The last morning.

This is apparently how you keep your bike clean at the Aztec Rally! Looks easier, right Skid?


This is the final volley in the ongoing "room wars". To get more information, you have to ask Goofy Wizard or El Nomad.















And then there were none. This was it. Great times were had, more stories to tell, lots of laughs.
Marylu, Mike, Melanie and myself Jamey.

We were the last to leave. Melanie will pout for a couple of hours, sad that it is over.I am sad that my best friend is on the way home again, but it is time to start planning for Oregon and the WWR.








Melanie and I would like to thank everyone that made the trip, and made our first attempt at a rally a success. We hope you had as much fun as we did. We had a great time doing this, and look forward to seeing all of you again.




Also see Sherms blog, and Skids blog.

Group shot from the rally

A group shot from the group meal at the rally. This isn't everyone, some had to leave early, but we were glad to see them.

Everyone loves the Aztek Rally!

Some love the rally more than others it seems.

Late arrivals

Ells and Waterman just rolled in at 5:30 pm. A full roster of those who made it will be put together later.

Whats going on here!

Here are the bikes put to bed the first night. The Wings outnumber Vulcans right now.

Here is a view of the Spearfish Canyon cruise. The front bike is Purple500.

Whats going on here!

This is the Kaw Pasture. Enough Vulcans showed up to finally outnumber the 'Wings.

They're here!

Wednesday, June 25 2008 and folks are showing up. Had a great time visiting this evening. So far 15 people are here and it has already been lots of fun. Looking forward to tomorrow when more will arrive, but some will leave unfortunately. This is a loosely planned event, and so far no one seems to mind. We will have a group burger night tomorrow night, and I will take the camera and post some pictures of people and maybe a couple of some food.

Things lining up, and people on the way.

Went and checked on a small section of road construction today on the Devils Tower run. It is small and won't affect anything. These are some nice rides that do a good job of showing off the less traveled roads the Black Hills have to offer. If you have been on Vanocker Canyon before, it was just chip sealed, so I would advise not riding it. Other than that, everyone has their favorite roads, but these get to some roads you might not find otherwise.

The covered area is set up and ready for us. Yep, in case of rain or hot sun, we have a place to sit and visit that is covered but not indoors. That is a big part of the reason we chose this location. More fine tuning will be done, but with this being our first rally, we hope everyone likes it.

The rides are done.

Finally, I had the routes done on the computer, so I went to check the roads. Bad news. The route I picked had just been chip sealed. Small round rocks on a curvy asphalt road and motorcycles didn't seem like a good mix, so it had to change. I went with plan B, and it is nearly as good. Now they will get written directions and printed out.
We are not doing group rides, but instead are giving people suggested routes that are off the main routes the tourists usually use. These are roads the locals know, but aren't always obvious on the tourist maps. The directions will be posted on the Aztec Rally web page so they will be available even if you can't get to the rally.
It is getting close enough that when checking the weather, things are looking promising.

The rides are nearly figured out.

Well, the Devils Tower and Peg Dragger rides are mapped, and directions will be available at the Kaw pasture. Don't let the name fool you though, the peg dragger ride takes you to some of the most beautiful scenery the Black Hills has to offer. If you want to leave some scrape marks, it is optional. I picked this route because people are coming here to ride our curvy roads, not ride the interstate!
The Scenic Mount Rushmore ride is causing me some problems. I don't want to do out and back rides, but this one may turn out that way. I had it routed through Rapid City, but two different issues caused me to rethink this. One of them involved a bike. Not going to mention the European name of it, but he cut me off going across two other lanes of traffic, then proceeded to ride at very high speeds. I ended up beside them in Keystone and and commented to him that he "really saved a lot of time, didn't he?" I just got a dumb look in return. This is common on this stretch of road, both bikes and cars. I may choose to avoid it altogether.
I want to have the directions for all suggested rides on one sheet of paper, so you can always mix and match rides if you want.

Things are coming together nicely for the rides. I have been on two of them, just need to get the third one done, between work and rain. It has been very wet here, but spring is just late. I am unsure of the third route, so I may try several different options, and see which I like better. It will be twisty roads, I have had it going through Rapid City, and I am rethinking that. Stay tuned.