Sturgis Rally 2010

The Sturgis Rally has been on my bucket list for ever, and this year I finally had the opportunity to go! My friends Dave, Lynn, Marlena and Chico (Jeremy) left Nanaimo Thursday morning on the 5:15 am ferry from Duke Point, and were on the mainland by 7:45 am. I always hate going through the border lineups into the USA, as anyone who has crossed into Washington State would agree. One of the people in our group decided to stock up on cigarettes from the duty free shop, and as she bought twice as many cigarettes as allowed, their bike was sent for the thorough check out by the immigration guards. The border guards spend about an hour interviewing this couple and went through everything that was packed on their bike. This was only one of several delays on our first day.

As we approached the turnoff for I-405 on I-5, I caught up to Dave and motioned to take the next exit, but he had decided to follow I-5 straight through to the I-90 exit. Half an hour later, we found out that the bridge on I-90 was closed for security reasons as the Blue Angels were doing a “fly over”. We then had to wait for another hour for the bridge to open before we could continue on.

When we eventually got going on I-90, we had smooth cruising all the way until we were greeted by rush hour traffic in Coeur d’Alene. Note to self: When travelling through Idaho during the summer, make reservations if you want a motel room in Coeur d’Alene in August! We were able to book a room by cell phone at the Wallace Inn in Wallace, Idaho (about an hour down the road), got a nice room and had a great time talking with Mike the security guy while having a few beers in the driveway.

Friday morning we were on the road right after breakfast, and were into Montana within an hour or so. Soon after entering Montana, we had to remove a few layers of gear as the weather was getting warmer, and by mid afternoon the mercury was hitting about 100 degrees F. I always find it amazing to be able to see the weather ahead of you, as that is not possible out on the west coast. We road through a couple of rain storms, but as you could see bright skys about 10 miles ahead, we didn’t bother to stop and gear up. My batwing fairing on my Street Glide keeps me from getting very wet at highway speeds, but I did get soaked from the knees down. This soaking dried out within a few miles after leaving the rain behind and getting back into the heat.

We had made reservations at the Hilltop Inn in Billings for the night, but a few miles west of there, we managed to ride right into a hail storm. Not a great idea when you are not wearing a jacket, and are riding in a tee shirt and vest. Man that hail stings at 75 mph! I’m glad the hail stones were only pea sized.

The Hilltop Inn is right beside the hospital in Billings, and because it shares a driveway with the hospital and is surrounded by quite tall boulevard trees, turned out to be really hard to find. My GPS indicated that we were at the hotel, but because of the trees and lousy signage, we had to phone them for directions…………we were right across the street!

Across the street from the hotel and hospital is a bar called the Rimrock. There was a band playing in the parking lot of the Rimrock and they were having a free barbecue. Dinner was good, and they even had beer for a buck that night!

Saturday morning, we were on the road again after a quick stop at Wallmart. We decided to take I90 and then take US212 for the rest of the trip to Sturgis. We stopped for lunch and a couple of beers at the Stoneville Saloon in Alzada Montana. The Stoneville Saloon is a must stop for all bikers travelling US  212 on their way to Sturgis. The bar’s moto ”Cheap Drinks – Lousy Food” is partly true, as the drinks are cheap compared to up in Canada, but the food was great. I didn’t try the “Prairy Oysters” like our buddy Chico, but he said that they tasted just like chicken. I don’t know about that guy sometimes!

The Stoneville Saloon is open all year, but owner Diane Turko says that she makes most of her year’s income in the 10 days of the Sturgis Rally.

We arrived in Stugis at about 4:00 that afternoon in 105 degree heat, and immediately got stuck in the sea of bikes trying to get through town. The pace was about half walking speed all the way through town, and Dave and I gave up and stopped in a bike wash parking lot to let our bikes and our selves cool down. After about an hour we carried on to book into our campsite at the Shade Valley Resort.

Shade Valley campground has room for lots of guests on their 396 acre spread, and has a beer garden with kitchen and the brand new Eye Candy Saloon. The saloon lives up to it’s name as the waitress staff were quite easy on the eyes!

We spent a couple of days shopping in downtown Sturgis, and every vendor imaginable was present. Make sure you check out the Frozen T-Shirt Contest at the Sidehack Saloon.  Dave, Lynn, Marlena & Chico went to all of the concerts at the Buffalo Chip campground, and we did several of the rides in the black hills. I unfortunately had to have my front brake rotors and pads replaced as they were done. The service lineup at Black Hills Harley Davidson in Rapid City was unreal, and I waited from 8:30 in the morning untill 10 to 5:00 to get my bike back. Black Hills Harley Davidson is a huge dealership, and they have a ton of vendors booths set up in their front parking lot. They also have several other parking lots, and shuttles to take customers too and from their bikes or other vehicles.

One of the other bikers at the dealership was heard to comment after viewing the bike parking area, “some people grow wheat…….this place grows motorcycles!” There must have been 3500 bikes parked in the bike lot that afternoon!

I got my Street Glide back, and the brakes were now pefect. The next day, I went on a ride with Doug, another islander that was staying at Shade Valley, and we spent the day riding Custer State Park, riding “The Needles” and visiting Mount Rushmore. The highlight of the ride through Custer State Park was having to stop behind a mini van with the standard family unit inside who had stopped to look at the wildlife. The wildlife happened to by a fully mature bull Buffalo, and he was on the road right beside their van. I spent a few tense moments, as the Buffalo was coming my way, and with the mini van in front of me, I had absolutely nowhere to go. Lucky  for me, Mr. Buffalo didn’t seem to mind my Harley at all as he sauntered by about 3 feet away!

Doug and I decided to head for home on Thursday morning, but decided to take a more southerly route home, as the weather reports for Montana were terrible with lots of thunder storms and rain. We decided to ride straight across Wyoming, and to visit Yellowstone Park on the way home. We rode I-90 as far as Sheridan WY, and then cut across on US-14 to Cody where we stayed the night. I would have liked to stop and see “Old Faithful”, but we were informed by some locals that the route we would have to take to get there was under lots of repair with delays of up to a couple of hours. We passed on that, and took the northern route through Canyon Village to Madison.

The rest of the trip home was kind of uneventful, and we stopped overnight at Twin Falls, Idaho and at Yakima, Washington on the way back to Canada and Vancouver Island.

Have a look at photos of Sturgis, some of the Sturgis bars and the rides we went on in the Gallery I put up on my West Coast Biker Gallery site.