Briefly - about my 1996 ride to Sturgis
When I rode to Sturgis in 1996, it was on a 1994 Sportster 1200, with comfort mods (better seat, shocks/frame lowered to fit my short body, and a larger gas tank 'cause I HATE to have to push between gas stations!) which was "OK" for my then 49 year old body... and I camped at the Buffalo Chip (loud and fun!) on a roll-up mattress

I had more fun, and less sleep, than anyone should be allowed to have in a week... and vowed that "someday" I would return

Jump forward to 2007
Having just turned 60, and needing a bit more comfort on the road, I now have a 2006 Dyna Super Glide (also with a better, Mustang seat and shocks/frame lowered to match my short legs) which is 3 inches longer and 75 pounds heavier than the Sportster, for a MUCH smoother ride on the highway (albeit, just a bit less nimble in town driving) so my brother and I (10 years younger, but with a broken collarbone which required a stainless steel pin a couple years ago) decided to split the cost and stay at motels on the way to/from and in Sturgis (Sturgis motels are EXPENSIVE during Rally Week, but still better than camping!)

Friday 8/3 Home to Boise Idaho 447 Miles
Not really much I can say about leaving my house in Vancouver WA and riding on Interstate all the way... fairly fast ride (about 9 hours) over usually good roads (lots of wind gusts in the Columbia River Gorge, but at least the wind was from the West and pushing me forward) and it was nice to see my sister (took her out to dinner after I got to the motel in Boise) but this being the first day... I was REALLY tired by time dinner was over and was really happy to turn off the lights at the motel and stretch out on something that was not vibrating down the highway at 70 miles per hour

Saturday 8/4 Boise to Idaho Falls via US-20 263 Miles
Left the motel about 8AM and continued East on I-84, then switched to US-20 in Mt Home to, as my brother Mike said "save 20 miles and have better scenery" on the ride... I will take his word on the 20 miles saved, but as for scenery... miles and miles and miles of rolling hills... Brown because they were covered in Brown grass, with every once in awhile a Brown Cow munching on Brown grass... not exactly exciting scenery, but my MP3 player helped keep me awake (the worst problem I had in 1996 was riding boredom, so I planned ahead for this trip)

Got to Idaho Falls about 2PM or so... afternoon of visiting and watching Mike and his wife Deana finish packing... then off to bed to be ready for our longest day (together, read later) on the motorcycles

Sunday 8/5 Idaho Falls to Buffalo WY 450 Miles
Mike and Deana finished packing Saturday afternoon, and we were all up early Sunday and on the road... US-26 out of Idaho Falls, to US-20 at Shoshoni WY and on to Worland WY and then US-16 from Worland to Buffalo WY... nothing particularly eventfull during this day, just a LONG day and a lot of miles, resulting in all 3 of us being tired and ready for bed after dinner

Monday 8/6 Buffalo to Sturgis 185 Miles
From Buffalo WY it was a straight shot to Sturgis on I-90... fast road and only about 4 hours total

Got to the motel about 1:30PM or so (after the long day on Sunday, we didn't get an early start) and got the scooters unloaded... then it was off to the Buffalo Chip for a Toby Keith concert... by Deana's request since she is a big fan

Concert was great... but my digital camera died after just a half-dozen pictures, well before any of the "interesting" people came out to play, so my enjoyment was tempered by regret at missing a LOT of good picture opportunities... but, the Chip has "grown up" since 1996 and even had Best Buy as a vendor in one of the booths, selling Internet access by the hour for those people wanting to check their email, so I was able to find out that their store in Rapid City had a digital camera in stock that I had already looked at as a "some day" replacement for my several year's old model (sure not happy that "some day" was while traveling, but that is just the way things happen)

Sturgis Side Trips a Total of 542 Miles
I started Tuesday by making a quick trip to the Best Buy at Rapid City to buy a new camera, then spent the rest of the day in "WalkAbout" mode in Sturgis (as well as UPS'ing a box of dirty clothes and broken camera home to make room for the new T's I planned to buy... kinda funny... ride over a thousand miles just to be able to buy a half-dozen T shirts!)

While we were in the area, we of course had to go visit Mount Rushmoore and the 4 "stone faces" in the mountain... I got to use my new camera, and found out after I got home that it takes really good pictures

After leaving the mountain, we went to Deadwood... where I found the local historical tidbit that during the initial Gold Rush days the buildings went up so fast that many of them didn't even have real names... so the place where Wild Bill Hickock was famously shot in the back of the head while playing poker was simply called "Saloon #10"

Being a "Wild West" town... and current tourist destination... Deadwood has a Casino in every other building (the buildings in between Casinos are either resturants, or places to sell "stuff" to the tourists) so I tried my hand at poker (didn't do well... I'm not patient enough to wait for good cards and kept putting in money to see "just one more card") and slots... and was down to the last $20 of my allotted "fun" money when I hit 3 Bars x4 and x2 - so I went away from Deadwood with just a bit of THEIR money!

All over the West you will see road signs for Wall Drug... so, since it was "only" 80 miles further East on I-90, I hopped on my scooter (on a 105 degree day!) and rode over to get some of their famous free ice water and take a couple of pictures... as well as have a Buffalo steak in their 500 seat resturant (tasted just like Beef... maybe a bit leaner) before riding back to Sturgis

Just a few miles North and West of Sturgis is Belle Fourche (pronounced FOOSH) which has a sign marking the Geographical Center of the US... so Mike and I rode out for pictures (Deana was feeling kinda "punky" so stayed at the motel)

Saturday was Sturgis WalkAbout day for all of us (Deana was now feeling better) with more picture taking and visiting lots of stores looking for bargains (Mike bought a sheepskin pad for Deana's part of their motorcycle seat) then back to the motel to get our bags packed and ready for the next day and the start of our trip home

Sunday 8/12 Sturgis to Worland WY 310 Miles
Started by going West on I-90 to SD-34 North at Spearfish, to SD-24 West just South of Belle Fourche, which became WY-24 and a stop at Devils Tower (remember the movie Close Encounters?) then to US-14 West to join I-90 West bound, and finally switch to US-16 West in Buffalo WY heading to Worland WY for the night

Monday 8/13 Worland to Yellowstone over Bear Tooth Pass 301 Miles
Started North on US-16/US-20/WY-789 and Switched to US-310/WY-789 into Montana, then onto MT-72 and a Merge to MT-308 to Red Lodge, and finally South on US-212 which goes over Bear Tooth Pass (10,947 feet high) and onward into the NE entrance road into Yellowstone... this entrance was, due to the closing of the East Entrance because of range fires, TOTALLY overloaded... to the point that we could only go about 20 feet at a time and then had to shut off and just stand and wait... I even took a picture of a SLOW sign as a joke... we were stopped completely!

Once inside Yellowstone we saw the usual stuff... not going to try and describe everything... and then on to the West Entrance for a night in West Yellowstone

Tuesday 8/14 Yellowstone to Idaho Falls 121 Miles
South on US-20 to Mike's place, where I rested and did laundry, and then packed the scooter to be ready for an EARLY start on Wednesday

Wednesday 8/15 Idaho Falls to Pendelton OR 509 Miles
Early start on I-15 South to I-86 West which becomes I-84 and that would be my route all the way back to Portland OR (and then I-205 North to Vancouver WA)

I was in a hurry to get home, so did MY longest day... I only stopped in Pendelton 'cause I was hungry, and I know myself well enough to know that trying to continue riding after 10+ hours on the road AND after a meal, was not a good idea at all... so I let Tom Bodett (Motel 6) provide a room for the night

Thursday 8/15 Pendelton to Home 228 Miles
The 200 or so miles from Pendelton into Portland were the worst miles of the trip... the head wind in the Columbia River Gorge was TERRIBLE (got about 40 MPG in South Dakota at a 75 MPH highway speed, but dropped to 35 MPG on this stretch of road at a 65 MPH speed limit) made even worse by wind shifts that kept trying to move me from one lane to another... but even after fighting the winds, I made it home in less than 5 hours, just a few minutes after noon

There you have it - 3,356 Miles spread over 2 Weeks
It was good to visit with my sister, and my brother and his wife... and it was REALLY good to be home again!

PS - VibraMatic!
Every Harley trip report must include notes on what vibrated OFF or even LOOSE

For me - one of the 6 short bolts holding the windshield to the metal mounting bracket "went away" somewhere in Sturgis... since the nuts are "self sealing" with a Teflon ring inside the nut, and the other 5 had no problems, I think this one MAY have been stolen... but the end result was a stop to buy a nut and bolt and metal washer and a collection of O-Rings to make a replacement cushion (so no direct metal to Plexiglas contact) for the custom rubber grommet included with the Harley part... and an application of some of the Blue Locktite I carry, since the nut I found at the non-Harley store was not self sealing

For my brother - the original owner of his Harley had installed a Corbin w/Passenger Seat and passenger foot pegs... but then never had a passenger (so the passenger part was still Rock Hard... see note above about sheepskin) so the passenger foot pegs where not properly installed... so while I had my Blue Locktite out, we fixed the problem of his passenger foot pegs becoming loose and "rolling over" causing his wife to complain about foot cramps

PPS - Gutless Winder!
My brother rides a 1999 Dyna Wide Glide, with TC88 engine, with a Carb and the usual "Stage 1" adjustments to "unlock" the 10 or so horsepower missing upon delivery... while my 2006 Fuel Injected Dyna Super Glide TC88 is completely stock (building a house so no extra money, and Stage 1 for a Fuelie is upwards of $1,000)

I ride by myself, with about 15 or so pounds of tools and parts, and clothing for just me... my brother carried no tools (that was my job) but had clothing for 2 AND his wife on the passenger seat

While on the last stage toward Sturgis, on I-90 where there are "rolling hills" with a "gentle" incline in the road, I was running WOT and barely staying at 70MPH... and he was pulling away from me while carrying more weight

Before I take another long trip, I'm going to have to think about saving up for Stage 1 for my Fuelie (Stage 1 is an air cleaner with better flow, mufflers that flow better, and reprogramming the injection computer to match the new air flow characteristics... and this is the part I am stuck on, since it takes more than a simple allen wrench or socket driver... so any Stage 1 for my FI model will have to wait for awhile)