t care, it was cool to ride a road that next to nobody had been on, or was going to be on.

We pulled into our intended stop of Jackson Hole for lunch, and talked about where we were going to crash for the night now that I’d cancelled the reservation at the cheap motel. We decided to risk it and look for the unheard-of mid-August vacant room somewhere near Yellowstone. Yeah right!

I probably don’t need to tell you, the sights in this part of the country are unbelievable. The Grand Tetons (”Big Tits” in French!) towering above us, the lakes, the giant trees. We stopped wearing helmets after the first day, so we rode through Grand Teton, Yellowstone,and roads in between in t-shirts and no lids just taking in the sights and smelling the fresh trees, unbelievable.

Partway through the day we walked into one of the overrun hotels along our path and asked the magic question: “How much?” The lady behind the counter, with her cute accent, just laughed at us, saying that the hotel was booked up a year in advance. But with a little begging and cajoling, a room was found. The place was unreal. It faced the Grand Tetons, on the road to Yellowstone. After ten Jack ‘n’ Cokes it was good to have a bed to crawl into.

It was cold in the mountains the next morning, but that is what your jacket is for. There was a fire in part of Yellowstone, so there were detours and firefighting choppers buzzing over our heads, but after a run through the park, we weren’t going to be stopped from getting to Sturgis today.

After Yellowstone, we took US-14/20 to Cody. The terrain of western Wyoming is simply beautiful, and despite jonesing to be in Sturgis, we took our time in the morning hours soaking it all in. Especially, because eastern Wyoming is pretty damn boring. In Cody, it was about 100 degrees, so instead of charging across the flatland, we stayed on the US-14 through Greybull,WY and on up to Big Horn, WY. Good choice! The weather was great, and the mountains and lakes were gorgeous.

Once we got to Interstate 90 it was just a 200-mile drag race to Sturgis. With the warm weather, I was starting to think that the last three days, some of the best riding I’d ever done, were just fever dreams, that it all wasn’t real. Until I saw my first g-string clad bartender in Sturgis, and I knew this was no dream. It was on!

Even though I was at the Rally for most of a week, it all became a blur after the ride. There were girls and bikes, and girls, and world-class bike shows, and girls, and a speech by John McCain, and girls, and a Kiss concert… oh yea, and Girls!

I was in town to work, after all, this is my job. But once in the scene, its hard not to just slip into the festivities. Riding, Girls, socializing and Girls. F*ck it, check out the pictures if you want to know what happened.

 -Brad Olshen