I'm planning on arriving Sunday -- but it'll be fairly late. I'm doing a wedding on top of a mountain ski resort in Utah on Saturday, catching a plane out of Salt Lake at 5:50AM on Sunday, preaching here at 9:00 and then heading that way. I 'spect I'll get there around 6-7PM.
Rally activities: Not too many planned yet. I'll have some ride suggestions and try to set something up at the Honda dealer in Rapid City. There are lots of things to visit: Caves, Mount Rushmore, Devil's Tower, the Badlands, Indian Reservations museums in Rapid City, Deadwood and Lead (pronounced "l-ee-d" not "led"). We'll have a bike show, but that'll probably start the minute we get there. I'm going to find a place where we can have a "banquet" but I'm not going to organize a menu. That would mean making a commitment about numbers. A lot of what I see us doing is talking about setting precedents in what we want in a National Rally. If we get some of the experts there, maybe they can demonstrate a few maintenance procedures -- I'd really like to see what's involved in adjusting valves (or even just getting
all the plastic off.
Typical for the Concours Owners Group Rallies I've been at has been having the banquet on Thursday evening and then people were free to leave and head home on Friday morning. I'm fairly sure I'll check out of the motel by Friday morning so I can be back here by O'Dark-thirty on Friday evening, since I've got to preach again on Sunday.
When I talk about having ride suggestions, what I mean is some routes of varying length (and maybe themes) and folks hook up with each other and ride together. I don't believe in riding in the kind of groups that will take over the Hills a month after we're there when 2-400,000 folks will be there for "Sturgis."
If anyone wants this to get more "organized," I'm open for that, but I won't do it.
As for you poor people coming from the east, it's not as awful as you think. You just need to think "off the slab." I'm attaching a route suggestion that's probably something like what I'd use if I were coming from central Indiana. I've ridden some of these roads and they're not so bad. Nebraska is a cool state to ride through once you get off I-80. It's hard to do too much with Illinois, but it can be better than going around the big cities and following interstates. Iowa's got lots of potential. This route adds 150 miles to the straight line version (which you can't ride anyway, mainly because of barbed wire and water).
If you can't open this (it's a Streets and Trips file) email me at ptarman1 at msn dot com and I'll send you an html version.
