2008 Sturgis Day 2

Yesterday I started off at 6AM from Yakima, Washington to try and finish my trek to Sturgis this year. But a few little things got in my way.

As you travel from Washington to Idaho, it is not the prettiest scenery you can find around, but as soon as you hit Idaho, that is a whole different story. Not to mention, for me at least, Idaho is the first state you can go helmetless without a mighty fine. So I stopped and enjoyed the scenery at different spots and stayed the speed limit so I could see as much as I could of the Idaho landscape.

That soon came to an end as I crossed into Montana, but luckily Montana is just as beautiful if not more as Idaho. The amazing thing about Montana for me is the almost purple soil that seems to exist in plenty in Montana. If you have never seen it, just imagine a very light purple.

As I made it about halfway through the state, I encountered a neat little biker festival called the Testy Festival. It is held August 1-3rd and I wish I planned time to spend at it. If you are ever planning to go to Sturgis from the West Coast, I encourage you to attend this biker event. I will write about it more in a couple of weeks and even have pictures of the event. Just say that the name says alot for the event and does not go far enough!

After spending a couple of hours there, I decided I needed to get going so I could make it to Billings and be able to get to Sturgis by Sunday afternoon. This is where the weather turned againist the bikers and really showed what she could do to bikers.

While the occasional shower was not too bad, the additional bits of lighting and thunder did much to make consider stopping but everytime I thought about stopping, I could see clear weather just ahead of me. It was like Mother Nature was goading me into getting into more trouble. But I lucked out and was able to get through the lightning storm without being zapped (even though I clearly saw several bolts of lightning strike to within a quarter mile of me.) Unfortunely where I was at the time was totally flat and there was not much cover to be had even if I stopped, the best I could have done was to put up my tent and weather it.

Mother Nature had more for me as shortly afterwards she began to blow 45 mph gusts of wind. I spent the better part of 3 hours fighting heavy gusting winds. I can safely say that wind is the worst weather that I have ever experienced on a motorcycle and this proved not to be the exception. I would have certainly rather had lots more rain and lightning than deal with the wind.

Just about 2 hours before I stopped I was able to do my good deed for the day and rescue a poor maiden in distress. Apparently she had gauged the distances between towns a bit too short for her fuel guzzling SUV and ran out about a 1/4 of a mile short of the nearest gas. So I gave her a ride on my motorcycle and we got gas for her. Even though it was a short distance, she was glad for the help because of the wind. I am betting had the winds not been as bad she would have had enough gas but mileage suffers when you are in such a heavy wind.

About 10pm local time, I made it into Billings and camped at a KOA campground. While I have not had to pay for a campground in a long time, I was surprised that camping in a tent now costs $40. Whatever happened to the cheap camping?

Oh well, it is morning now and time to take off for Sturgis, I should arrive this afternoon and start my partying tonight.

Find out how much tomorrow!

 

Yesterday started off nice and I thought I would have some beautiful travelling weather but