2025: A Girl, a Motorcycle, and a Gypsy Soul

Sturgis 2019 - Another epic adventure west to Sturgis, SD for the 79th annual Motorcycle Rally is in the books! Fashioned with my trusty hot pink shirt, we hit the road for the 11 hour ride west. Never fails, we always find ourselves dodging weather one way or the other! Once upon a time there was only 2 exits into Sturgis. No big deal.. unless its Bike Week and there are over 500,000 people trying to get onto those two exits. A few years back a local told us of a backway into town, through roughly 9 miles of gravel. And rarely any traffic. While we dodged the rain that had just taken over the Black Hills before we got there, we did have to do a little mudding to get our destination. But there was no traffic! LOL We rolled up to our camp, registered, said hi to all of our annual friends and rode off to our camp spot. Only to find people were already in it. We considered asking them to move, but figured that would be rude. We thought about being obnoxi...

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is one of the few things that I commit to every single year. Which I guess in itself, says a lot about my priorities in life (and my commitment issues). 😆 I remember the first time I came to the Rally - I was so excited to see and meet other people with a passion for riding like myself. To be surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people who ride motorcycle, from all walks of life and from all over the world is surreal! I've been coming to Sturgis Bike Week for several years and have met so many amazing people - and those people are basically the reason I look forward to returning year after year. One of the first years I camped in Sturgis, I remember pulling into the campground overwhelmed at all of the tents, people, and bikes for as far as the eye could see. It was just Shelly and I that year and I cant tell you the number of hot laps we made around the entire campground to find that 'perfect spot' to camp. We found one area with trees (a HOT co...

It's crazy to think of all the places I have been on my bikes over the years. To think that I have rolled on two wheels thru 38 states makes me question my own sanity a little. That's a REALLY long time in the saddle!    People often ask where my favorite place to ride is... it is SO hard to narrow it down!  So here are my top 5 states for riding - as of today, anyways!! 5. W. Virginia + surrounding area 4. Tennessee 3. Utah 2. Colorado 1. Arkansas.  I have been on some amazing roads in some amazing places, but if I had to choose a STATE, I would hands down say Arkansas. I know, I know... of all the states to choose, Arkansas does NOT sound overly appealing if you have never been there. I thought the same thing years ago as I followed some friends there for the first time. But Arkansas is amazing riding - no matter what part of the state you are in. Every single road is twisty and comes with 'caution' signs because of all the sharp corners and steep inclin...

I have to start by saying.. I will likely NEVER act my age. I will forever be in my mid to upper 20's... and I will also be the first to say it!!! Adventure, riding, random roads, and the roads less traveled the better! You know how sometimes the least planned things are the most fun? My roomie was due to get her knee replaced, so naturally, on the LAST old knee weekend, it called for shenanigans! IF they are gonna take out a knee, might as well completely wreck it. So late Thursday night we were bs'ing about what she wanted to do for her last weekend of the old knee. My ideas were almost identical to hers - together our concrete list included: 1.) Going out of town somewhere 2.) Finding warm sunshine 3.) Riding the motorcycle (if a backrest was part of the deal) I texted a friend asking to use the backrest, she replied YES, and asked why. I gave her the rundown of our idea (VERY brief!) and she said she was IN! OK. That confirmed the three things on the list. But because...

If I had to pick between taking a planned vacation or just winging it, I choose winging it, hands down.  Last summer, I really wanted to go to West Virginia and  some the fun corners. I recruited Stiffy to go with me, literally days before - told her the plan was leaving at 6am, heading east. We met at the gas station and I check the radar... 70% chance of heavy rain and high flood potential every day for the duration of our trip. Screw that. I don't mind riding in the rain, but I don't want to spend 5 days in it if I don't have to. We gas up and I casually mention the sudden change in plans - and off we go west. Without even a hint of shock, Stiffy reached in her bag, and laughed as she handed me a plastic bag with papers inside. Iron Butt paperwork. Well, that upped the game - can't just let perfectly good paper go to waste! We hit the road at 7am - destination: East . West. There is NOTHING exciting, interesting, or fun between Minnesota and Montana besides tornado...

I've been 'meaning' to rejoin a gym for awhile now... like over a year. But I have a lot of excuses on why I didn't or didn't feel the need to. When in reality, I have felt like a sloth in recent months, my pants are slowly getting tighter, and I just miss having muscle tone. So excuses are not as easy to come by. And the kicker to forcing me back to the grind of working out was that my leathers are a little snug. And no one wants to a) have to buy new leathers $$$$ or b) break in new leather when old leather fits just perfectly and is comfortable. So... it was time. Time to face the facts and get my arse back to the gym. I know that once I am back in the routine for a couple weeks, it would be routine. I used to the go the gym daily at 5am 5 days a week and loved it. But, now I am out of shape and used to waking up just shy of having to hustle out the door for work. This 'wake up at 4:30/5am thing was gonna be the worst part. The gym I joined is operated and ...

Day 3 - (5/25/19) - After riding all day yesterday and playing in the sunshine it was back to camp to park the bikes for the night, relax, shower, and hit the nightlife in town. The second we pulled into camp, the locals (who sound like they stay there annually as many seem to know each other quite well) walked over to 'check in'. Where did we ride? What did we see? How are the bikes running? They were genuinely looking out for us all weekend.    It is always entertaining to be a girl who rides motorcycle in general. Add in 2 girls on bikes who are camping and suddenly we become almost infamous in a short period of time, or so it seems. It was great that the folks in the campground look out for one another and quickly took us under their wing. They also fed us. REALLY well. They offered up dinner as they were bbq'ing and said there was a ton of food. We accepted their offer and walked to the end of the campground where there was 10-15 people sitting around bs'ing...

NW Arkansas Day 2 - MN vs IA Challenge: A little Arkansas, a little Missouri, and a LOT of corners!! We met the Iowan boys at breakfast the following day and while a couple of them were not feeling overly great due to imbibing a bit too much the night prior, they were all good sports and agreed to ride along with us. I said that I would try to take it easy, but this is not easy for me to do as I love to ride fast around corners, so if nothing else, if there was a turn to be made or a stop sign, I would wait to make sure we had everyone before cruising on.  So, with 5 bikes in tow, we headed west on 62 to Rock House Rd, which from the ‘outside’ looks like a simple little residential street with narrow paths and no center lines. I can only imagine what the guys thought of my route after turning off the main drag... "WTH is this little quiet residential street in the hills of ES going to lead to? How is this 'corner heaven'? Where is she taking us?" It quickly c...