I planned to be on the road by
7am on Tuesday…no need to refuel as I had done that the night before, as well
as load the trailer and even pack a lot of my stuff. The forecast for Tuesday was 50% rain so I
didn’t want to take a chance of having to load the truck in the rain. I even went out about 8pm the night before to
move the truck closer to the hotel. I
parked behind another truck and trailer right out the back door so if I had to
make a run for the truck, it wouldn’t be a long one.
Tuesday morning came and I was
ready to go. I finished packing up the
last of my stuff and hauled it down the hall to the stairs. I happened to glance out the window at my
truck and almost had a heart attack…sorry, bad choice of words. Anyway, I was appalled to see that I had
left the lights on the night before…although I thought the lights went off
after a few minutes if you left them on…apparently not.
I hustled down the stairs and out
the door as fast as I could…as if a couple of extra minutes were going to
help. I dropped my bag on the ground,
dug my key out of my pocket and stuck it in the ignition. Before I turned the key I may have said a
short, silent prayer, and then as I held my breath, I turned the key…the engine
started right up…thank you Jesus.
I finished loading the car and
then shut it down to go check out and grab some yogurt at the breakfast area…and
yes, I turned the lights off. All packed
and belly full, I hit the road at 7am…as planned.
I chose to take a more northern
route home so the first part of the trip was on I-90…80 miles per hour…I kept
it at 75 in case you’re wondering. The only
thing worth mentioning for the Tuesday drive was the town of Wall. For 30 miles approaching the town I saw
billboards advertising the Wall Drug Store.
According to the billboards, the drug store had pretty much everything…including
food. Well, I needed to see such a drug
store so when the exit arrived, I took it.
 |
| Wall Drug Store |
For those who don’t know…and that
includes me…the Wall Drug Store is a famous place among the biker community…at
least those who have been to Sturgis before.
It was packed. The streets were
packed with cars and motorcycles. The drug
store took up an entire block. Signs in
the windows and on the building advertised souvenirs, food, drugs, ice cream
and many other things. Since I had just
eaten breakfast an hour or so earlier, I opted to pass up the opportunity to
see inside the store. Next time I’ve got
to check it out.
 |
| Wall, SD |
I-90 goes on forever, it seems,
without many large cities…at least in the section I drove on. In fact, Wall was the largest city/town I passed
and its population was around 870 folks, minus bikers of course. Just like every other city/town within 30-40
miles of Sturgis, Wall was full of bikers.
It was hard to tell if they were coming from or going to Sturgis…perhaps
both. I just wanted to get down the road
as far and as fast as I could go.
Actually, I had reservations in Grand Island.
 |
| One of many fields of sunflowers |
I turned off the Interstate on a
smaller 2 lane state highway headed due south.
For the most part, all I saw was fields of crops…the only one of which I
could identify was Sunflowers, although I saw a sign advertising Alfalfa. I think it looks a little like corn except
without the corn. The more
agriculturally minded out there can probably tell me for sure. I’m sure there was corn fields mixed in
somewhere but I never actually saw corn on the stalks…perhaps it was too early
in the growing season. I was tempted to
stop and investigate one field with short, dark green plants with large leaves
but since there wasn’t much of a shoulder; I decided it might be a bit too
dangerous. Can anyone tell me what I was
seeing?
To a make a long day shorter, I
arrived at my hotel in Grand Island…an older Roadway Inn. I’ll try not to judge all Roadway Inns by
this one, but I have to say I may never stay in one again. However, I have to admit that the room was
fairly clean and I never saw a big roach run across the floor…you have to be
thankful for the little things. I was
glad when morning came. I had set the
alarm for 6am but woke up earlier…I didn’t want to stay any longer so I got
dressed and left.
 |
| Dallas, SD |
The drive today, Wednesday, was better. Perhaps that’s because I was getting closer
to home or was it because there’s was more “civilization” to look at. Either way, it was a more interesting
day. I started out the day on a small 2
lane highway…it might have been the same one I had driven on the day before…I
just followed the GPS. The time in
Nebraska was limited…more farms, fields and farming communities. One had a particularly interesting name…Bonesteel. I wonder if there a story behind the name. And we wouldn’t want to forget McCool
Junction. Oh, then there was Winner, SD,
the Pheasant capital of the world…so they say.
I even passed by Dallas…not THE Dallas…Dallas, NE.
 |
| South Dakota Landscape |
The last two days has been
relatively cop free as well. Once I made
it to I-35 I saw 3-4 State Troopers in Kansas but other than that only one police
car between Rapid City and Wichita…and that was a county Sheriff helping a
couple of kids on 4-wheelers get a cow off the highway and back into the
pasture…interesting.
 |
| Only a Few Still Exist |
I saw 3-4 drive-in theaters, 2 of
which were still active. For the younger
folks in the crowd, a drive-in was a place where you would drive your car in,
find a place facing this large outdoor screen and then get a speaker off a pole
next to the car and hang it on your window.
Kids and families loved drive-in movies…so did people dating as I remember. One of the active drive-ins was showing
Pixels. There was probably only room for
45-50 cars at the most. I was already
past the theater before I knew it and didn’t want to turn around. I managed to stop in time for the other.
I crossed over several rivers
between Grand Island and OKC…the North Loup River and the Middle Loup River
like I did going to Sturgis…still no South Loup River (these were actually
north of Grand Island). Then there was
the Platte River, the Little Blue River, the Big Blue River, the Elkhorn, the
Republican, the Chikaskia, the Ninnescah, the Smoky Hill, the Saline and the
Salt Fork Arkansas River. Almost all of
the rivers were full of water. The area
has received a lot of rain this summer.
 |
| Pig In! Pig Out! |
 |
| Pig In! Pig Out! Ribbons |
Along the highway since leaving
Rapid City…especially on I-90…there were groups of riders headed west. Judging by the way they were packed, they
were headed to Sturgis. Seems a little
late but what do I know. There were an
equal number of riders, RVs and trailers headed east as well.
Tomorrow is the last leg of my
trip. When I get back to College Station
I will have driven over 2500 miles…and that doesn’t count the miles I put on
the motorcycle while in and around Sturgis.
That was probably around 300-350 miles…I didn’t keep count. There won’t be another entry to the blog…I’ve
driven this leg many times and most of the folks I know reading have also made
the trip a few times.
The trip to Sturgis has been an
interesting one and one I am glad I did.
If I ever go again I might be inclined to go with one or two
others. A group any bigger than that would
make decision making too difficult…Where shall we eat? Where do you want to go now? When do we stop? Want to go to the Buffalo Chip or Devil’s
Tower? Shall we camp or get a hotel
room? Which hotel?
You can see why I wanted to go it
alone the first time. Now that I have an
idea about what Sturgis is all about…a just a small one at that…I might
entertain going again. Maybe I should
fly in and rent a bike there? Sharon
might think about going if I opted for that.
However, then you’d miss all the little things along the road going to and
coming back. If you're into motorcycle rallies, Sturgis is one of the biggest...this year's 75th anniversary rally was predicted to bring in about 1 million bikers. Perhaps the ones after this will be a bit smaller...750,000-800,000! Anyway, you need to do it, at least once.
I don’t know when I will take my
next trip worthy of updating this blog but stay tuned…I’ll let you know. Thanks for checking in once in a while. I hoped you enjoyed reading my ramblings and
seeing some of my pictures. See you next
time.
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