Gremlin's Tall Stories

Murray knocks on the door, wanting his charged up phone at 6.45am… the alarm only rings at 7am, as the van will be leaving at 7.30am. Kevin the driver is in my room anyway, so I will know what’s going on. Dave is kicking my bed, thinking it’s going to get me out of it, yeah right, I’ll be rising in my own damn time. Kevin has been slowly rising, then disappears out the room.

Around 7.15am I throw on some presentable clothes and drop my bag by the van, Kevin has ...

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7.30am the alarm rings. I snooze… except I must have turned it off at some point, as Doc rings at 7.45am, handy though, as I need to put my bag in the van. I tell him to come in a couple of minutes, which drags on, so I drop my bag at the van instead. Doc comes by shortly thereafter to collect his gear. I roll over and go back to bed, setting the alarm for 9am.

10am I wake with a start… somewhere along the line I turned the alarm off again… evil brain I tells ya. Missed ...

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The alarm wakes me at 6.45am. Urgh, but the group leaves at 7.15am, so my bag needs to be in the van. I hit snooze nonetheless, and it disturbs me again. I hit snooze again, but then think I should probably check if the van is open and sure enough one of the doors is open, so I grab the bag. It’s all ready from last night and head downstairs and everyone is geared up ready to go. Bag in van, I head upstairs, back to bed.

The alarm wakes me at 8am. I need to pack, have some breakfast ...

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The alarm rings at 7am, and this time, I’m actually up in a short space of time. I shower and get ready, grab a few things together and out the door at 8.15am. I’m a little behind time, but it should be OK.

Today is service time for Jessica. A set of Continental Trail Attacks and a basic service. While they are tending to her needs I’ll go browse the madhouse they call Sturgis. 8.45am and it’s quiet outside Sturgis BMW. The shop has just started opening and I ...

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I had planned an early start to get lots of riding in the Black Hills done during the day. Rose after 10am, faffed around, watched crap on TV (50+ channels there will always be something interesting), programmed and researched the routes for the GPS and just as I was ready to head out (geared up etc.) there is a knock on my door.

Gary and Barbara are considering new helmets and comms gear inside the helmets, but want to check with me if it will be suitable. Easy enough, as I was heading ...

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I try to rise early, at 8.30am, but end up getting distracted by crap on TV, so I don’t leave Rapid City until late in the morning.

The plan is to speak to Sturgis BMW after the emails we sent back and forth prior to the trip. Get the bike booked in for a service and tyre change, and she’ll be sorted for the rest of the trip. I don’t even leave the Hotel before running to another GSA rider, David, who was going to head north to the Ukon, but staying in Rapid City for ...

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8.30am and the alarm rings. Murray has already been up, got ready and left. I head downstairs for breakfast and on the way try to pay for Murray’s movie the previous evening. The very cute girl behind the counter informs me that the entire room needs to be paid for…

I ask her to double check, and apparently when Ken was paying for the rooms, they skipped ours because of the movie, and when dealing with it last, the card had been erased from the system, so no payment. ...

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6.15am and there’s an urgent knocking at the door, calling for me. While trying to gain some semblance of open eyes and an idea of where I am, Murray is up and answering the door. Ernie reports there is oil under my bike, and looks like it has leaked.

While rubbing sleep from my eyes I’m stumbling outside to take a look, and sure enough, a large puddle of oil under the bike. I’m thinking shit, how could this happen, is it because it’s on its side stand? Perhaps ...

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