50th Birthday Road Trip
I wrote this Sturgis story and it got published in Scooter news, colorado.
Hope you enjoy!
![Smiley :)](http://www.cvoharley.com/smf/Smileys/CVO/smiley.gif)
So, the road trip was born for the same reason that many road trips are born, the 50th birthday celebration. Having done road trips in the past, including a red lodge MT/ Jackson Hole, WY. loop on his 50th birthday, my long-time riding bud, Heartburn Harry and I decided to head up to the Black Hills to check out the riding at a time other than the during the famous Sturgis rally, which we've attended the last 15 years. We’ve always enjoyed the beauty and riding in the black hills, however, the riding right on here in our own backyard is even more spectacular.
It started out a cool chilly Friday morning in the low 50s as we met to gas up the iron horses, heartburn harry on his 2016 Harley Road Glide and me on my 2012 Road Glide CVO. We were riding light, since it was just a weekend putt. As we mounted out trusty steeds and pointed them north, we were looking forward to some good riding cold brews, bourbon, cigars and some good live tunes in the Black Hills.
The 330 miles ride up from Ft Collins was as smooth as a good bourbon on the rocks. We cruised through into Custer and had lunch on the deck and one of the local watering holes. The people of the black hills only add to the beauty of the riding and the biker hospitality is ever present and always appreciated. These people really know to host the 2-wheeled crowd and it’s as if you feel like you’re among your people. After lunch, we continue north by lake pactola, through deadwood and right into Sturgis for a beer to wash down the road dust at the loud American. It was obvious as we rolled in, the new downtown sidewalk improvement projects just being wrapped up. You’ll probably notice how much pride the people of Sturgis have in their town if you make the pilgrimage this August. After our cold adult beverage, we then pointed the scooters towards the spearfish best western, for happy hour and a walk down to the Friday night street party with live tunes, and of course, more cold beer, for medicinal purposes only.
Upon rising to an unseasonably cool late June sat morning, we noticed a brand new full dresser black and chrome Indian with its proud new owner telling us how he went into Sturgis Indian for a t-shirt and came out with a new scooter, and a trailer to pull it home to St Louis. We laughed our asses off, knowing full well, how this story goes. As we had both been victims of the “t-shirt” bait and switch in the past. I’m sure many of you scooter tramps reading this story understand that dealership “tactic” and have “accidentally” left with a new bike instead of a t-shirt.
Our journey continued down through spearfish canyon, back through deadwood, and over to vanocker canyon before we hit the highway for a quick blast to Black Hills Harley-Davidson in Rapid City, for a “t-shirt”.
Once there we browsed all the “can’t live without” HD items and were told that free brats were being served in a few minutes, why don’t we hang out, look at some bikes and gear and have lunch on them. When we asked, what was the occasion, we were told it was “Saturday”. Both of us, being of sound mind, love a free lunch, so we opted to shop for another “t-shirt” until lunch was served.
And that’s when it happened, the 2015 Starlite black CVO Street Glide jumped out at me like a fuzzy new puppy in the window! It was love at first sight back in 2015 when it was new, and I had lusted over the shiny black with sparkling flake, it was only the price tag that kept me from riding out on it back then, but now at 2 years old, with low miles and lots of goodies already attached, I knew that it would be a much better 50th birthday present than another HD “t-shirt”!
We all know how trade in negotiations can be rather tedious and cut into our valuable riding time. But I must say, after lunch and a bit of reasonable haggling, a deal was struck with my Loveland, CO. native salesman, Bret and just like that, my 2012 Cobalt Blue CVO Road Glide stayed in the black hills and the 2015 CVO Street Glide became my new trusty steed! I hadn’t even test ridden it, but as I left Black Hills Harley with a grin from ear to hear, I knew that I had bought myself a great birthday present!
We continued the trip into the black hills heading up the hill towards Mt. Rushmore and working our way towards Deadwood and happy hour. Our motel was full of bikes as many riders were in town for the annual Deadwood poker run. We enjoyed cocktail hour in the courtyard with the and headed downtown for a burger, beers, bourbon, cigars and blues and the sharing of the accidental bike purchase story to anyone within ear shot. For anyone looking for a party in deadwood, check out the deadwood tobacco company. Sit back with a libation, fire up a heater and take in some great blues. The guitarist, Brandon even played with the legend, BB King.
We eased into Sunday morning with lots of coffee a few laughs as we packed up to head south. This bikes were humming along as we rolled into Lusk for some go go juice and realized that the main gas station intown had been remodeled and has decent road grub. The rest of the journey home was exceptional, as you would imagine! We ended up putting on about 850 miles and were fortunate to enjoy another ride the freedoms of the USA. God Bless America!
Signed,
Elvis