2014 — Gaining and Losing Riders the Whole Trip

OFMC 2014 route

It has become almost impossible to map out the first day's ride considering that so many people start from so many different places at so many different times. We're just showing the trip starting and ending at Denver.

Brush, out along I-76, was the gathering point for this year's trip. After the various groups and singles straggled in we had John, Friggs, Randy, Bill, Brett, Ken, and Dennis. Others would hook up later. In Brush, bugs by the swarm made the biggest impression of anything so we were not unhappy to head out in the morning.

Our route took us north into Nebraska, through Kimball and as we approached Scottsbluff we were all surprised to discover some beautiful, hilly country in Nebraska. Who knew. Chadron was our destination for the night and by the time we got there it was pretty dang hot.

Gassing up in the morning there were issues with the pumps so some guys went to another station but John and Friggs stuck it out. Gas was coming too slowly to automatically shut off the flow so keeping an eye on things was essential. As John watched carefully Friggs suddenly exclaimed about overflowing his tank, and eyes were diverted his way. Of course it was at that instant that John's tank got full and it overflowed, too.

We rode on to the Black Hills, through Hot Springs (stop for ice cream lunch) on to Hill City where, for the first time ever, we were to stay for three days. A possible long route that would have taken us through the Badlands was scrubbed due to the extreme heat. Three motel rooms and a cabin sleeping five. And arriving late that night were Cheryl's cousin Ray Johnson, Johnathon, and two others from Homeslice, Steve Franklin and Kenny Saccomano, the keyboard player. The band was due to play at Frontier Days in Cheyenne on Wednesday so these guys hauled their gear to Cheyenne and then rode on up for a couple days with the group.

First day of the three we rode the Iron Mountain Road and the Needles Highway. Familiar roads to most of us but a special treat for a few first-timers. And a treat just the same even for the non-first-timers. The Sturgis rally was coming up in a few days so there were already a lot of bikes around and all the merchants were getting ready. That night we headed to the big deal hot steak house in town for some good food at good prices. You just have to be patient.

A rest stop in Nebraska The next day we headed up to Deadwood, did a little gambling, and then down to Sturgis. Again, lots of pre-rally activity, but only some places were open so far. We went our separate ways around Sturgis but then word got around that some guys had headed out to the Full Throttle so we all ended up out there. Word is Johnathon got a little wild. Had to be put in a cage.

We headed back toward Hill City along Nemo Road and at a crossroads we stopped to figure out which way to go. Turned out it was the opposite of the way we were pointed so Ken pulled out and crossed the road and Dennis started to follow. What Dennis couldn't see with everyone blocking his view, and couldn't hear with all the Harleys making their noise, was the big truck coming right at him. Dennis also couldn't hear all of us screaming at him so he was a bit surprised to look up the road and see his death so close. The trucker, however, had had his eye on us and his brakes were also doing some screaming as he came to a halt. We're pretty sure he was cursing a blue streak too, something about "those @#**@!! bikers."

People always point in pictures, don't they? The rest of the ride back to the motel was uneventful but when we got there it turned out that Steve and Kenny and Johnathon wanted more, so the three of them decided to do the Iron Mountain Road/Needles Highway ride again. Rain seriously threatened so they wore their rain gear. They needed it. It was interesting, they told us, how many fewer cars and bikes there were on those roads when the rain was coming down in buckets. And what a surprise it was to finally come out into sunshine when they had thought it was just that dark because the sun had set.

Early the next morning the four short-timers blasted off back to Cheyenne while the rest of us took our time getting ready to roll. We headed north to Lead and then to Spearfish, where we picked up I-90 for a blast across some miles. Buffalo, Wyoming, was our destination and it was a welcome sight when we got there. We walked down one road to get some dinner and then decided to explore up another road to see more of the town. In one yard we passed there was a seeming lawn ornament in the shape of a well-wrought buck with a pretty good rack. Ken insisted it was a real deer but only its departure convinced Dennis and some others that he was correct.

Needles Highway tunnel Further along down that street we came to two important things: a good ice cream stand and the surprisingly attractive downtown, complete with a grand old hotel that looks like the kind of place you'll want to take your wife sometime. Not something we expected in this little town.

Heading west the next morning we crossed the Powder River Pass over the Bighorn Mountains, down to Ten Sleep. Across some prairie to Worland, down to Thermopolis, and then down through the beautiful canyon of the Bighorn River to where US 20 comes out at Shoshoni. A little before Shoshoni things got dicey.

Heading down to Ten Sleep Ken was in the rear with Friggs ahead of him and Brett ahead of him. Friggs pulled over so Ken did the same. After a couple moments Friggs took off again and Ken followed. Meanwhile, Brett had noticed them both missing so he turned around and came back. He then did another u-turn and became the sweep. As they rolled into the little town of Shoshoni, Friggs coasted into the parking lot of the local high school and parked. That bike wasn't going another inch.

While cellphones came out to find towing and a shop, Ken walked across to the police station to see if they could offer any help. Very possibly! They had called a tow truck to haul off an abandoned car and that guy might be glad to have a double load. He was overdue at that very moment. And he showed up almost immediately but had no way to strap a bike on so no dice.

Hot fun in the summertime With the temperature on the time and temperature clock at the high school reading 102 degrees, the three sat in the local park for an hour and a half waiting for another tow truck out of Lander. Destination for the night was the Indian casino outside Riverton and the tow truck driver deposited Friggs there before heading on to the shop, also in Lander. We'll worry about the bike in the morning, now it's time to get cool and give the Indians some of our money.

Redistributing luggage, one more person than the number of bikes made their way to Lander in the morning and waited for a rough appraisal on the problem. It was soon evident that this Fat Boy was not going anywhere soon and the OFMC was going to be leaving Friggs behind. Not a problem, he said, Vicky would drive up and they would spend a couple days vacationing in Lander and then head home. (Reality: it would be six weeks before this bike would be ready to roll again.)

Matching Sturgis shirts The remainder of the group pushed on after seeing Friggs comfortably settled into a motel. It was to be a ride across central Wyoming, down to Saratoga, and on into Colorado to Walden. And it was pretty amusing to see the new sign posted at the motel announcing that marijuana would not be tolerated at this motel. A sign of the times; marijuana was just legalized in Colorado less than seven months earlier.

In the morning--the final morning--John turned his bike to the west and the remaining few of us went up over Cameron Pass and down the Poudre Canyon. Ken took the lead, going up the Stove Prairie road but when we got to Stove Prairie we found the road down to the Buckhorn was closed. No problem, we would just run into Fort Collins via Rist Canyon. Unfortunately, a left turn at the top led not to Fort Collins but to LaPorte and it was necessary to ride all the way through Fort Collins and then on down the very crowded US 287 back to the Denver metro area. Guys peeled off at various places and got separated and the ride ended in an every-man-for-himself run for home. And thus the 2014 OFMC trip came to its end.

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