HAPPY NEW YEAR FULL OF WONDERFUL MEMORIES

So here we are at the end of a decade.  2010.  Geeezzz... when I was a kid I thought I would be in an old folks home or dead.  2010 wasn't even in my reality.  It was visualizing the Jetsons and commuting through the air on Disney like rides.  Lucy & Ricky were the ultimate couple.  So what happened?  Did we not meet our childhood expectations of the future?  Did we not see that we would still be enjoying the control of the marriage of rubber and asphalt?   How freakin' lucky are we!?  Pretty damned blessed!  That's what I say.

However, at the end of this decade, I can still say I really miss the gas stations of the past decades.  Where my Dad sang "Kakoline like in Gasoline" to me every time we stopped for gas.  The men working wearing their little hats coming up to the car window and my father saying "Filler up with Supreme".  I still dream of  the Mel's Drive-In in Oakland where the perfect chocolate milkshake was served by girls on roller skates to the car window's tray, I so much wanted to wear that red lipstick and skate like that.  The Sweet Shoppe in Alameda next to the Alameda Theatre, is one of my favorite memories from my first year in high school.  It was the gathering spot and listening to the Doors, Cream, Iron Butterfly, Eric Burden & The Animals was normality.  The Sweet Shoppe was where all the Rosie The Riveters hung out in Alameda during WWII...she just left this earth the other day.  The Alameda Theatre was the place I saw Easy Rider... Dennis Hopper now past this last year.  I still cherish that album and have the picture I took sitting on one of the Captain America's from my first ride to Laughlin in 2006 sitting in front of it in my room.  I still have my A-1 film camera... just yesterday the last developer of film went out of business yesterday.  Prings in San Leandro was a place where choppers and cars cruised to on Friday and Saturday nights.  When my cousin went to Viet Nam he let me take care of his MG and I cruised that strip dreaming of owning a bike one day.  Of course, I can never forget seeing The Beatles at the Cow Palace and just watching them on Ed Sullivan was enough to put me under.  Paul McCartney just was awarded the Kennedy Honors this week.  When The Rolling Stones came out I was already sneaking out to Filmore West for concerts in S.F...now I'm reading their memoirs.  I still don't know why I am alive after all that.  Hitchhiking was a way of transportation back then... not a way of death like today.  Somehow I made it through all this, and more.  I could write a book, but I think it would be about many lives who lived the same crazy life.  So what happened to all those "things" we were told was going to be part of life in the 2000 decade?

I really don't have an answer for that except that I believe its getting back to basics.  People want basics.  The economy of the last few years have taken us back a bit, by force for most.  But most have cherished that spot of holding on to what we have right now.  To a spot of memories, of home and of just enjoying life as it is.  Being grounded.  Back to a way of togetherness and listening to the past that forged our future.   Back to the asphalt to the dirt road.  I think this is why I don't feel like an old bag...even though the number is there, I'm not that 56 year old I thought I would be when I was a kid.  The life of riding has actually given me youth...with greying hair. Its given me freedom.  Its torn me out of the "cookie cutter" group of my mother's generation.  Its given me the road of life.  The basics.  Something I hope the kids of today can recall when they are my age.  The wonderment of it all to feel the way I did when I saw The Beatles in 1964 still overcomes me when riding from 2010 into 2011.

So, my wish to you for the New Year, is that everyone grasp the next decade with a zest for life to make those precious memories of today last into decades of the future...just like those extinct gas stations and rock stars past.  Tell the future why the existence of  two wheels and the road will prevail.  In any way you want.  Its different, but the same, for all that ride, but I believe its because there is nothing like it in the world.  Absolutely nothing that can replace the feeling (except of course, seeing The Beatles in concert once again).  But again, that's MY feeling.  YOUR feeling will go down in your history too.  So with that....

Wishing you all many future decades of making motorcycle memories.  Cheers to the future!

Happy New Year!!
KT Did

California Gets Tougher On Motorcycle Thieves

I'm passing this news around.  U.S. Rider News  reports,  it is good news for those of us that own motorcycles and bad news for those ripping them off.

Beginning the 1st of January in California, a new law will make it a crime for anyone to carry a device used for stealing motorcycles.

At least one good motorcycle law came out of California lawmakers last year. 

Read the full story at U.S. Riders News. 

KT Did

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone and have a Happy Healthy New Year! 

Merry Christmas from Santa Murray. He went with me to deliver toys on the bike.

Hoping you have wonderful Christmas Spirits during the holiday! 
Wild Vals Spirited Nutcrackers attending the spirit bar. 

Blazing  the Christmas Happy Trailzzzzz
KT Did

Sturgis--The Final Frontier

Its morning and all I can think of is riding through Yellowstone.  Rained all night and its still raining, however, not much.  I have my morning tea and eat my oatmeal, shower and load up the bike.  Its about 6:00 a.m. and even though its trying to get light out, the clouds keep the sun from shining through.  Every night I have gotten into the habit of reading my maps and checking the roads and weather out for the next day's ride and this day brings a little detour into it because of the weather.  Not bad though.  I am not worried and it is suppose to clear before 10 or 11:00 this morning.  I find out the roads near  Jackson  are having construction on them and the weather isn't helping that traffic out.  So I use Plan B and skip Jackson.  Instead I choose to ride up on the 20 and pass through just above Jackson...the advice of the HD parts guy.  He helped me plan a little detour just in case. Again, local advice is the best.

I have layered and leathered up, so far that has worked for me. I don't mind riding through the rain either...it smells good.  A few miles on the road and I turn onto the freeway.  Not many people on the road yet and I throttle on so I can get to Yellowstone and spend some time there before Billings.




About an hour or so on the road the rain is gone and I am a little cold so I pull off for a break and ask questions to the locals of sight seeing.  Up the road, I am told is the turn off to Yellowstone National Park and to pick a route.  Destination is a go.  I layer a little more leather and I get back on the road until I see the signs of Yellowstone National Park. I made it to Yellowstone!  I yell in my mask and enjoy the moment of accomplishment.  The roads are perfect and the scenery is incredible...and I have only just started.  I am eating it up.  In particular now, because I do have the roads almost to myself.  I take my time riding through this part. It is a breathtaking moment to me.

I ride this road for awhile until, I see a sign "Targhee National Forest" and I pull over for a photo op.  Its picturesque and vast with green.. "just like the National Geographic pictures," I think to myself, except I am here.  It is quiet.  It is huge. Its beautiful and a must see, must ride for all.  I get out my AAA book and read a little about this spot and enjoy it...then I get going.  I don't have all day, I have to stay focused. I'm planning my next trip there already.
Its been light now for awhile, and more people are on the roads, in particular trailers and motor homes.  But, passing through Targhee and into the Grand Teton National Park  is absolutely gorgeous and having it obscured by a trailer is not on my list of wants.  So I pass it and suddenly find myself on my own road.  I'm not sure where I am and I am thinking while I passed the trailer I may have missed a turnoff?  I dunno, but I am in a beautiful place where every so often there is a fly fisherman in the river running along the sides of this road.  Yes, its the River Runs Through It place.  It's topography is filled with lush greenery and trees and I feel I have discovered a perfect spot to pull over.  I take pics of the river and sit awhile watching and listening to the waters flow. I would love to have that sound in my backyard.  Pulling myself away I know have to get back on the road... I realize I have spent a few hours already meandering and still have not made half way.



This river was on each side of the road

 Signs start to appear shortly confirming that not only am I going the right direction but, I am headed into the town of  West Yellowstone and soon I join civilization.  Its packed here.  I wait to get gas.  Wait to pee.  Wait to get some coffee.  Still not many riders on the roads, but more than yesterday.  I talk to a few, and again, it seems a lot are not on their way to Sturgis but they are coming back from their journeys.  Just like our Mike Althouse from 25 Year Plan.   I also find out I did a giant loop from Hwy 20 to 14 and back... go figure that one out....I was at a spot called Fishing Bridge and didn't even know it.  Sooo......



Since I am back on 20 I head north to start my journey to Billings.  Still in Yellowstone  I go north through Gallatin Mountain Range and connect to the 89 via Bozeman/Livingston.  I stop to have lunch with two riders headed to Sturgis.  We exchange stories and then they are off.  They only have two days to spend there, so they are making time.  I decide I'd better too.  There is just too much to see in Yellowstone.  I need at least a week there.  At least now I have some kind of idea what its all about and next time, there will be one too, I will allow for it.  I ride and leave Yellowstone with a kiss til next time.

I arrive in Billings in pretty good time.  Just before the next big storm.  I walk over from my hotel to eat and find a couple of riders there again to talk to...except that they were deaf.  I sign a little, but not enough to keep a good conversation going.  Luckily they could read lips and we had a wonderful talk  They hadn't a room yet and had ridden in from Canada to go to Sturgis to meet up with their non-hearing club.  They were both pretty much worn out.  So was I.  I go back to my room and hear that the storm is a big one and possibly even a tornado.  I go back to the deaf riders and tell them... they leave and I see them check into a room there.  About 10 minutes later I am covering my bike in the rain and wind.  Whewwww.... just in time, once again.  The hotel is filled up and once again, we are all out of our rooms talking and checking out the rain. 

This is my last night on the road.  Sturgis is tomorrow.  I'm out like a light and up and out by 7:00 a.m.  Its pretty much a straight shot from Billings to Sturgis.  Miles and miles between rest stops.  I blew by the Little Bighorn Monument and continued through Buffalo and Gillette.  Toy haulers were now on the sides of the road disembarking bikes to ride into Sturgis.  "I am happy I rode", I say to myself " *grin*. I turned off to what I thought was the turnoff to Deadwood.  I'm lost again.  I find out I took an earlier turnoff and ended up in the town of Sundance.  I rode the little back roads there until I found a gas station and food and of course, a local to steer me in the right direction.  The Black Hills.  I am there.  Rocks have beautiful trees growing out of them.  Not bad to get lost for an hour or so riding in.  I notice that riders were all around now and its about 4:00p.m.  Time to find my digs in Deadwood, but first I must ride through the town of Sturgis.  Sort of a rider's right when you ride there.

Going through the town of Sturgis can get a little cranky.  Stop and go, but riding down that street was a moment of self celebration.  A just for me moment, so to speak.  Call it ego or whatever...it was my way of patting my back.  So I did.  It was great.  Nothing can compare to the feeling of riding there, and riding there solo. Yahoooo. Party time.

I arrive at the Martin Mason.  Turned the key off. Sat there and cried, smiled and went to have a drink...actually had two.  Checked into my room and relished every moment.  No way did I feel like washing the bike... it needed it too.


Best Variety sign in background says it all.

It was surreal... still is.  Its hard to think that I rode 7 states and went through 4 National Forests.  I know that a lot of riders out there do this all the time and maybe because its my first time that I am all gooey about it.  Somehow I don't think so, because I still hear other riders tell their tale of each year's ride there.  You never get over it.

All in all, it panned out the way I planned it out.  I accomplished a goal...to ride to Sturgis.  I spent 16 days enjoying this country's roads and cities on my motorcycle... solo.  I took that many days so I could enjoy it.  2 days of breakdown and repairs hit me, but  I got to visit with an old high school friend Lisa L. in Reno.  I met many new faces on the road.  I got the best advice I could ever get, "Trust your bike". I received an enormous amount of  support from everyone I talked to before and during the ride.  I never felt endangered in any way, shape or form.  I ate well and enjoyed every bit of it.  I went prepared and never felt uncomfortable when I was lost... and I was lost a couple of times.  I found out a lot about myself on this trip and know that I can do just about anything I put my strength into, even wearing the same riding clothes for six days.  No one can take this trip away from me.  Its all about FREEDOM. Its all about being free to do it. America is beautiful. 

Happy Riding Trailzzz
KT Did
p.s.  Oh... you ask about the rest of the story?  What happens in Sturgis... stays in Sturgis.  Well... maybe a post in the future...we will see.  More pics are at http://www.akatydidgig.net/