My dear Dad rides with me

The Grand Teton Mountains, in all their jagged splendor, are more impressive than I expected after years of seeing them in photographs. They signal the end of Day 9 on the road just outside of Jackson, Wyoming. Photo by Craig Chester. Click image for a larger view.

I rode in sadness for a while today. It would have been my dear father’s 97th birthday. He died last year at age 95, very much alive until the moment his heart stopped.

In the last year of his life, he learned to operate a computer, and had he lived, he would have been the most frequent visitor to this blog, reading every word, looking closely at each photograph, studying the maps.

I got my first ride on a motorcycle because of my father--when my mother was seven months pregnant with me. That was back in Latvia, our native land, where my father was a national champion road racer. In those days, you rode during the week what you raced on the weekend. Thus, my first ride was on his 350-cc racing machine, an AJS.


I have with me on this ride the medallion he was awarded as the 350-cc class national champion of Latvia in 1939. It’s a trophy the size of a postage stamp, all that was affordable in the days before the Second World War. It was his favorite victory, he used to tell me. In his last year with us, he kept it on his desk above his computer. Tonight, it sits by my computer in a hotel room in Wyoming, where I can touch the raised image of a motorcycle racer and shed a loving tear in his memory.

Sturgis, farewell

Just before leaving South Dakota, we had a chance to ride Spearfish Canyon, with E.B. and Craig winding their way through the scenery. Photos by Carole and Roy Timm. Click on any image for a larger view

Devil's Tower in Wyoming is one of those iconic American landmarks that demands to be photographed, as Craig and his Road Glide demonstrate.

Hauling across the grasslands in Wyoming is a blast. From Devil's Tower, it takes about three hours to reach Buffalo where one can dine well at the not-to-be-missed Occidental Hotel.

Day 8: Rapid City, South Dakota, to Buffalo, Wyoming

Blue skies in Wyoming

Is it just me, or is the sky in Wyoming bluer than elsewhere?

I first noticed the blue in the sky at Devil's Tower, after a morning ride of three hours from Rapid City.

The world's largest Harley-Davidson flag flies against the blue sky at Devil's Tower.

A most unconventional convention

There is no place on earth quite like Sturgis which is why the 6,000-resident town in South Dakota draws 400,000 to 600,000 bikes and bikers every August. These photos by Carole and Roy Timm (and a few by your faithful blogger) will give you a flavor of the motorcycle world's unconventional convention. Click on any image for a larger view.

First and foremost, Sturgis is about bikes, mainly Harley-Davidsons. There hundreds of thousands of new bikes and old, production and custom, to be admired.

Sturgis is also about people, hundreds of thousands of bikers, some of them more visible than others. Here we have antlerman . . .

. . . there we have flagman . . .

. . . and more than one dog riding with his master.

Some tattoos are worth a closer look. It's estimated about 15,000 tattoos are applied during Sturgis week.

Greg, the GM at Grand Teton Harley-Davidson & Buell, takes in the scene on jam-packed Main Street.

Did we mention there is no shortage of biker babes at Sturgis?

Dan, one of two bankers in our group of riders, takes the obligatory ride down Main Street.

Craig also does the tour of Main Street.

But there is much more to Sturgis than the parade of bikes, bikers and babes on Main Street. There are great one day rides in almost every direction. Here, Mount Rushmore looks on from the distance as a group of riders enters a tunnel on Iron Mountain Highway.

There are motorcycles everywhere in the Black Hills of South Dakota around Sturgis . . .

. . . but it's still possible to find solitude, especially early in the morning.

Jay and Brandon, father and son from Vail, wait for a breakfast cafe to open in Keystone prior to an early morning ride on Iron Mountain Highway.

The Needles Highway is another not-to-be-missed ride in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Another view of the Needles Highway in the Black Hills near Sturgis.

We were fortunate to have E.B. Chester as our host and guide. He's been to Sturgis more times than he can recall.

But before any riding started, the first morning after our arrival in Sturgis was devoted to getting our Harleys clean and shining again after 1,000 miles on the road.

Ed, a partner in Arizona Bike Week, was one of three riders in our group seeing Sturgis and environs for the first time.

In Custer State Park, buffalo still roam--and have the right of way by virtue of their sheer mass.

Larry, riding a Harley-Davidson for the first time, started his banking career in Rapid City near Sturgis many years ago.

Dan Klann of Butthead Racing, a team sponsored by Chester's Harley-Davidson, takes off down the drag strip during racing at Sturgis. In 2006, Butthead was the Super Gas winner at Sturgis.

Sturgis snapshots

Main Street in Sturgis becomes the centre of the motorcycle universe for one week in August when as many as 500,000 motorcyclists descend on the small town in South Dakota. Click on this and any other image in the blog for a larger view.

Where would bikes and bikers be without babes? Unfortunately, or happily, censors prevent us from posting a photo of the young lady wearing nothing on her upper torso but a fetching tattooed T-shirt.

And then there is the dog named Harley, astride his master's Harley-Davidson of course.

All is well

Have no worries, all is well with the Chester Group riders. We've been too busy taking in the Sturgis experience to blog, but will try to make up in the next day or so.

--Georgs

Some of us are also at work, gathering stories and photos for the new magazine. Here, Glory Road photograher Roy Timms waits for traffic to clear in one of the narrow tunnels on the Iron Mountain Highway near Mount Rushmore.