The snow must go on

We had Sir Lord Barack Von Obama on the phone early in the morning. We were in a worn out motel in Sherman, Wyoming and hadn’t looked out through the windows yet. Von Obama was calm, though a bit nervous and embarrassed I could hear. And it was guilt in his voice. I knew bad news was coming my way. “The case is, and I’m sorry about it, you will encounter some snow today. You know, I hate to tell you this, but we make plans for the weather long time in advance, and it’s really a hassle to change it. I didn’t know you were coming, you don’t keep your friends too updated either. The snow must go on.”

I told him I didn’t care about the snow anyway, I got enough else troubling me if I shouldn’t bother about insignificances like weather when I’m driving my bike. “Oh, mighty white of you to not get angry with me, I was nervous now. I’ll ship you some lutefisk as compensation, I know Norwegians love it*, and so do we. It’s really good stuff, and my grandma from Bergen always made us this, 10 times per week.”

“Yes of course, you really made my day now” I replied as enthusiastically as I could.

(* Translator's note; As Garrison Keillor pointed out in 'Lake Wobegon Days', Norwegians do indeed consider Lutefik a great delicacy - and adds; "Nevertheless, they only eat it once a year". For the uninitiated, 'Lutfisk' is the Norwegian equivalent of the Scots' 'Haggish', except that 'Haggish' is not covered by any arms treaties.)

Well, Von Obama was right. In the morning we had heavy snow. It was enough to cover the roads, and it cold enough to make the snow freeze in the beard, yet hot enough that the snow made a salty porridge on the road. Perfect condition for getting frostbites and gangrene, you get both wet and cold. However, we just stuffed in more newspapers in our clothes and ignored the entire thing.

In the night time we reached Sturgis, and started the world’s first annual Sturgis Winter Motorcycle Festival, open for all pre-war bikes with flat steel-strip frames, telescopic fork and in-line four cylinder engine. Not too many bikes this year, but those who showed up enjoyed themselves.

The next day we cruised around the Black Hills, in perfect weather. Near Mt Rushmore we got tail, it was some gorilla-patrol that didn’t recognize thirties-style Norwegian license plates. The female one was a bit attacked by PMS, but they were sort of polite anyhow and checked us out of the case quite fast.

Mt Rushmore was nice, and was under upgrading. To symbolize understanding, solidarity and new times they were changing the faces now. During the next two years they would be turned into Hugo Chaves, Fidel Castro, Kim Jong-Il and Robert Mugabe. I’m sure it’ll be nice when they are done.

Back to the starting point in Sturgis we went to the Knuckle Bar and had supper and a pop, it was the only place open. The town is hibernated 50 weeks per year, just woken up by the bike week in the summer (1/2 million bikes; count wheels and divide by 2) and the Sturgis Winter Motorcycle Festival in November (fewer bikes; count wheels and divide by 3).

From Sturgis we actually listened to a piece of advice and took off the I90, and went on the smaller 212 through South Dakota. It was straight ahead through farmlands and an Indian reserve, ending at the edge of the Missouri river. The Indian reserves is not recommended travelled in the night even today, too much firewater, DUI and a police that don’t care too much about if something happens to non-Indians. We made it through before dusk, despite that I almost got stuck in Missouri on a photo session. We slept in a Deliverance town a bit after, and paid way too much for the motel as it was “kill all the birds season”.

Next day we reached Water Town where we met Lee Bruns, one of the Guzzi-Heroes. Lee was one of the real motorcyclists that you don’t meet too often. Not focused on brand, but on riding. Riding a lot, and use what he’s got accessible. He used to invite the local kids to raise interest, and trying to get them interested in bikes in general. Lee donated us an old tire, and have also started sales of our official KCCD T’shirts, see http://www.network54.com/Forum/13357/message/1261696574/The+T+shirts+are+Here!! With this, KCCD Inc has grown from a Norwegian/Danish company to a real MNC with unpaid employees practically all over the world. Secure yourself one of this extremely sought after items right away by clicking on the link!

From Watertown we cut up North East to St. Claud, Minnesota to drop by a friend from Mongolia, Dave. This day it was getting seriously cold, and progress were slow. We had the address, but the name of the street was existing in the nearest ten counties. After a lot of messing around we got help from a guy outside a Lutheran church. We got asked how we knew this guy, and when we told him we had met him in Mongolia he just looked strange at us. Anyhow, we found the place late in the night and was taken well care of. Funny how you get to know people in Mongolia, and see them again a half year later in the US&A.

Tormod

Vi havde Sir Lord Barack von Obama i røret tidligt i morges. Vi lå i et nedslidt hotel i Sherman, Wyoming, og havde ikke kigget ud af vinduet endnu. Von Obama lød en smule nervøs og pinligt berørt. Jeg kunne fornemme skyldfølelsen i hans stemme, og vidste allerede at der var dårligt nyt på vej. ”Sagen er,” lød det, ”og jeg er virkelig ked af det, I kommer til at opleve snevejr i dag. Ser I,” fortsatte han, ”vi planlægger vejret lang tid forud, og det er noget rigtig bøvl så at skulle ændre på det bagefter. Jeg vidste ikke I først kom så sent, og I holder nu heller ikke rigtig vennerne opdateret. Men 'The Snow Must Go On'!”

Jeg svarede at det med sneen var ligemeget, for jeg havde rigeligt med andre problemer at bekymre mig over, så småting som vejret registrerede næsten ikke. ”Ok, det var virkelig pænt af dig ikke at blive sur på mig over det her; jeg var virkelig bekymret. Jeg sender noget lutfisk som trøst, for jeg ved I nordmænd elsker det. Det gør vi også. Det er gode sager, min bedstemor i Bergen lavede det altid til os, ti gange om ugen.”

”Fedt nok, du har reddet dagen for os,” svarede jeg så entusiastisk som jeg kunne arbejde mig op til.

Well, von Obama havde talt sandt, for sneen lå tykt derude. Nok til at dække vejene og det var koldt nok til at sneen frøs i vore skæg. Og stadig lunt nok til at sneen blev til en saltet grød at køre igennem. Perfekte omstændigheder til at få forfrysninger og koldbrand, for man bliver både kold og varm. Nå, vi stoppede en masse aviser ind under køredragterne og ignorerede sneen.

Det blev nat før vi nåede til Sturgis i South Dakota, og hermed indvi det første årlige Sturgis Vintertræf, med adgang for alle førkrigsmaskiner med fladjernsstel, teleskopforgafler og fire cylindre på langs. Der kom godt nok ikke så mange i år, men dem der kom nød træffet.

Næste dag cruisede vi rundt i nationalparken The Black Hills, i perfekt vejr. Nær Mount Rushmore med de fire præsidenthoveder fik vi følgeskab af en gorilla-patrulje, der ikke lige kunne genkende norske nummerplader. Den kvindelige del af den syntes let ramt af PMS, men de udviste alligevel en slags høflighed og lod os hurtigt køre videre.

Mt. Rushmore var udmærket og p.t. under opgradering. For at symbolisere mellemfolkelig forståelse, solidaritet og de nye tider, blev hovederne ændret så de mere lignede Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Kim Jong-Il & Robert Mugabe. Det kommer sikkert til at se fint ud når de er færdige.

Tilbage hvor vi startede i Sturgis gik vi ind på Knuckle Bar for lidt at æde og drikke. Det var det eneste sted der var åbent, for byen ligger i dvale 50 uger om året, og vågner kun når der er Sturgis Bike Week om sommeren (½ million mc'er; tæl hjulene og del med to) og Sturgis Winter Rally i november (lidt færre; tæl hjulene og del med tre).

Fra Sturgis fulgte vi faktisk et råd om at køre væk fra Rt. 190 og tage den mindre Rt. 212 gennem South Dakota. Det løb meget ligeud gennem landbrugsområder og indianerreservater, og sluttede ved floden Missouri. Det blev os anbefalet ikke at køre gennem indianerreservaterne om natten; for meget ildvand & sprutkørsel, og politi der er ret ligeglad med hvad der sker ikke-indianere. Vi kom igennem før tusmørket faldt, på trods af at jeg nær sad fast i Missouri da der skulle tages billeder. Lidt senere sov vi i en indavlet skodby, hvor vi betalte alt for meget for hotellet, for det var 'dræb alle fuglene sæson'.

Næste dag mødte vi Lee Bruns i byen Watertown, en af Guzzi-heltene. Lee er en af den slags mc-folk man ikke møder så ofte; ikke fokuseret på mærke, men på at køre. Og køre meget, på hvad der nu var at køre på. Han plejede også at invitere de lokale unger over, for at få dem interesseret i motorcykler. Han donerede et gammelt dæk, og gik siden i gang med at sælge vores t-shirts (http://www.network54.com/Forum/13357/message/1261696574/The+T+shirts+are+Here!!). Hermed er KCCD Inc. vokset fra at være et dansk/norsk foretagende til et rigtig 'MCN' (??) med filialer og ubetalte medarbejdere praktisk taget over hele verden. For at sikre dig et af disse samlerobjekter (hvis du samler på den slags, eller bare vil støtte os), så klik på (http://kccd.no/home_dk.html) eller køb t-shirtene hos JC Nimbus.

Fra Watertown skød vi op nordøst mod St. Cloud i Minnesota for at se Dave, en ven fra Mongoliet. Det var seriøst koldt, og det gik kun langsomt fremad. Vi havde navnet på vejen han boede, men den vej havde de i nu også de nærmeste ti kommuner. En fyr udenfor en kirke spurgte til hvordan vi kendte Dave, men da vi sagde vi havde mødt ham i Mongoliet kiggede han underligt på os. Ligemeget, vi fandt ham sent på aftenen og blev taget godt vare på. Spøjst at møde folk i Mongoliet og så se dem igen i USA et halvt år efter.

Tormod

Wyoming could offer really wet and nice snow that froze in the beard.

Wyoming bød på våd sne som frøs i skægget.

After an hour the chest was covered by a centimeter of ice.

Efter en time var brystet dækket af én centimeter is.

Some are more eager truckers than others; this one had modified his Chevy pickup and travelled around, spreading the good word about the good book. And no, I'm not talking about Tragatsch motorcycle-bible.

Nogle er mere trucker-agtige end andre; ham her havde modificeret sin Chevrolet pickup og rejste rundt for at sprede ordet fra Den Gode Bog. Og nej, vi taler ikke om Villy Poulsens 'Nimbus - Danmarks Motorcykle'....

Mt Rushmore was nice as always, go check it out before they see the upgrades through.

Mt Rusmore var smukt, men tag over og se det før ombygningen.

At the banks of Missouri in the Indian reservation. I got stuck on the beach and almost had to leave the bike to the God of the River. But you gotta do what you gotta do to get the pics...

På Missouri-flodens bred i et indianerreservat. Jeg sad fast dernede og havde nær måttet ofre maskinen til flod-guderne. Men hvad gør man ikke for at få nogle ordentlige billeder....

There are often "Runaway truck ramps" in the down hills, I just had to try this and attacked it in 50 miles per hour.

Ned ad bakkerne ser man en del nødramper til lastbiler hvis bremser svigter. Jeg måtte bare prøve det, og angreb en af dem med 80 km/t.

And yes, it certainly worked. Got stuck as duck.

Og jeps, det virkede bare. Jeg sad godt & grundigt fast igen.

The Knuckle Bar in Sturgis hosted the very first Annual Sturgis Winter Rally.

The Knuckle Bar i Sturgis lagde lokale til det første årlige Sturgis Vintertræf.

Hansen Motor has specialized in specially equipped vehicles for people with Hansens Syndrome, which is an increasing problem in the Nimbus community.

Hansen Motor har specialiseret sig i særlige køretøjer for folk med Hansens Syndrom, hvilket er et stigende problem i Nimbuskredse.

Lee Bruns with his sidecar rig, made from bread baking pans. One of too few real motorcyclists.

Lee Bruns med sin sidevognskarosse, der er lavet af bradepander. Én af alt for få ægte mc-folk.

The first thing we noticed in Minnesota was that the cows were different from all other cows we've seen. And we've seen a lot of cows through the years.

Det første vi lagde mærke til i Minnesota var at køerne var ret forskellige fra alle de andre køer vi har set. Og vi har set mange køer gennem årene.

Finally at Daves place in St. Cloud. We got to know Dave in Ulan Bataar in Mongolia, he was doing the Mongol Rally with his sons back then. http://mongolrally.theadventurists.com/

Omsider fremme hos Dave i St. Cloud. Vi mødte ham i Ulan Bator i Mongoliet, da han var til Mongol Træf med sine sønner (tjek linket).