Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Prelude to departure

Three more days until my departure for my ride to Sturgis 2012. I decided I'd give it another shot at a blog similar to when I rode to Alaska in 2008. You can get the link to that here. http://evertalaska.blogspot.com/      For those of you that don't know, Sturgis is a small town in South Dakota with a population of about 7000 and has become the home of one of the worlds largest motorcycle rally with over 750,000 attendees in 2000. Some info I gathered on it's history. The first rally was in 1938 started by the Jackpine Gypsies motorcycle club. The focus of the rally was originally racing and stunts. In 1961, the rally was expanded to include the Hillclimb and Motocross races. Current rally attendance numbers reach well over a half million people, with 800 temporary licensed vendors descending on the small town during the gathering. Events include half-mile races, hill climbs, short-track races, area attraction tours, music and live entertainment and much more. Enough of the background stuff!

We're leaving on Saturday morning 7/28/12. We have 7 of us (5 guys/2 ladies) riding out on 6 bikes. They all happen to be Harleys. (1 screaming eagle ultra, 4 ultras and I think a street glide) Our plan is to go out & back in 15 or 16 days returning 8/11 or 12. Were going to be 5-6 days heading out with planned visits in Clevland at the RocknRoll hall of fame, the AMA motorcycle hall of fame in Pickerington, Ohio and the Harley museum in Milwaukee and whatever else may strike our fancy. Our home base will be a hotel in Rapid City, South Dakota which is about 30 miles to Sturgis. For all but 1 of us, myself included, it is our first trip to Sturgis so in addition to the actual rally we're planning on doing/seeing the main attractions in the area such as Mount Rushmore/Crazy Horse/Custers Park/Devils Tower/Needles Highway/Black Hills Forest/Badlands National Park/etc/etc. We also have tickets to see The Zac Brown band one night, I'm thinking we'll probably be around a 5000 mile trip. Stay tuned for more!!!!

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