Sturgis, SD - Hey, where'd everybody go?

On Day 1 of my "bucket list" motorcycle ride to Sturgis, SD and Devil's Tower in Wyo, I rode to Chadron, Ne, about 430 miles west of Omaha. In preparation for the ride, I had taken a 100 mile ride a few days before just to see what it was like. I thought if I could do 100 miles, I could do 400. It turns out I was right. And then I figured if I could one full day of riding, I could do four. It turns out I was also right. But that's a long ride. * * * * * * * * I have a 2007 Kawasaki Vulcan 500. Not a big motorcycle, in fact, on the small size for touring, but large enough to travel on the highway for a single rider. It performed well averaging about 50 mpg. I found 70 mph to be a comfortable cruising speed when the road opened up. The temperature was 104f by the time I got to Chadron and it was 49f when I left Sheridan.* * * * * * Sturgis, SD, has had a motorcycle rally since 1938. They skipped a couple of years during WWII due to gasoline rationing so this year was the big 75th Annual Sturgis Rally and over a million people attended according to one report. There were 14 fatalities and 152 injury accidents. A good portion of visitors travel in RV's bringing their motorcycles on trailers. Local residents rent space in their backyards for campers for $100 a night. And RV parks and campgrounds for miles around have booming business for the few days around the rally. Bathroom facilities are at a premium everywhere. Concerts and races and hill climbing and parties and lots and lots of drinking are the basic activities. Hundreds of vendors sell T-shirts and other souvenirs and about anything else you can think of. I bought a T-shirt. I got there about a week after the big rally, but there were still hundreds of bikers around town and I saw many on the road going in both directions from Sturgis. The town has only about 7,000 residents and the rally is a huge money maker for the town, to the tune of about $280 million. * * * * * * * Here are some notes and thoughts from my trip: Rode to Sturgis SD today (day 2)a d took pics of the empty streets and a few of the notable taverns and bought a T-shirt...... then rode to Devil's Tower, Wyo and did the hike around the perimeter of the Tower. What a remarkable geographic feature.......Devil's Tower has many Native American names: Bear House, Bear Lair, Aloft on a Rock, and some others. Native American leaders have petitioned the US government to name the rock Bear Lodge. I think the 'bear' appellation is because the vertical surfaces look a giant bear's claw marks. Geologists believe it to be a magma extrusion or a volcanic plug and hundreds of feet of surrounding soil above it has eroded away over the eons mostly by the Belle Fourche River to leave that unique formation. The facets are due to the crystalline structure of the rock and stress fractures caused by freezing and thawing and huge temperature differences over time. If you think of the Colorado River carving the Grand Canyon, you get the idea. Then I rode another 130 miles to Sheridan, Wyo, where my nephew and his family live now. Somebody said you can't go home again.......but I went. Saw my old house where I lived from 1955 to 1961. It's now a beauty parlor! And the tree lined divided boulevard is a four lane street. And the house seemed so small. * * * * * * So on my ride today (day 3) I noticed many interesting names of creeks, and gulches, and roads: Crazy Woman Gulch, Dead Horse Creek, Dry Bones Road, etc. They all tell stories about the settling of the West I presume and about the hardships and travails of the early pioneers. And then there was Kingsbury Road - surely a local and successful fellow I presume. English I suspect. Possibly a local cattle baron. It provided an interesting contrast to the other names. I started in Sheridan, Wyo this morning at 49f. Brrrr. Glad I took the full leathers. I don't wear those chaps much, but they sure helped today. Rained for about 90 mins. around Moorcroft and south, and the rain jacket worked great. Rode through the southern Black Hills and Hot Springs and am now back in Chadron. It didn't warm up much till about 30 miles north of Chadron...... Last leg of trip tomorrow back home to Omaha........ There is an association of riders called Iron Butt Riders of America or something like that. They ride enormous distances in a day -- a thousand or more to get in. (later, I looked it up and they have to ride 1,000 in a 24 hour period) I apparently max out under 500 miles and am in a different association, the Association of Wimpy Numb Butt Crybabies group. * * * * * * * A thing about riding a mc is you are in an intense relationship with the pavement and the wind and the feel of the bike and are always making corrections to compensate for all those factors. A car gives you much more leeway and lenience in dealing with those same factors. But the wind has much more effect on a mc. A slight increase in wind from one side of the other will move your bike in the lane. It's a moving zen moment with the ever current present. I am not "blue tooth" equipped with SiriusXM. I did try to occupy myself with mental exercises like figuring gas mileage from the last fill-up. Ever try dividing 84 by 1.7 in your head? I brought up rock and roll music my band plays from our playlist and listened in my head to as many tunes as I could remember. The Who's "I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles" was a favorite. I thought of Ted Kooser poems I remembered and made a mental list of all the novels I've read and visualized my favorite abstract artists' paintings. I tried mentally working on Ch. 5 of Has Anybody Seen My Picasso" without much luck. It's much easier in front of a keyboard than behind a mc windshield. Other times I'd be in a stream of consciousness of memories of childhood in Sheridan, or other trips, or who knows where the mind wanders, that would make James Joyce proud. But much of the time, I'd have no thoughts, a clear mind, and exist only in the physical sensory moment. * * * * * * * * * After studying weather radar maps and forecasts from several different sources last night and this morning and seeing no rain in the western half of NE, I decided it would be okay to ride on back to Omaha (day 4). As soon as I headed south out of Chadron I immediately ran into cold, heavy, drizzly fog for about 40 miles with visibility of 100 yards or so at its worst just south of Chadron but gradually better to Alliance. Temps were in the high 50s. Then another 2 1/2 hours of off and on light to medium rain.....So much for my weather analysis. But all the rain gear worked well and the rain stopped around Thedford and I continued my way through the Sandhills on Hiway 2. Very pretty country. Rolling hills, lakes, meadows, sunflowers and daisies, the occasional trees, a few cows and horses, for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles........I am now safely home and I am starting to get the feeling back in my backside......... It was a great trip! Glad I don't have another 450 mile ride tomorrow.