Sturgis The Hard Way-- O.K., I'll try to brief this up as much as possible. All I can say is hey Bandit, this'll make your last Sturgis run sound like a walk in the park!

I left Sunday morning (the 4th) at about 4:00 a.m. so's my buddy Dave wouldn't have too much heat to deal with going thru Arizona/Neveda. I made sure that my client who's house I was almost done remodeling agreed to "direct deposit" the $3400.00 he owed me by the 7th of August.

All went ok after a few minor mishaps (had to re-wire the utility trailer I bought, and found out that the shop that did the bike transmission & engine rebuild messed up some wiring on the bike). After doing 1550 miles in a day and a half, a huge clunk came from the rear of the truck, so I pulled over. Seems the truck tailpipe behind the muffler cut loose, and "pretzeled" itself around the rear axle. No problem- I just tore it off,and went the next 30 miles to the Sturgis exit.

Arriving at Glencoe on the 5th, I noticed a huge sign on the pile of firewood that was usually half that size by the 1st day of Sturgis. It read "no campfires allowed by order of the state of s.d." Jeezus, camping without a campfire, what next? After a huge downpour that night, I figgered I might not be in for the best vacation I've ever had.

Next day involved re-wiring the bike, and taking the truck into town for groceries & stuff. Gasoline prices were much higher than normal, for some reason, as were groceries!?! More rain later that night, with just a few brave souls (and their ol' ladies) doing the "hooter alley" show.

Tuesday morning I plugged Dave's 12-volt coffee maker into my truck cigarette lighter, and it shorted out at least 4-5 wires in my dashboard. More re-wiring, oh boy. Then more rain- lots, and non-stop. That night a huge gust of wind blew our entire camp set-up halfway to Oregon, and we hadda set it all back up in pouring rain, and some stinging hail. Two days later, most of our stuff had dried back out.

Thursday involved fixing my kickstand. It had spread out where it connects at the bolt, and no one within 60 miles had a replacement one, so I did some blacksmithing over the propane bbq I brought, using a hammer, and a "bronson rock" that I hauled home as a keepsake. No way to get to Wyoming's No-panties-Wednesday this year, or get the run pins I promised ya, Bandit- sorry, bro.

Tried to take the Chevy there, but the goddamn differential seized up, and hadda be replaced for an ungodly amount of money. This is about the time I started asking "Geeze, what's next?"

What was next was a guy at the refreshment and ice store at Glencoe screaming at me that I was the guy that knocked his bike over in 2001 (I didn't make Sturgis in 2001) and damaged his bike. He was pretty drunk, and when he took a swing at me with a 6 lb bag of ice, he fell on his ass and swore if he got back up, I was toast. Neither witch happened. I shoulda thumped him, but hey- I was on vacation! >

The next night offered some relief from the rain and had a pretty good "hooter alley" night. Unfortunately, some guy that told me he was a "special forces" guy got pissed at me when he saw I had a camcorder and a 35mm camera, and thought I'd be posting pics of his ol' lady on the web, thinking I was a pro photographer or a webmaster. I assured him I was neither, but he fell offa his bike and took a few sloppy swings at me. After about the 6th or 7th swing, no one was paying attention to his rants and raves, so I hammerfisted him, leaving him to rest on mother earth after he clanged the shit outta his head on the ford truck that was in his way on the way down. Oops, not my fault.

His ol' lady and I took some really nasty pics while he was out. I don't think this guy makes friends too easily! Rain every friggin' day from then on, except the last day, go figger.

After taking a few miles of sightseeing, the truck trans was acting kinda weird, then blew in the 1-dog town of Fillmore,Utah. Great place if ya like 3.2 beer, otherwise it's friggin hell on earth. Three days later, the trans is done, and I'm back on the road. 70 and 80 miles an hour all the way back to L.A. got home about 1 a.m. Sunday night (the 18th) and back to work for the guy that prominsed me the $3400.00 deposit but the 7th. The deposit didn't happen till I called him from Utah, and demanded it be made. Even then, he only made a deposit of $2600.00, and owes me bigtime.

Hey, what a restful and relaxing vacation, can't wait to do it next year, HAAHAA!

Concrete Pete
Weirdland Hills, CA.

Here's some picture's of our trip, me , Jay Hodge and Jim Russi--Chris. (Most of the shots featured in this report are from Chris T's road trip to Sturgis.)

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