This story comes from Daryl "KIWI" Hogwood a native of New Zealand Living here in the US.
HOOKING UP
It was August 2008 Sunday afternoon having a couple of cold ones with the wife at our local Hooters restaurant in Fresno CA . We were thinking about heading home to swim and BBQ so I decided to call my buddy to see if he and his wife and kids wanted to join us . He answers the phone and I invite him to come over and he says he can't hes in Boise ID I asked WTF are you doing there?? I'm going to Sturgis was his reply ..he says the phone went real quiet for at least a minute yep I was trying to figure how I could go to Sturgis too..I asked him since it was pretty late in the day would he wait in Boise for me to catch up???. NO!! ...oh okay have a fun time see you when you get back and I went back to my beer, I told my wife what had happened (with a sad look on my face) she said why don't you go even if you get there after him you will still have a good time (did I mention I have the bestest wife)...that was all it took we were on the bike heading home to pack, by 5.30 the T bag was packed and bike loaded..Keep in mind this had all happened in the space of a little over an hour...I was on my way to Sturgis no idea where Sturgis was but that was the destination I had a GPS and was prepared to follow it where ever it sent me I ran out of gas on the Salt Flats within sight of the gas station so started pushing when a group of guys from Napa Valley came by and gave me enough gas to get me to the gas stop ( thanks guys ) my first 24 hours I had covered 1202 miles and was in Midwest WY. I didnt realise it but the day before leaving I had got a new iPhone and hadnt set up voicemail so didnt know where my buddy had got to, it turned out I was just ahead of him he had stopped in Cody WY and I was outside Casper WY, he had taken a leisurely trip through Yellowstone and got some great pics. Whenever I would call my wife she would ask me where I was ..I really had no idea the back roads the GPS was taking me on didnt show when I was crossing over state lines so when I would stop for gas I would tell her the name of the town and she would look it up on a map and tell me what state I was in...LOL Tueday morning I got up about 9am thinking if my buddy left at the same time we would be riding into Sturgis at the same time ...no chance he had gotten up early and set off to beat me there , so I left a message on his cell phone and headed out I called him again from Spearfish and was going to wait for him for 15 minutes not realizing we were coming into town from different directions (hey I'm from New Zealand) was even having trouble with north and south the sun was on the wrong side of me..lol Anyway I arrived about 11.30am on Tuesday walked toward the Loud American Roadhouse and when I got to the door there was my bud standing there with 2 cold MGD cans for me and a big smile I guess that was because he got there first ..I was smiling because I had free cold beer and had made it from Fresno CA to Sturgis in about a day and a half. We spent a few days rode the Black Hills checked out Deadwood saw all the sights and had a blast.
Kiwi
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