Corner To Corner - Chapter 9, Conversations With Dusty

Does it count on the Corner To Corner Ride that I didn’t ride the motorcycle 129 miles today, yet the motorcycle and I are in Sturgis, South Dakota as is Tony who rode 345 miles, while I only rode 216 on the bike and for 129 miles the bike and I rode with Dusty in the tow truck? Do I still get credit?

Harley Roadside Assist sent over a very talented young tow truck driver named Dusty, who was able to get the bike up on the flatbed with no problems. He and I set out in the truck for the 129 miles to Pierre, while Tony rode behind on the Geezer Glide. There was a fair amount of road construction over dirt roads which were rough in the tow truck, and I could hear Tony cussing at it from 100 yard behind. It took us two hours to get to Pierre in the tow truck, and Dusty asked about the ride, and was a bit wistful since he said he’s never been out of the Midwest. He’s 27, and this is his family business – along with his Dad and brother. He was born and raised in Huron, and bought his first house – a 2200 square foot place on a quarter of an acre for $60,000! Needless to say he was shocked at Seattle housing prices. Huron is the pheasant hunting capitol of South Dakota, and Dusty says they experience an invasion of hunters every fall. About that time a pheasant flew out of the ditch and about knocked Tony off the bike! And of course they have that huge pheasant statute in the entrance to town. We talked of farms and crops and how they tow big implements out of the field when they get stuck. Dusty had more than a few stores of wrecks, and trucks plowing into wandering cattle and such.

He asked me if he had a few days to drive and see some scenery where should he go? I said “Go West”. Head up to Montana – see some mountains. He’d been to Detroit to see an old High School buddy and hated it, but he seemed intrigued about Seattle and why I loved it so much.

The two hours flew by, and we pulled up to the Harley Dealer in Pierre at noon. Dusty got the bike down and pushed into the dealer, where they tinkered with it and Tony and I went to the Longbranch Saloon for lunch (no Miss Kitty or Marshall Dillon). It was very hot in Pierre, almost 100, an we were feeling it when we walked back to the dealer. They hadn’t figured out what was wrong yet, so we sat, and we sat, and we sat, and we napped, and we sat some more. About 4pm they said that they had gotten it to act up once, but had not been able to get it to do it again – and they had tested and probed and run everything and couldn’t figure out what the problem was, and that it had started 15 times in a row with no problem. They charged me $60 and sent me on my way.

Our goal was to be in Sturgis tonite and spend a day here before the big Black Hills Motorcycle Rally starts later this week. In order to get their quick, and be along a well traveled route incase the bike acted up again, we decided, much to my dismay, to take I-90. It’s 225 miles to Sturgis via the freeway, and at 4pm in the afternoon heat, just a ton of fun. The freeway cuts like a knife through the prairie – and through my heart. It was long, straight, hot, and full of trucks. It didn’t move with the land, pierced it like an arrow. I would have rather continued on US-14 and SD-34 the back way through the Black Hills and taken the back way, but we thought it was wise to stick to the well traveled road. As it was the bike behaved and we had no problems.

South Dakota has a 75 mph speed limit on the freeway, and at that speed you get a lot of wind noise. I’ve been riding some with my I-pod, but with that much wind noise you have to have LOUD music on to overcome it. I had a playlist of what people my age consider rock and roll – things like the Eagles, Marshall Tucker Band, Styx etc. This playlist I had labeled “Fast Ski Songs”, for songs that I like to listen to while skiing fast. Apparently there are also a few show tunes and movie tunes on here – including songs from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. So picture it – I’m riding along, feet out on the travel pegs – arms level on the ape-hanger handle bars, arms very tan and muscles bulging from having to hang on at 75 mph, a glare on my face, doing a little seat dance, and foot tapping, and looking like a weathered grizzled old biker – singing along with the I-pod “I’m just a sweet transvestite, from transsexual, Transelvania…” No wonder the truckers were giving me odd looks.

So, despite singing along to Rocky Horror and a few other oddities, the time passed very slowly on the ride up I-90. The country was interesting – grasslands as far as the eye could see, and I felt like I was riding through the set of “Dances With Wolves”. Apparently Lady Bird Johnson didn’t remember South Dakota when she had billboard taken down off the Interstates. This stretch is lined with them – all for upcoming tourist things. Places like Wall Drugs, Wonderland Cave, and Gator World. I imagine this is what the old Route 66 and other major roads looked like back in the day – and to be honest, I kind of liked it. It helped pass the time, and had we had some extra, we might have stopped in on a few of them just for the silliness factor.

As we got closer to Rapid City and Sturgis, the countryside changed from the grasslands to some very pretty hills and I’m looking forward to riding through them tomorrow as we explore the area, and take in the experience that is Sturgis. We went into town for dinner, and already the vendors are setting up and there are a lot of bikers in town early. We’ll avoid the crowd and still have some fun. By Friday this street will be lined with 10,000 bikes!
I-90 is right outside the door, and we could take it straight back to Seattle and be home in a day – but I’ll be damned if we will.