| by Hanna Bernard |
Being a late bloomer, I didn't start riding motorcycles until I was 25. I instantly got hooked and bought a 600cc Yamaha and rode from Sweden, through Europe down to Italy and back. It rained most of the time but it still was a great experience to be on a bike. So great, in fact, that I spent the next 9 years racing roadracing in Sweden, earning the title “Sweden’s Fastest Female on Two Wheels.”
I moved to California in 1996 and left my motorcycle in Sweden. I didn’t really miss it that much and probably wouldn’t have gotten back on a motorcycle again if it wasn’t for my fiancée John, who loves riding and happen to have 4-5 motorcycles in his garage. “Let’s go ride! See if you still can do it” he said. That was last spring and since then I’ve bought three of his motorcycles (which I suspect was his plan from the get-go) plus a dirtbike.
Anyway, this summer, some of our friends in Tahoe Blue Riders – a group of local business professionals as well as motorcycle riders – suggested a Sturgis trip. And they wanted my John to go with because he’s been to Sturgis three times already. And if John went, so did I. And I sure as heck wasn’t going to sit on the back of his bike!
Being a die-hard “crotch-rocket” rider, I realized that my current bike (sports bike) wasn’t very convenient for the 3,000 miles we planned, so John found me a nice Harley 1200 Sportster XL Custom that was more comfortable for the long ride.
So here I was, first time on a Harley, first time riding farther than 150 miles in one day since the 1980s or so… I didn’t really think I was going to make it that far, especially when the group decided to ditch the idea of a chaser-car with a trailer. But I’m not a quitter so our group (including Tahoe “who’s whos” like Doyle Harris, Jim Wiggins, Russ Snow, Lori Klobas, John Helmer and myself) finally got on our way very early on a Monday morning in August.
Since we had to stop and say bye to people on the way, eat breakfast (again), gas up and chat, it took us about 3 hours or so until we reached … Reno… The rest of the first day was freeway riding west on Hwy 80 to Elko, then off north to Twin Falls, ID. All together we rode 510 miles that first day. Wen hitting the sack, after dinner and a Margarita, I bet all of us were thinking “are we really going to do this tomorrow again…?”
From Twin Falls and on, we avoided the freeways as much as possible. We spent the next couple of days cruising by beautiful sights like the Tetons, Mesa Falls and Yellowstone – Yellowstone itself wasn’t anything like as I had expected. Just a long line of cars, stopping at every sign of any wild-life – like “something brown” moving 300 ft off the road, a sleeping buffalo, a couple of deer and, of course, that really cute Grizzly cub which created a road chaos and a crowd of 100 tourists or so.
I think the most spectacular part of Yellowstone when heading out of the park on the east site. We drove through some huge canyons with steep sides towering over us for miles. We were racing some guys from Arizona and they seemed frustrated that a “chick on a Sportster” could fly by them like that. Well, I guess having spent time on the race track pays off and sometimes it’s just plain fun to show the guys “who’s the boss.”
That night, we stayed in Cody, WY. Cody was packed with Harley riders on their way to or from Sturgis and every street was lined with 100s of parked bikes while the riders had a beer or two (or three) nearby. We went out for dinner at a restaurant where we got to know way more than we wanted about our very talkative waitress’ family life. Oh the joys of small towns in America!
After heading west yet another day, we finally arrived at our rented house in Spearfish, SD. Spearfish is located 17 miles west of Sturgis and it proved to be a great idea to stay a little ways away from Sturgis. Renting was an equally great idea as everything with a roof was booked and every lawn had at least a few tents on it.
The next morning, it was time to finally get to check out Sturgis. The myth, the legend, the tradition! There were thousands and thousands of bikes and bikers of all sorts. People in all walks of life and a lot of not so flattering outfits. Every square inch had something you could buy or throw your money into. And, of course, the t-shirt vendors. Ah, the T-SHIRTS! We had to get some T-shirts to prove that we really did go to Sturgis plus some for the people at home who didn’t get to go. To be honest, we pretty much went to Sturgis just to get those T-shirts.
After only 3 hours of the madness in Sturgis, we all felt that this was about all we could take of Sturgis and decided to spend the next couple of days exploring the beautiful areas surrounding Sturgis instead. So we did a day trip through Custer Park and snapped some shots of Mt. Rushmore. We also checked out Black Hills, where I think the Sturgis Rally originated from.
On the way back to Spearfish, we got hit by the worst hail-storm any of us have ever seen! The sky turned pitch black and the sky opened up and pelted us with marble-sized hail. We had no choice but to pull over on the shoulder, curl up on our bikes and just wait for it to pass. Lightning kept striking left and right and we were painfully aware that we were the tallest things around. When the storm passed (after 10 minutes or so, they don’t mess around in South Dakota), we were completely soaked and had to put everything – and I mean EVERYTHING – in the dryer back at the house. Who knew cowboy boots and chaps did so well in a dryer!
On Sunday, it was time to turn our handlebars toward Tahoe. Again, we tried to stay away from the big freeways and instead enjoy the beautiful country at a slightly slower pace. We cruised down south into Colorado, then west over the Rockies. The Rockies were fantastic! All I could think about while riding was “I have to come back here with my snowmobile this winter!!!” West of the Rockies, down in the flatlands again, we headed toward Steamboat Springs – all I seem to remember about Steamboat Springs were those hundreds of billboards the last 100 miles before the town advertising a place selling “Everything for the Cowboy on Lincoln Street.” I was so tired of those signs that I decided to never set my foot in that store. Ever. There is such a thing as too much marketing, indeed. Just don’t tell any of my clients that!
We spent the last night in Dushesne in Utah. Not much going on in Dushesne — until our friend Doyle Harris gets there, I might add. I'll bet there's 50 people who were lucky enough to come in our way during our trip who still remembers that "guys from Tahoe California!" Doyle will talk up a storm with anyone. I especially enjoyed when he saw this li'l old lady in an electric wheelchair and suggested that they’ll have a race. I bet she smiled from ear to ear all the way home (and she should — her wheelchair would have beaten Doyle's slow ride any day!)
But enough about Doyle. We continued west through Utah on "The World’s Loneliest Highway" which is Hwy 50 through Utah and Nevada. It was our last day and we were running out of time so we just kept clicking off the miles – all 650 of them – back to South Shore and Lake Tahoe.
And, if you didn't know it already... Tahoe is truly the most beautiful place of all the places we went. We're all so lucky to live here!
Did I say I loved every minute of our trip? However, I won’t go to Sturgis again any time soon, but I’ll go on a road-trip somewhere else any time, and it better not be too long before we go next time!
Northern California & Oregon, anyone?
Hanna Bernard is the owner of Highmark Designs in South Lake Tahoe, you can see pictures from the Sturgis-trip at www.highmarkdesigns.com/sturgis/. She is also a member of Tahoe Blue Riders (www.tahoeblueriders.com)
The whole gang. Left to right: Doyle Harris, Jim Wiggins, Hanna Bernard, John Helmer, Russ Snow, sitting: Lori Klobas