Jonesin for a Ride!

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So she will get one! Two weeks and counting…..

My sister Joyce mentioned to me that she wanted to do a motorcycle trip, so we have one planned for the first week in May. I mentioned to her how to pack and that one of the items that was crucial was a jacket worthy for a motorcycle ride, as you dont want to be cold. I suggested for her to try Craigs list and 2 days later and $50 dollars poorer she sent me this:

So the prelim game plan is to head to Furnace Creek Inn located in Death Valley National Park via Trona Wildrose Road for day one, then off to Las Vegas for Elton Johns concert The Million Dollar Piano at Ceasers Palace the following day. After that, it will be off to Zion National Park to stay a night inside the park by the lodge. Then if weather permitting, we will head to the Grand Canyon south rim for two nights. After that, who knows……

Two weeks and counting till we depart….

Our Sturgis 2011 Route:

[findmespotmap v=3 start=”2011-08-01 15:00:00″ end=”2011-08-30 09:00:00″ id=”0-2100758″ type=t sv=yes wx=station]

We are back home now (almost two weeks now!) and back either at work or school. Akzl had school on Monday, and the rest of us were back at work.  Shai was the lucky one who is still on summer vacation.

As with any vacation or ride, there are casualties.  First of all, we are all safe and sounds and we had no mechanical issues – that in itself makes the ride a success. But we did have casualties.

First was Big Steves SPOT transmitter lost somewhere before Barstow, Ca on day one, followed up by Sharons one fender bracket having a crack at the end of day one.

The night before leaving Rapid City while packing is when I noticed that I didnt have my GPS anymore – must have left it on the ground in Sturgis one night while packing my saddlebag with T-shirts. The first day riding home, Sharons other fender bracket failed and the fenders had to come off. Day 2 on our way home, Big Steve sped up ahead of us on the interstate to take some video of us riding by, but the kick stand didnt cooperate and he got off his bike only to find out that his bike just took a nap on the ground.

At the end of Day 3s ride home in the Excalibur parking structure, a trash can jumped in behind me as I was maneuvering my bike to park and put a minor scratch on my saddle bag. Johnny, while closing his saddlebag lid, noticed that all the nuts and bolts had fallen off and his lid was now loose-time for the bungees.

Ironic, but the youngest and most inexperience rider on the trip with the oldest bike came out unscathed as the rest of us was a bit ghetto as we rode home 🙂

The weather for the ride home was great. We had some head/cross winds going through Wyoming and we had sunny skies with no threat of rain on all our days, with a minor exception to our last 80 miles into Las Vegas. Our approach into Las Vegas was gloomy skies and a few sprinkles-perfect when it is 110 degrees – better than direct sun!/ppAll in all, a great trip with friends and family to a familiar place with lots of beautiful country in-between.

Below are some videos- one a collage of our pictures to summarize our trip, the other testing out a helmet cam (you may need to switch the settings from 480p to 720 – I haven’t figured out how to default the palyer to HD).

Again, thanks for all the comments as we laughed when we read them and thanks for following along.

Not much to report here for this day. It was cloudy skies and rain when we woke up, then changed to on/off drizzle. After a slow start in the morning and when there was a break in the weather, we finally made our way to the dealership in Rapid City to check the vendor area out and to have lunch.

The weather today was off and on rain and cool. Crazy horse was on our agenda, but we killed the idea due to the weather and will try and visit the site tomorrow.

Mid afternoon we returned to the hotel and chilled by the pool/hot tub and each of us caught up on something. After a local dinner and a dice game of 10,000, we all went to the local movies and saw Cowboys and Aliens.

Here in SD, you can afford to go to the movies. A bag of popcorn and a small drink is only $1 each!

Not much in photos, but here you go…