August 4, 2003 - Sheridan, WY

Forecast: 89 degrees

Road Condition: Good from Oacoma –90 West through Sturgis to Sheridan, WY

Fuel: Super Unleaded $1.61

Miles Traveled: Oacoma, South Dakota to Sheridan WY: 430 (Total 9,641)

Bike Update: Running good

Road Trip Log Update: During the night there was an ongoing rain, but we woke up to a beautiful day to ride in South Dakota. At breakfast JillMarie met a group of eight riders who had flew in from Scotland and Ireland to experience Sturgis. They were anticipating picking their bikes up, commenting that they had not had them for over a month due to the amount of time it took to ship them. Ireland and Scotland will be well represented at the Rally. We were invited to visit them in their country and to stay with them, being guaranteed that we would be given a reasonable rate. Needless to say the morning started off with allot of laughter. We have been to Sturgis several times before and there are some great rides to Devil's Tower, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, The Badlands, along with some other less known excursions. We made a scenic side trip through one of Tim's favorite places in South Dakota, The Badlands. The rock formations looked like giant sand castles in the desert and the circle through the state park went on for several miles. We overhead one tourist say, "You just know there was some wife of a pioneer who took one look at the Badlands and yelled at her husband, You made me leave Wisconsin for this!" There were hundreds of bikes that rode through the park while we were there, which was only a small glimpse of what we were headed for. As we neared Sturgis every on-ramp sounded like a day at the drag strip. The bikes started collecting on I-90 and quickly started out numbering cars. The morning paper (www.argusleader.com) said that an estimated record of 500,000 bikers were expected throughout the almost 3 week event (www.sturgismotorcyclerally.com). We noticed a dark cloud brewing ahead as we neared the Mt. Rushmore exit. What would Sturgis be without a thunderstorm? Knowing how fast and hard the rain comes on in South Dakota, we pulled off to put on raingear. Within minutes we experienced a rain shower that came down in drops the size of dimes. The storm only lasted 15 minutes but it was intense enough that the underpasses began to quickly fill up with riders who didn't have raingear. After the shower with clear skies ahead we took off the gear and rode the rest of the way into Sturgis with 90-degree temps. The mile and a half from the I-90 exit to Main street was a 30 minute crawl. We met up with our good friend Bruce who was a vendor for Big Boy Scooters. (www.bigboyscooters.com) Bruce shared a space next to The BOM and West Coast Choppers so we were given an up front parking spot for our bikes and gear to be watched over. While we were gone to get something to eat and checking out Main Street, Dana from The BOM booth detailed our bikes for us. The bikes parked on Main Street stretched for five blocks, along with tattoo artists, food vendors, live music, t-shirt vendors and people from all walks of life. Everyone at the rally had one thing in common. They all wanted to be a part of celebrating the love of motorcycles. JillMarie met a new friend on Main Street who had the same taste in hats that she did. Barney is an artist from Elgin, Texas who makes the trek to Sturgis every year to sell his hand crafted carved wood designs. Barney and JillMarie found out that they shared more than having good taste in hats and that they both had a similar outlook on life. Barney gave his wise philosophy about how people who are quick to judge others miss out on some of the biggest opportunities in their life. He shared the story of how his upper body tattoo pays tribute to what is most important to him, which would be his family and his country. When the conversation ended, it was summed up by agreeing on a mutual thought, "We are all teachers for one another". We should be more open to looking at someone's spirit from the inside rather than grading people from the outside based on our own fears. The afternoon walk down Main Street in Sturgis was definitely filled with great bikes to look at and interesting people to meet. As we left the rally we headed off into the sunset for our next destination of Sheridan, Wyoming.

Gavin on Main Street	Barney on Main Street
Dana & the BOM	Bruce's Future Ride
Ironman in the Badlands
Main Street Sturgis, South Dakota
OCC Orange County Choppers tribute to the New York Fire Dept. Men lost (343)
Artwork in Sturgis	Kicking back at Sturgis
John Deere Davidson Trike
Scotland and Ireland well represented at Sturgis Rally	Choppers from West Coast Choppers
Click to see Aug 3, 2003	Click to see Aug 5, 2003