In the summer of 2008 a group of us road from center of the United States to Seattle via the Oregon Trail and then returned through Sturgis.  Most of the days were on very good 2 lane roads with an average of 500 miles per day with 1 leg of the trek being 750 miles.

On the way we came across Chimney Rock which the covered wagons used as a point of reference as they traveled the Oregon trail.

The above picture is actually some of the original trail, as 100,000+ settlers came across the landscape their wagon wheels cut into the land, and then rain water collected and ran off etc.. Eventually digging into the plains and making a none naturally occurring valley.



This is a panoramic view actually made up as sever other pictures and stitched together with the windowslive.com beta tool.

This is a huge ass bride over the snake canyon at the town of twin falls.  The reason this picture was taken is because a guy actually jumped off the bridge as we drove by.

Turns out the dude was a base jumper - you can see the yellow spot on the ground which is his parachute.  The funny thing is he landed just perfectly and then had to free climb his way out of the canyon. 

Here is another panoramic stitch picture - The black space is because I was just taking pictures I had no plans to stitch them together but it works very well

On the way to Sturgis we stopped at "Little Big Horn" also known as "where Custer Died for your Sins".  I took this picture of an actual place where an Indian fell (these markers are fairly new).  I you haven't been to Little Big Horn let me clue you in.  Custer was a jerk who deserved to die and did.  Anytime you go up against an enemy encampment and divide your forces 4 times so you only have about 50 people going up against many times that number.  As I walked through the battle field it was obvious that the Indians dug into the high ground and used their carbines at the very effective range of 25-75 yards and mowed down the US Troops in the open plains.

Here is a picture of John and I at the broken spoke - just finally taking time to set down, drink, and watch the crowd.

This is one of my favorite pictures because 2-3 weeks before the trip these boots where both brand new.

I had to add this picture of Bill at the Full Throttle Salon - Bill "The Rock" will drive through anything all day long and never change position on his bike or complain.  A totally great guy to put on point.


Here is the hail storm (the 2nd one (we rode through the first one)) here is my bike and Bills bike getting the hell pounded out of them - however the next day when we looked at the bikes the only thing we noticed is that they where clean for the first time in weeks.

Why am I hugging a big tattooed dude?  Because he makes seats!
Specifically he makes these seats: http://www.amspecialtiesusa.com/gelpad.htm
John turned me onto these seats and it made 4,500 miles seem like nothing.


This was my favorite bike at Sturgis.
A) its a good seat design
B) its old school looks with all new tech
C) they had free Red Bull to drink


A trip to Mount Rushmore is a must - and its a pretty fun ride

Because we where in the neighborhood on the way back we stopped at the head waters of the Missouri river.