Thunder Roads Magazine of Oklahoma/Arkansas September 2015 | Page 38

FEATURES

main street dive. To that point in their journey, they’d made it nearly
halfway through all the Harley-Davidson Dealerships and have raised
over $110,000 for American Legion Legacy Scholarship Project.
They plan to complete the journey in 2016.
I finally took time to attend the Gypsy Pine Hill Climb. This was
the 75th year for the hill climb and as you may deduct, it’s been
around as long as the rally. Actually, the rally came along with the Hill
Climb. I was so excited the morning of the hill climb, I thought I’d died
and gone to heaven. Actually that didn’t happen until I packed the
cameras on, hiked my way up the 45 to 90 degree hillside, ducked
out of the way of flinging rocks and captured the action. It was hard
to stand upright on the hill, let alone the bikes speeding from the
bottom to the top in 8 seconds! The times these guys were turning
on these bikes were amazing and I loved it.
The last day was filled with riding, fun, a Def Leppard concert
and packing up to leave. While many were ready to race away from
Sturgis as fast as they could, I was happy that we didn’t pull out of
town until mid afternoon, muscles aching, exhaustion setting in, a
head full of memories and a big smile! As I rolled East, I was already
making plans as to where I will stay next year, who all I saw this
year and if I got their contact info….here I go again…Thinking! Just
hush up, smile, kick back and RIDE! Ride back to Oklahoma and
encourage others to experience life on the long road.
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Thunder Roads Magazine of OK/AR