Motorcycles – Ulen Adventures

Well, I’m getting more behind every month. I thought I’d post a more current event or two, then fill in the in-between later. We just returned from our annual Sturgis adventure. With Covid, things were a bit different. In fact, we were pretty surprised when they didn’t cancel this event like so many of the others we had planned on this year.

But Sturgis is mostly outside, and we don’t frequent the nightlife in the bars and at the concerts – so we felt relatively safe during this adventure. Grand-nephew Connor has been riding a motorcycle for a while now. He turned 21 just the week before, so we had fun exposing him to his first Sturgis. We did a lot more driving around, and a lot less going into stores for shopping, but we had a great time!

Took two days to get to Sturgis this year, had a relaxing layover at Lake Minatare State Recreation Area in Nebraska. Mid week was relaxing , we heard that weekends were a bit more crowded here.

We felt that although people were predicting a lower turnout for this year because of the virus, there were more people at the campgrounds than in previous years… (maybe there were fewer at the hotels?)

We were a bit earlier to Sturgis this year – here we are trying to set up “elbow room” at the Ride N Rest for our group.

Here’s how our campsite looked once all our family and friends settled in just a few days later! Wall to wall people!

We really took advantage of some great weather to get some serious motorcycle riding in! We touched on many of the iconic Black Hills tourist spots!

Mike and Connor going through a tunnel on Iron Mountain Road. You can see Mt Rushmore in the distance.

We stopped by Mount Rushmore this year, the big heads haven’t changed much!

Plenty of wildlife this year – here are some buffalo blocking the road in Custer State Park.

More wildlife at Custer State Park – here are some mountain goats.

MIke and Connor riding near Spearfish Canyon – beautiful day!

We made sure to stop by Pactola Reservoir for breakfast! (Beat most of the crowds!)

Drove by Crazy Horse – I don’t think this has progressed much in the 20 years since we started coming here…

Sweeping corner – look how Mike and Connor are perfectly aligned!

Mike, Connor and Chuck taking a break on our drive to Devils Tower. I wonder what they are figuring out…

Did lots of driving this year – here are Mike and Connor at Devils Tower in Wyoming

One of our favorite spots in the Sanford Homestake visitor’s center. Homestake used to be a mine operation, but now they do physics experiments a mile deep in the earth. This model depicts the underground tunnels in the mountain.

We always drive by the “Kissing Rocks” in Spearfish Canyon to say hello to Chuck’s Mom and Dad.

We drove into a hailstorm on highway 385 – these hail were as big as eggs, and they hurt when they hit you!

Quick pic of XL eggs for comparison to the hail.

Stopped by to see Karen and Dennis G – kept our social distance! They asked about everyone and say hi!

We got some new parts (isn’t that the fun of coming here?). Chuck is installing new shocks on our trike at camp (with help).

Some pretty sunsets because of the california fires…

We have been regular attendees at the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally since 2003. Last year (2018) we missed this event because we were in Alaska, so we were looking forward to it this year.

There were lots of changes for us in 2019. The other years we had stayed with a wonderful couple, Dennis and Karen G. They decided that 2017 was their last year to rent out rooms in their home, so we decided to try the camping experience. Because we were bringing our camper, we had to tow our bikes to Sturgis (we had two drivers and three vehicles- math did not work). Our friends, Mike and Amy, found a great campground (no bands playing all night, but fairly close to the action of town), and we all settled in.