Sturgis 2007

Our story and we're stickin to it…

The Plan: Attend the 67th annual Sturgis Rally in Sturgis SD, and on the way up stop in Dodge City KS to check out the old west.

The Players: Myself (Forest), Kevin (Pelone) Hoelscher, Steve (steveo) Worthington, Paul (NuNu) Ensenia.

We (myself, schultz, Pelone) left Austin @ 6:00am sharp on Friday the 3rd. It was still dark and cool three hours later we were in Abilene @

our first stop to pick up NuNu. After some breakfast @ I-HOP there in Abilene we filled up with gas and were off. The next two stops were pretty un-eventful

just get gas, get some water and keep heading north.
When we got to Oklahoma we ended up behind two cattle trucks YUCK! I can not begin to tell ya'll how bad that stunk! It was awful.

We FINALLY got an opportunity to pass the trucks and as soon as we passed the trucks and started to slow down, there over the hill was Oklahoma's finest.

Luckily he didn't turn around to chase us. Even if he did I think we would have been out of the state by the time he caught us (We went though the OK panhandle).

About this time we reached Kansas and we all agreed to take a 100 mile detour (50 out and 50 back) to see Dodge City. For me this was suppose to be

one of the highlights of this trip. I remember in Lampoons Vacation staring Chevy Chase that they stopped in Dodge City and it was a cool Old west town.

NOT!!! Unless you have a 10 year old kid don't bother to go. The old west town was pathetic it was a couple of buildings and that was it. We didn't even get to order a sasparilly!

There was a gun fight and that was kinda cool but not worth the 100 mile detour. There is a reason for the saying "Get the Hell out of Dodge".

Plus the cross wind that was blowing was terrible. IMHO that was the worst part of the trip,
fighting those cross winds. It really wore us out. Since we had to lean sideways into the wind just to go straight.
After we got the hell out of Dodge :) we headed north and stopped in a town called Colby KS off of I-70 for the night. Next day we got up early and headed north.

Once we got off the interstate the ride improved, no more cross winds. We picked up Hwy 385 in Colorado and took that all the way to the Black Hills.

Once we got to the Black Hills we made a quick stop in Custer state park and took some pics of the prairie dogs, regrouped and made our plan for the rest

of the afternoon which included a stop @ the Crazy Horse monument. However, we noticed off in the distance what appeared to be rain clouds. We figured we

would chance it. About 3 miles up the road we pulled over to put on the rain gear. Let me just take a moment to let you know that it isn't the rain that is bad ,it is the HAIL!

While we were putting on our rain gear a car coming from the direction the rain was stopped and said "Hey man, that isn't rain its HAIL!"

We jumped on our bikes and headed in the opposite direction, but it was too late that hail had started. We found a dirt road and turned on it and drove our bikes into

some shrubs for cover. I have never seen so many grown men sacrifice their bodies to protect their bikes. People were laying on top of their bikes trying to protect them

from the hail. The hail and rain only lasted for about 5 minutes and then it was gone. Once we pulled our bikes out of the shrubs we then proceeded to pull all the leaves off.

What a GREAT 1st day in the Back Hills.
After the storm passed we proceeded to Crazy Horse monument, this place is really incredible. The monument is a work in progress and the 4 heads on mount Rushmore

would fit in the same space as the crazy horse face. This thing is HUGE!! If you are ever in the Black Hills this is a MUST see. It was now starting to get a little dark and we

decided to head for camp. We stayed in the Hill City KOA a real nice camp ground. It was quiet and the facilities were great! Plus it was only 5 miles from Mount Rushmore.

Sunday, we got up early went to the All you can eat pancake breakfast got our coffee and food and then it was time to head to Sturgis.

The ride to Sturgis from our camp ground was about 50 miles and it was an AWESOME ride! We got to Sturgis parked and then proceeded to walk around the town for

the day, checking out vendors, bars, and different attractions. There is no way you can see everything in 1 day, there is way too much. Not to mention that all the surrounding

towns had their own rally activities going on. In all we visited 6 different towns in the area (Deadwood, Wall, Hulett, Hill City, Rapid City, Sturgis ) and they all had HUGE rally's going on it was like biker heaven. On the way back to camp we stopped at a lake and took in the view.

Monday we got up and headed for Mount Rushmore, Rapid City and Wall. The ride was absolutely incredible! First stop was Mount Rushmore and that was a really

incredible. What a beautiful place. After that it was on to Rapid City to see the new 08 HD's and to check out the HOG hospitality tent and pick up our commemorative pins.

We then headed out to Wall to see Wall Drug. This was a cool stop, this place is one of those road side attractions from back in the 50's/60's they had all kinds of neat

little shops and gimmicks to look at.
Tuesday we headed to Deadwood to check out that rally and while we were there looking around Arlen Ness showed up with his bikes. That was pretty neat.

Deadwood was a really cool old west town. It is one of those old west towns that seems to be frozen in time. It was neat. After we were done in Deadwood we went back

to Sturgis and walked around some more. We went to the Knuckle Saloon and ate dinner and watch a tough man contest. After that they had girl fights. Lemme tell you

women are way more viscous than men when it comes to fighting. After that it was back out on main street and more people watching and drinking. There were several bands

playing @ the local watering holes so there was no lack of entertainment.
Wed. we got up and headed over to Devils Tower in Wyoming. The ride over there took us down 8 miles of gravel road and down some back roads that were beautiful!

We stopped for breakfast and then headed on to Devils Tower, on the way we got pulled over by a cop cause my handle bars were too high (over my shoulders) apparently there

is a law in Wyoming that the handle bars have to be below your shoulders. We adjusted them down and he let us go with no ticket :). We headed on to devils tower and that was

an awesome site. Defiantly worth the trip over there. After seeing the tower we headed on to a small town called Hulett. They were having their "No Panty Wed" rally.

I will leave it to your imagination…
Thursday we decided it was time to head home we broke camp ate breakfast and then headed south. We got to Amarillo around 1:30am and got a hotel for a couple hours.

Next morning before leaving town we headed over to the Cadillac Ranch. Kevin never saw it so we stopped on our way out of town. After that it was south towards home.

I have to say that this was an AMAZING adventure. I enjoyed everything we experienced. I am looking forward to the next motorcycle adventure.

India 2006

A few days ago I was digging through my desk and found some CD's that had pictures from a trip that I took to India a few years back. This is the story of how I survived! ... Ok it isn't that dramatic, well the first part of the trip was.
My work colleges and I went to India for various reasons that are quite boring.
On our way flying over the Pacific Ocean we get to the International date line and I had just finished watching whatever movie that was on at the time. I flip to the little navigation program they show on the plane and notice the plane is going the wrong direction. WTF!!!

Just then the pilot comes on and says that we lost oil pressure in one of our engines and he has turned the plane around to land in Anchorage Alaska. once we landed safely in Alaska the airline booked rooms for everyone at a ski lodge that was about an hour out of town. What started out to be a bad situation turned into a pretty cool side trip and I was able to see a tiny bit of Alaska, and let me tell ya it is beautiful!!
One thing that was interesting is that it was June when I was there and it was day light till like 1:00 in the morning, which really messes with your mind. Next morning the airline had the plane fixed and we were on our way. The next stop was Singapore, I have been here a couple of times on previous trips and this is the cleanest city I have ever been in.
We stayed here for the day and then flew out that night to Hyderabad India.

Ahhh India, what a strange and interesting place. First thing I noticed was that when we got to immigration there was no one there to check visas and passports. We basically could have walked right through with no checks. Once they woke up the immigration officers we went through and then they sent us right back out to a hallway that we had access to. It was not secure at all, which was weird to say the least. Next was to get our bags and then find our ride. While we were waiting on our bags a fight broke out between one of the security guys and another guy. The civilian was slapping the security guy and yelling at him it was kinda funny. Once all that was over we got to our hotel and it was a very nice hotel it was pretty swanky and extravagant. Marble floors and pillars and a grand entry way. The next few days was back and fourth from the hotel to the office, not a whole lot of excitement there except for one day when a buddy of mine offered to pick me up and I said sure why not.
That morning I waited for my buddy to come and get me. When he arrived he showed up on his "motorbike". Now I love to ride but I wasn't sure about this. First if you have never been to India let me explain how the traffic laws work, there are none. Basically the biggest life form wins. If your a pedestrian you yeild to everyone else, motorcycles you yeild to cars, cars yeild to buses etc... So when I was picked up by my friend on his motorcycle I was a little nervous to say the least.

At the end of the week we went to a place called Charminar which is in the heart of Hyderabad city. When we got there, there had to be several thousand people just hanging out. Turns out Charminar is right in the middle of an open market, I have to say that the amount of traffic and people that were there was a little over whelming. The other thing that probably added to the crowed was right across the street from Charminar was Mecca Masjid, so named because the bricks were brought from Mecca to build the central arch, and we were there on Friday night right before the call to prayer happened. After we left Charminar we headed to Birla Mandir which is a white marble temple of Lord Venkateshwara The idol in the temple is a replica of the one at Tirupati.
Next day we all met in the hotel lobby and went to the Shahi Tombs. These tombs are said to be the oldest historical monuments in Hyderabad. They form a large group and stand on a raised platform. The tombs are built in Persian, Pathan and Hindu architectural styles using grey granite, with stucco ornamentation, the only one of its kind in the world where an entire dynasty has been buried at one place.
After we spent time at the tombs we headed over to Golconda Fort.
The origins of the fort can be traced back to the Yadava dynasty of Deogiri and the Kakatiyas of Warangal. Golconda was originally a mud fort, which passed to the Bahmani dynasty and later to the Qutb Shahis, who held it from 1518 to 1687 A.D. The first three Qutb Shahi kings rebuilt Golconda, over a span of 62 years. The fort is famous for its acoustics, palaces, ingenious water supply system and the famous Fateh Rahben gun, one of the cannons used in the last siege of Golconda by Aurangzeb, to whom the fort ultimately fell.
All in all my trip to India was interesting to say the least. I saw some neat stuff and met a lot of great people who ultimately became some very good friends of mine.

More pictures of my trip can be found here.