September 18, 2008 by maureen.ulrich.

When I talk about musicians on my blog, I appear to strike a nerve here and there. Just the same, I’m going to talk about Sir Elton’s concert in Saskatoon on September 15th.Well, EJ still has it. He is nothing short of glorious.The deep tones of his voice are as rich as ever – and the variations he played on the piano were amazing. I’ve heard some criticism from people that he doesn’t seem to be able to hit the high notes anymore. Who cares? The man played nearly non-stop for over two and a half hours. Those short, pudgy fingers of his were FLYING.I don’t know if this was the best concert I have ever seen, but there were some things I have never experienced before, such as . . .. . . the lights went down at 8:00 sharp and after a brief introduction by the band, EJ came out on stage, sat down, and started to play. . . EJ played non-stop with NO intermission, pausing after each song for a sip of water and then flipping his coat tails as he slid back onto the piano bench to begin yet another song . .. . . when he came out for the encore, EJ paused to sign autographs for everyone in the front row – and I mean everyone – okay he skipped a few people who were holding up black T-shirts, but I’m not sure what he could have done with these anyway. The man was like a machine with that Sharpie.. . . hearing so many songs that defined my adolescence. All my high school and university friends LOVED his music and still do. . . hearing songs which were so achingly familiar and so spine-tingingly different, songs like Madman Across the Water and Levon and Tiny Dancer . . . I pretty much wore out that LP . . .. . . seeing so many middle-aged, paunchy, balding men go nuts at a concert. I mean – there were some excited women – but the men seated around us definitely stole the show.. . . except for Elton’s band . . . which was a show in themselves. John Mahon, EJ’s percussionist, is amazing. And drummer Nigel Olsson has been with EJ since 1969. How spectacular it must be for the two of them to watch kids in the front row go nuts during Benny and the Jetsssss . . .My only disappointment? He didn’t play Captain Fantastic and the Brown-Dirt Cowboy. But you have to give the man credit for playing 24 other pretty fine pieces of music.It was worth every penny. It was truly one of those (to quote the Saskatoon Star Phoenix) “I saw him when” moments.Yes, yes, the UK – still to come.Hopefully I will get to that before I leave for the North West Territories next week. I’m doing some reading and writing workshops in Yellowknife and Fort Simpson during the last week of September. It’s my first ever trip to NWT and I can hardly wait.And if you DIDN’T know about this and you are from Saskatchewan, it’s not too late to vote for Power Plays at www.reginalibrary.ca OR your local public library for the Reader’s Choice Award. The deadline is September 30th. Thanks to those of you who have already cast your ballot. I greatly appreciate the support. I have no idea what the odds are – considering that there are 91 entries – but we’ll see what happens at the Saskatchewan Book Awards on November 29th.I spent a glorious day today on my Sportster. Hope the weather holds just a few weeks longer . . . before the snow flies . . .

Posted in On Music | 1 Comment »

September 14, 2008 by maureen.ulrich.

Want some history on North American’s most famous rally? Here’s an excerpt from my unfinished manuscript entitled Bad Girls Go to Sturgis. The narrator is Maria Kennedy, my protagonist:
My father had explained to me that Clarence “Pappy” Hoel and the Jackpine Gypsies Motorcycle Club had initiated the Sturgis Bike Rally in 1938. Two years earlier Pappy had opened a Harley-Davidson sales and repair shop, which quickly became a mustering ground for local enthusiasts.
“The Gypsies even raced on Bear Butte Lake in the winter time,” Dad laughed. “They must have all been a little loco.”
Pappy designed the Sturgis rally in order to compete with the Deadwood and Belle Fourche rodeos. He advertised the event by touring around the Black Hills on his Indian motorcycle, dragging a converted sidecar rig carrying a Shetland pony named Topsy. Nearly two hundred people attended the racing event – a huge success by local standards.
Could Pappy have envisioned the metamorphosis of the rally into the continent’s – perhaps the world’s — largest motorcycle rally? Over half a million people invaded the Black Hills in 2004. So many urban bikers hauled their bikes in trailers and RV’s that many cynics had renamed the event “Trailer Week.”
The only time I’d been to Sturgis was 1978, the year Easy Rider magazine started covering the rally. At that time the number of participants was well under 30 000. In 1990, Steve and Nick (Maria’s older brothers) attended the event’s 50th anniversary – along with 350 000 other riders. It was before the rally was expanded to include Deadwood and Spearfish. It was before the port o potties in City Park were burned in 1982 and camping was banned in the city park. Now many Sturgis residents and residents of the surrounding area rent out their homes for over $4000 a week.
As I drew closer, I opted for the route through the small town of Newell, instead of entering the Black Hills at Belle Fourche. Wanda had told me that I should avoid the highway which bisected Sturgis – particularly at night.
“Once it took Bill and me two and a half hours to drive from Boulder Canyon to the Full Throttle Saloon,” Wanda had explained. “We would have gotten there quicker if we had walked.”
I had been surprised that I hadn’t seen more bikes on Highway 85, but as each mile clicked away on the approach to Newell, I became part of a massive migration – utterly unlike anything I had seen twenty-seven years ago. Frankly, I had thought that Wanda was exaggerating when she talked about the number of bikes. Now, I had the distinct feeling that every bike in the U.S.A. – at least every Harley-Davidson – was touring the Black Hills. And like tiny pulsating red blood cells, they were all headed down the main arteries towards the heart of Bike Week – Sturgis, South Dakota. A town of six thousand any other time of year. . .

August 2008 marked our fifth trip to Sturgis during the Rally. We were there for three full days this year, which for us is pretty much the right amount of time. The weather was super – apart from one huge cloudburst on our last night there.
We drove down in a cavalcade of nine bikes. The trip down was pretty uneventful – if you discount Derek’s problems with his clutch and quick repair in Watford City, courtesy of the Case dealership.
We arrived in Newell around 7:00 PM and were amazed at the scarcity of bikes. We knew right away that numbers must be down at the rally. We later discovered that there were only about 450 000 bikes – which is significantly down from the usual 700 000 to 800 000.
It’s still a lot of bikes. I know.
We camped at the Creekside Campground, the same place as last year. We really like the low-key atmosphere, the food, the hot showers, and the location. We can walk to concerts at the Glencoe or take a $5 shuttle into town at night.
Randy and Blaire attended two concerts at the Buffalo Chip. Blaire came down exclusively for Lynard Skynard, but I think she liked Alice Cooper even more. It was the second time she has seen Alice’s stage show, and I guess this one was particularly good. He even had his wife and two daughters performing with him. Lynard Skynard was amazing, and their encore of Free Bird was a concert highlight. I must confess I’m not a huge Lynard Skynard fan. It has something to do with the fact that it was the only CD that Randy played when I rode with him for four years. It’s not the main reason I got my own bike, but . . .
Anyway, all three of us saw Kiss play at the Glencoe Campground. The Glencoe is a great location for concerts due to the natural amphitheatre. One reason I don’t like concerts at the Chip is that – because I am vertically challenged – I sometimes hear more of the concert than I actually see. This is not the case at the Glencoe. Kiss went way over the top with their stage show. Very glitzy. Lots of lights. Colour. Fireworks. And I wonder if Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons decided years ago that wearing so much stage make-up would make it easier to disguise their ages in the years to come. The first half of the concert was a bit of a snore, I’m afraid. We didn’t recognize any of the songs – and apparently many serious Kiss fans didn’t recognize them either. However, they kicked into high gear about half way through and gave us our money’s worth.
This was my first year driving in Sturgis itself. The first day we drove the Nemo Highway, Needles, and Ironman. I never could have driven any of these (without being a nervous wreck!) if I hadn’t made the trip to BC with Randy just two weeks earlier. Curvy roads no longer bother me, but I’m still not wild about parking lots and starting out on hills. I now use my back brake to hold my bike in place when I’m starting on a hill. It’s a trick I learned about in the 2004 motorcycle safety course, but I never really tried it until this summer.
For the next two days, the driving was a great deal more relaxed. We drove to Deadwood for one afternoon and into downtown Sturgis for another. I bought a great new skullcap for underneath my helmet. It’s a 300% improvement on my old one and makes driving so much more enjoyable. Blaire picked up a vest and chaps, so she is now completely outfitted for the road.
I have been trying to upload pictures to this website, but I haven’t had any luck lately. I don’t know if I’ve just forgotten how – or what. Anyway, hopefully I can get some on here soon.
Stay tuned. It’s the UK next!

Posted in On Travel | 4 Comments »

September 5, 2008 by maureen.ulrich.

Yes, yes. I know. Most of you have long since given up on this blog. Have checked and re-checked only to find that last May entry which promised news of a trip to New York . . .

Well, I’ll make a few excuses. It’s been a hectic four months. Juggling a school play and a part-time job and a full-time job and a writing career (Who am I kidding? I’ve hardly written a word since our writers’ retreat on May 10th!!) Then throw in a couple of bike trips to British Columbia and Sturgis and a two-week tour of England and Scotland with Daughter Number One.

Anyway, I’m back, and I’m committed to updating my blog every two weeks.

I’m not at school this fall, so there should be time for it. . .

So . . . where to begin?

How about . . . on the road to Nelson, British Columbia on a 1200 Low (Sportster)?

Randy and I drove from Weyburn to Lethbridge in one day, stopping frequently to rest our achy posteriors. The weather was gorgeous — and the traffic was minimal. We actually saw very few motor homes on the entire trip, which isn’t all that surprising, considering what gas costs now-a-days.

From Lethbridge we headed west through Blairmore and Creston. There’s a great stretch of highway that goes north from Creston to the ferry — very curvy and scenic. Locals told us afterword that it is ranked as one of the best stretches of road on a motorcycle. I believe it!!

Sometimes it’s a good idea not to know what lies ahead. This is especially true for me and my Sportster. At the ferry, we encountered a two hour wait — and a very steep hill. I just shut off the bike, shifted into neutral, and glided down it — with a liberal application of the front brake. No problem. Randy is a great teacher.

The ferry ride is about thirty minutes and — it’s free! I was plenty nervous driving ONTO the ferry — and the staff were nice enough to put us at the very front — so we could be amongst the first wave of vehicles to drive off. Great, I thought. I’ll stall a few times and make a fool of myself. But I didn’t. Not even one restart. From the ferry there’s a good half hour drive along the inlet to Nelson, with a beautiful bridge to cross over.

Nelson’s streets are very steep. Considering the amount of freezing rain it receives, driving in the winter must be VERY interesting. I opted to park my Sportster for the duration of our visit and ride with Randy on the Electra Glide — or with my mom and dad in their rental car. They flew to Castlegar on July 22nd and spent two nights with us, touring the area.

Nelson would be a great retirement community. It has everything we love — golf courses, a ski hill, lakefront, community theatre, a junior hockey team, and of course — great roads for driving a motorcycle.

We spent an evening at one of the local bars, listening to Fred Eaglesmith and his band. They put on a terrific show. Fred is one half musician/songwriter and one half stand-up comedian. He was well worth the price of admission, and I urge you to go to one of his concerts if he’s passing through your community. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. His music is sort of Bruce Springsteen meets Bob Dylan meets John Mellencamp meets Gordon Lightfoot.

Anyway, from Nelson we headed south to Kalispell, Montana and the Going-to-the-Sun Highway in Glacier National Park. I thought I would be a nervous wreck doing this on a motorcycle, but I actually found it far much LESS nerve-wracking than in a vehicle. The view was spectacular and well worth the trip.

We spent one night in Medicine Hat on the way home — and that TransCanada Highway was sure a disappointment after learning to drive the curves in B.C. I’d love to go all the way to Victoria next summer, but that’s a long ways away, and I haven’t told you about Sturgis yet.

And I’ll do just that . . . tomorrow . . .

Posted in On Travel | 2 Comments »