The Sturgis Six: Ray Valle, Lon Carruth, E.B. Chester, Flip LeResche, Ed Leclere, and Matt Lenox, shown with their Harley-Davidsons at the start of the 3,000-mile ride. Photo by Roy and Carole Timm.
On Saturday (August 16), we were faced with a long road home. After a review of our options, we decided to take a more direct route to Phoenix that required us to retrace a few of our steps. With good roads ahead, 500 miles to travel and a desire to get home to our families, we started out with temps hovering at 60.
We zoomed south and then west and then south again. Along the way, we encountered more incredible scenery, and some we missed along the same roads two weeks earlier.
We stopped in anticipation of a major rain cloud on the horizon, donned our rain gear and headed out again. Before long, this rider’s goggles fogged inside and out so badly he had to just pull them down around his neck to see. Surprisingly, the rain lasted about 15 minutes and "on the other side," we slipped out of the rain gear and rode on.
We made incredibly good time, thanks in part to Ed LeClere’s need for speed, traversing the more than 500 miles in about eight hours, including stops for gas and lunch. At our final stop for gas along I-17 about 65 miles out of Phoenix, all riders expressed their thanks to one another for the support given by each member of cast in seeing that we all made the trip safely.
Your blogger was especially grateful since it had been more than two years since he had attempted a long ride like this.
We have tales to tell about our experiences but a common thread we all share is our gratitude to EB for his planning and his generosity in enabling us to experience what he has known for a long time: There is a lot to see in this country and there’s no better way to see it than from a Harley-Davidson.
You who have followed our journey have heard us use many words to describe what we've seen. From your perspective, it's kind of like going online to look at pictures of places like Buffalo in Wyoming, Monument Valley, Red Lodge in Montana, Yellowstone Park, Bear Tooth Pass and so many other places we've seen over the last two weeks. But to have an appreciation of what there is to see in this country, you owe it to yourselves to see it for yourself, preferably on two wheels. Thanks for following our journey. Here's hoping you'll create some memories of your own and share them with us.
Welcome back, and glad you are all safe.
Lon / EB,
Thank you for sharing the experience, as many of us who couldn't go along, felt like we were along as we read through the column.
Now, please make this a learning experienece for the rest of us:
- About Bikes: What worked, what didn't, what you wish you had, what you were glad you had, what was basically useless,
- About the ride: Mishaps, anyone dropped a bike, anyone went off the road, what was the 'lessons learned'?
- About people: anyone cut you off, through coffee out the window at you, through cigaretts at you?
- About rally: anyone stole anything from you? anyone tried to pick a fight with you just because?
- What would you do the same, and what would you do different if you were to head out again next time?
Posted by: Montana | August 19, 2008 at 09:34 AM
It was a good one this year except for that terrible storm that blew threw about a week earlier. I'm already looking forward to next years. Isn't it the 70th anniversary or some such? I can't quite remember.
Posted by: deadwood hotels | December 06, 2009 at 06:56 PM