As promised, here is the Strider RIDE REPORT of Inzane 15 in Spearfish, SD.....
I had been invited up to TP and Mrs TP casa in Minnesota to ride in with them and Hard6, but I couldn't leave out until Saturday (June 6). I had wanted to make it up to Spearfish for the early bird BBQ, so I rolled out around 5:00am on Saturday.
Rode up I-49 through Louisiana with a quick stop for a bottle of water and a smoke.......
When I got to Shreveport, the GPS took me on an industrial loop over to I-20. Not bad, but a ton of stop lights and glad it was a Saturday. Did have a couple of cars roll the windows down and comment on the bike though. Got onto 20 and in a few minutes, was in Texas.
Got off near Marshall and drove through North Texas. No matter how far I went up, my GPS kept saying to make a U Turn and go through Dallas. I had done the plan with Google Maps but should have listened to my GPS. Kept going up these hot, two lane, deer filled roads. Roads were not well marked and had to even stop at a small country store and ask how to get to Paris, Texas. The little girl had to ask someone else, what road was the store on and what was the town they were in. Poor girl will never be thanking the academy for the Nobel Prize in Nuclear Physics.
Eventually got over to Paris and up to Hugo, Oklahoma and got on the Indian Nation Turnpike. Almost $10 in tolls, and rode up to Tulsa. The jacket had to go - it was getting too hot, so rode in a tee shirt after throwing sunscreen on. In Tulsa, was where I messed up and added a lot of time to the trip. There must be a 64 and an OLD 64. I got on this little two lane road that went for miles and miles through backcountry and through little towns that you had turn multiple times just to stay on the same road. I knew I was going west and HAD to get to I-35 eventually. Hour after hour rolled by and eventually found a little store where I asked, "I-35 is still here right?" Yep, 20 more miles or so....I can't believe you rode OLD 64 all the way from Tulsa!!! Well, I couldnt either!
So, eventually found I-35 and got on the superslab north. Made my way up to Kansas.
About 9:00 pm, my butt was getting sore, so I stopped in Corsicana, Kansas - where there are like 3 hotels, a pizza hut and a Chinese place. Got a room at the Super 8 where a Mexican road crew had the parking spot in front of my room filled with a BBQ pit and beer bottles and they spoke all night long in front of my room in Spanish. Well, the pizza was good anyway......
The next morning, I used the hotel towels to clean my bike and left out about daylight.
Out in the middle of nowhere, there was an old train and cars on a piece of track. Time to check in with my wife, so stopped to have a look.
A short time later, I rolled into Nebraska.
Up to the Interstate and rolled west for about 40 minutes and then up to Grand Island and got on 2 to ride diagonally across Nebraska. Same road Hard6 and I had ridden down from Alliance on a few years before. After about 30 minutes, the rain started. Pulled over into a town that said the population was 40 but I think they were exaggerating by about 20 to throw on some chaps and a jacket liner.
A few miles down the road, I pulled over for an ambulance coming in the opposite direction. A few miles after that, there were cop lights flashing on both sides of the road. I slowed down and when I got past them, I saw a bike on the side of the road with a Valkyrie engine case looking at me. I pulled over to see if I could help and talked to the guy who was riding with him. This was a slow down for a town section and when the guy hit his brakes, he must have highsided (hyrdoplaned or wheel got off the road or something). The guy who wrecked broke his collar bone and might have some internal injury, but looking at the bike, it could have been FAR WORSE. Buzzkill was waiting for the wrecker and his wife had gone in the ambulance with Larry and everything was under control, so we shook hands and I rolled on. Had a stop at the Nebraska National Forrest.
What is funny about this is............this is the National Forrest - that is the WHOLE thing.
Went up and got off 2 onto 83 (or 84) - going up through the hills into South Dakota.
Finally got up to I-90 that would take me into Spearfish. Met a group of Valks at the gas station and got an invite to roll in with them, but I had to check in with the house and get gas, so I told them I would catch up. Got rain for a few miles and sat out for a minute to let a HUGE storm cross the interstate before I got to it....great thing about that area of SD is you can see for MILES. Finally got into Spearfish and Donna and Hard6 was waiting with a cup of coffee for me. Got registered and the bike cleaned at the Valkwash Station. The hugging got started and eventually it was time to go to the park for the BBQ. Group ride over.
The free BBQ was AWESOME. I had not had a real meal except for the pizza since I had left the house, so this sure was a welcome sight!
Then it was back to the Hotel for some MAJOR tire kicking and lie telling and let's just say that a lie or two was told. Sure was good to see old brothers and sisters again! It was parking lot party just like old times.........
The next morning, a group of us met up at Ground Zero and rode the north loop over to Devils Tower in Wyoming.
I am glad we got to see it on Monday because the next day, Eric stole it. It is much smaller than it looks, because he stole it and put it in his saddlebag to bring back to Maryland with him. So, now if you want to see it - you will have to look for Devils Tower of Maryland on Google.
Hard6 and I had seen Devil's Tower before, so we split off from the group and he and Donna and I rode the south loop (dodging deer) back to 90 and back to South Dakota and rode over to Deadwood. Rode around town and went back to the museum to check it out.
There was some neat stuff inside it.
And downstairs they had over 50 wagons of different kinds.
When we got out, we were hungry, so we rode through Deadwood looking for a place to eat and didnt see anything. Rode through the construction downtown and didnt want to go back through the mud, so we went on to Lead and found a hippy coffee house there that turned us on to a burger joint going out of town and man, it was worth the wait.........Lewie's - about a mile out of town going towards Spearfish Canyon - in a corner.
Had some cool old bikes laying in the weeds.
THE BEST BURGER we had ever had! Truth.......
After lunch, it was time to ride out towards Spearfish Canyon.
What a GREAT RIDE. We had the road to ourselves - no traffic at all except 2 bikes. We were able to really RIDE the road and it was a HOOT! Lots of sweet curves and nothing tightened up - very sweet ride and we were able to ride it at speed. Most sweet ride. Great scenery....
Then that night, my brother from another mother, Dana the VALKHOUND came rolling in from Kansas. Since he does Sturgis all the time and knew the roads, Hard6 and I asked him if he would lead us the next day - "sure" says he - smile says we!!!! So, there was another night of lie telling and the air was filled with LOVE!
We had eaten a late lunch, so we asked Valkhound if he knew where we could get some pie. Yes, says he - smile did we!!!! Well, we went to where he said had good pie and it was nothing but a slab - 2 years without Valkhound and it went out of business. So we went to Perkins and started a Spearfish tradition - we were going to try all of the pies we could in one visit to Spearfish. So, to make this happen, I needed to go two at a time - so the first night was a gooey peanut butter and the main course was a wildberry pie - with ice cream on both to wash it down - yes, here is a food shot.
Let's just say that major damage was done!
So, the next morning we met up and rode over to Belle Fourche for breakfast at a place that Valkhound knew.
It ma not have looked like much from the outside, but let me tell you, this was NOT a hole in the wall kind of place - this was pure HIGH CLASS, let me tell ya....
So, down we sat for a breakfast of breakfasts.......
I just told the waitress I would have whatever Valkhound was having and man, out came this wonderful breakfast of hash browns, 2 eggs, a HUGE chicken fried steak and all covered with gravy and toast to sop it up with!!!!!!! BOY HOWDY!!!!!!
Now rookies should not try and finish such a dish - but hey, we were trained PROFESSIONALS!
Since I had two pieces of pie the night before (with ice cream to wash it down), I passed on desert for breakfast - time for that later. So, we rode out with Valkhound leading and Donna, Hard6 and I smiling behind and went and saw the house he use to rent for Sturgis and then blasted down Spearfish Canyon again.....stopped at the waterfall and worked on Hard6's addiction - we have him down to 2 cigarettes at a time now.
Great ride...then Dana led us over to Lead and the mine there.
Then up some really sweet roads and up to a cool lake for a break stop.
Donna talked to Nancy and TP and they were about 10 miles away, so we met them at a gas station.
The groups were going in opposite directions from there, so we took off and road some more sweet roads.....
Wound up over at Crazyhorse Monument - as you can imagine, looks the same as it did 5 years ago or so.....Took a shot and lo and behold, there was Hotglue and Flamingobabe coming down.......A wave and a honk and the took off another direction than we were going.
Went down to Custer Park and did the critter loop ride.......
Saw some buffalo and the pan handling wild donkeys.......
Then we went over and took the Iron Mountain road. Saw some buffalo on it as well.......
At an overlook, got to see Mount Rushmore.........
Then rode the Mountain road some more - construction going on and they detoured us from the tunnel with the view of Rushmore.
But we did get to see the pig tail cutback bridges.
When we got down the hill, there was a hail/rain filled storm up ahead, so we sat at the station and let it go over the road we were about to ride. Got to talk to Buzzkill and his wife when they rode up.
After a few minutes, the storm had passed and we shot back to Deadwood. There used to be a casino with a great buffet and the chicken fried steak had worn off, so we went to it and up rode Gryphon Rider and his sweet daugter on the red/black tourer.
The casino was under new management and ownership and even though people that came out said it was great, it was HORRIBLE. Food was like it had been out all day and you had to pay before you ate....it was really, really bad! Valkhound took one look and wouldnt even eat it. Well, only one thing to do.........Yep...........run back to Spearfish and go for PIE BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!
I went for the Strawberry and Key Lime this night - with ice cream on both - just to wash it down!
Got a call from Misfit to see if I could run over to do the auction for Motomama's pies. You betcha. So there was a raffle and karaoke singing (Man, whoever that was that did Bad Company did a GREAT JOB). There was also beautiful woman doing some strange dancing........
Pie auction went well and went to a good cause.....
That night stood/sat out in the parking lot with old friends and told lies until like 2:00 am. GREAT DAY! Thanks Dana for the day brother.
Next morning was cool with a good chance of rain. Went over and caught up with old friends again. Bike games were going on. Asked Little Bit if she wanted to ride on the back and do the water balloon game. Well, let's just say I needed a bath anyway. Motomama was looking for some people to road block for the ride over to lunch, so Early Bird and I took off and blocked when the folks got off the interstate. Good number of folks!
So the folks fed us at the university there in town. Very cool.
Then we got together for a group photo....
After Pastor Dean said a prayer for safety, TP, Nancy and I went out to the parking lot. I had wanted to go back to Deadwood and see Wild Bill's grave and they were going as well, so off we shot.
Went up and saw Wild Bill and Calamity Jane.
Wild Bill's final resting place..........
And Jane's......
Nice view of Deadwood from there as well.....
TP and Nancy were going to hang around, so I shot back to ground zero and told some lies with old friends.......Here are three legends (DDT, Early Bird and Hotglue). Proud to be able to call them friends and brothers.
Oh, and in case people are wondering....Ali is up to 480,000 miles now and still going strong.
There was still LOVE in the air.........
Then people did a ride to downtown for a block party where they had closed off a city block for us. Well, Dana and I decided that in case the weather came in, we better get our pie in first. So off we went. There was a first that night. The folks at the table next to us actually took a food shot of our pie...
I know I get funny looks when I take a food shot, but having strangers taking a food shot was a first.
This night, I had the Caramel Apple and Coconut Cream. I think the apple one was the best yet.
Dana and I did battle and we won! Valkhound and Strider - 3 wins... Pie - 0 wins.
Then we rode down to the block party.
Very, very cool. Well, I had to roll out the next morning. I HAD to be back for Saturday and in case the weather just closed in on me, I decided to roll a day early. When I got up Thursday morning, things were not looking good for a dry blastoff.
Made some waffles up in the breakfast area and sat and drank coffee and watched the weather channel. Didn't look like it was going to get any better, so I packed up, paid up and shot over to ground zero to say goodbyes. It was a tad cool and let's just say that there was HIGH HUMIDITY for riding.
And the fog was rolling in.....
Oh well, not going to get much better any time soon, so chaps and jacket liner on and blastoff back towards the south. Wet, cold and foggy ride. Thanks Dana for telling me about the slick roads around Rapid City.
Rain started to slack off around Nebraska but temps stayed in the 50's across South Dakota and into Nebraska.
Even though I left out around 10, I was still able to get a little over 600 miles down into Kansas.
Got back to Concordia, Kansas and stayed at the same Super 8 (even though they had raised rates by $10 in one week), ate at the same pizza hut and had the same Mexican road crew getting drunk outside my room. Got up at 5:00 and looked at the radar. Man, a ton of yellow and red to the south of me and moving north. No way to go either way, so on went the chaps and jacket liner and I plowed south into it. Man, it rained on me from there all the way to Oklahoma City. I stopped at a gas station to get gas and was standing outside having a coffee and a smoke and a guy walked up and said, "If you are waiting out the rain, you are going to have a LONG wait." Nope, just having a coffee and a smoke. Really wet going through Wichita.
Rolled into Oklahoma and around OKC, the rain stopped.
When the Lord turned off the taps, he turned on the heater! Man it got hot! Had to peel off the extra shirts, the jacket and the chaps. Stopped in the Arbukle Mountains in Oklahoma.
Dropped down to Dallas and it was hot and they were doing construction for MILES on the interstate. During one of the slow downs, I felt this bad shimmy and heard a grinding/squealing noise and kept feeling a strange vibration. I hope it is a rear bearing. It is not motor for sure and appears to come from the back, so I bet it is the rear wheel bearing (wont know until I tear into her). Nothing to do but press on.......Good news is that I still have never been stranded by Traveller - she got me home.
Across Texas and into Louisiana and home last night (good 1000 mile day).
So, that is it....that is my ride report of Inzane 15 in Spearfish, SD. Let me just say that I want to thank the staff and anyone that had anything to do with putting it on - I know I passed a very, very large time! The Black Hills are magical and I got to catch up with old friends and meet new family members. People I have wanted to meet for a long time........
3507 miles of SWEET, SWEET WIND!
IT WAS GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A very awesome time!!! Can't wait until next year! Again, it was a grand time! Safe winds to all who are still on the road.
And until next year, we can always remember............
http://vid563.photobucket.com/albums/ss77/strider1520/Inzane%20Spearfish%202015/DSCN0445_zpsfj6lcwfp.mp4 
