Hi, I’m Marguerite Smail and I’ve been a WOW member for six years now. I was introduced to WOW through Vetesnik’s in Richland Center when I was there looking at bikes with my fiancé, Mark. One of the dealers there gave me Emma Jones and Sue Frish’s phone numbers and that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Emma and Sue were extremely patient with me being a "newbie" on the first trip up to the WOW weekend, which I will be forever grateful for. That trip gave me the energy and confidence to say, "I can do this," as I was seriously thinking of having my head examined for buying a Harley Davidson motorcycle without ever having ridden one before.

That was seven years ago, and I am loving each and every minute of discovery on my bike. 2005 was a huge traveling year for us and one of our best trips this year was to the Sturgis Rally in South Dakota. What an experience! Originally Mark and I were going to trailer out the bikes and take in the sites while we were out there; well, Marks’ 85 Gold Wing and my ’99 883 H-D Sportster would not fit on the trailer, so we packed up the bikes and off we went on the trip of a lifetime.

We headed out on Friday morning, August 5^th and landed in Sioux Falls, SD for our first night. After 8 hours on the bikes, needless to say we had no trouble sleeping that night. Then up early the next morning to head out again and arriving in Sturgis about 4:00 on Saturday. We had rented a "cabin" at the Sturgis View Campground 1.5 miles outside of Sturgis. The cabin, we lovingly referred to as the "shed" was cozy and dry and was perched on a bluff where the view was spectacular.

We spent the evenings watching all the bikes coming into town and all the lights coming out of the canyon. We also had a wonderful view of Bear Butte, which, I understand is a wonderful wild life park, although I am not sure they allowed bikes in the park. The campground had a dinner wagon (from Wisconsin no less) and a barn which had been converted to a bar, along with a shuttle service call "Da Bus" which was an old school bus providing rides into downtown Sturgis every half-hour or so. This was nice so we didn’t have to worry about having a beer or two and getting on the bikes. The sites and pictures we took downtown will be memories we will share and cherish forever.

We visited all the major sites, Mt. Rushmore, Needles Highway, Crazy Horse, Deadwood, Devil’s tower, the Badlands, Wall Drug and Spearfish Canyon Road. We planned a bus tour on-line before leaving home covering most of the major sites we wanted to be sure to see. Beginning at 7:30 a.m. we were served a Chuck Wagon Breakfast and visited one of the sets of the Dances With Wolves. The narrated tour took us to Mt. Rushmore (1 Hour), Crazy Horse (1 Hour), Needles Highway, a President’s Retreat, the Pig Tail bridges, Sylvan Lake Resort (wow, beautiful scenery) and back to the Chuck Wagon for dinner and a show. All this for $60 per person, I would recommend it to anyone planning a trip out to Sturgis; although not during the rally.

We traveled most of the week in 104 and 106 degrees. Our trip through the Badlands probably should have been planned earlier in the week and not the day before having to head back home (over 250 miles). The trip back from the Badlands ended up being extremely dangerous with a downpour on the way back to Rapid City. I wasn’t prepared, wearing my half helmet instead of my full-face helmet and having to pull off the road before dangerously being swept away or running off the road. Note to self; always bring the full-face helmet along. After waiting until the rain subsided a bit, we headed back down the road and got stuck in the downtown Sturgis traffic in the rain but safely landed back at camp, cold and soaked as the temperature had dropped to about 65 degrees.

Waking up the next day, we knew we were in for a long day of riding, our first day heading home, August 13^th. Our goal was to reach the other side of Sioux Falls, SD. We woke up to some sprinkling rain and 51 degrees. Yes, I said 51 degrees! Whoa, that’s a bit drastic. We geared up after packing a bit in the rain and headed on down the highway. Traffic was pretty hectic but we took our time and took several stops as my gloves were not thermal and my hands kept freezing up. We made it about 5 miles past Sioux Falls where we pulled into a gas station with a Quality Inn right next door. Well, guess what, they had a hot tub and a room available! I was exhausted and ready to settle in for the evening. The next day was still cool in the morning about 60 degrees, but promises of sun on the radio brought up our spirits. We headed out and landed at home at 5:00 that evening.

I can say that after putting approximately 2500 miles on the bike, I felt a rush of empowerment. I had made my first trip to the Sturgis Rally and seen tons of bikes, sites, and made some new biking friends. I will probably not repeat the trip for another 3-5 years but I can truly say this was an experience of a lifetime!