Sturgis, 2015, The End!

I planned to be on the road by 7am on Tuesday…no need to refuel as I had done that the night before, as well as load the trailer and even pack a lot of my stuff.  The forecast for Tuesday was 50% rain so I didn’t want to take a chance of having to load the truck in the rain.  I even went out about 8pm the night before to move the truck closer to the hotel.  I parked behind another truck and trailer right out the back door so if I had to make a run for the truck, it wouldn’t be a long one.

Tuesday morning came and I was ready to go.  I finished packing up the last of my stuff and hauled it down the hall to the stairs.  I happened to glance out the window at my truck and almost had a heart attack…sorry, bad choice of words.   Anyway, I was appalled to see that I had left the lights on the night before…although I thought the lights went off after a few minutes if you left them on…apparently not.

I hustled down the stairs and out the door as fast as I could…as if a couple of extra minutes were going to help.  I dropped my bag on the ground, dug my key out of my pocket and stuck it in the ignition.  Before I turned the key I may have said a short, silent prayer, and then as I held my breath, I turned the key…the engine started right up…thank you Jesus.

I finished loading the car and then shut it down to go check out and grab some yogurt at the breakfast area…and yes, I turned the lights off.  All packed and belly full, I hit the road at 7am…as planned.

I chose to take a more northern route home so the first part of the trip was on I-90…80 miles per hour…I kept it at 75 in case you’re wondering.  The only thing worth mentioning for the Tuesday drive was the town of Wall.  For 30 miles approaching the town I saw billboards advertising the Wall Drug Store.  According to the billboards, the drug store had pretty much everything…including food.  Well, I needed to see such a drug store so when the exit arrived, I took it.

Wall Drug Store

For those who don’t know…and that includes me…the Wall Drug Store is a famous place among the biker community…at least those who have been to Sturgis before.  It was packed.  The streets were packed with cars and motorcycles.  The drug store took up an entire block.  Signs in the windows and on the building advertised souvenirs, food, drugs, ice cream and many other things.  Since I had just eaten breakfast an hour or so earlier, I opted to pass up the opportunity to see inside the store.  Next time I’ve got to check it out.

Wall, SD

I-90 goes on forever, it seems, without many large cities…at least in the section I drove on.  In fact, Wall was the largest city/town I passed and its population was around 870 folks, minus bikers of course.  Just like every other city/town within 30-40 miles of Sturgis, Wall was full of bikers.  It was hard to tell if they were coming from or going to Sturgis…perhaps both.  I just wanted to get down the road as far and as fast as I could go.  Actually, I had reservations in Grand Island.

One of many fields of sunflowers

I turned off the Interstate on a smaller 2 lane state highway headed due south.  For the most part, all I saw was fields of crops…the only one of which I could identify was Sunflowers, although I saw a sign advertising Alfalfa.  I think it looks a little like corn except without the corn.  The more agriculturally minded out there can probably tell me for sure.  I’m sure there was corn fields mixed in somewhere but I never actually saw corn on the stalks…perhaps it was too early in the growing season.  I was tempted to stop and investigate one field with short, dark green plants with large leaves but since there wasn’t much of a shoulder; I decided it might be a bit too dangerous.  Can anyone tell me what I was seeing?

To a make a long day shorter, I arrived at my hotel in Grand Island…an older Roadway Inn.  I’ll try not to judge all Roadway Inns by this one, but I have to say I may never stay in one again.  However, I have to admit that the room was fairly clean and I never saw a big roach run across the floor…you have to be thankful for the little things.  I was glad when morning came.  I had set the alarm for 6am but woke up earlier…I didn’t want to stay any longer so I got dressed and left.

Dallas, SD

The drive today, Wednesday, was better.  Perhaps that’s because I was getting closer to home or was it because there’s was more “civilization” to look at.  Either way, it was a more interesting day.  I started out the day on a small 2 lane highway…it might have been the same one I had driven on the day before…I just followed the GPS.  The time in Nebraska was limited…more farms, fields and farming communities.  One had a particularly interesting name…Bonesteel.  I wonder if there a story behind the name.  And we wouldn’t want to forget McCool Junction.  Oh, then there was Winner, SD, the Pheasant capital of the world…so they say.  I even passed by Dallas…not THE Dallas…Dallas, NE.

South Dakota Landscape

The last two days has been relatively cop free as well.  Once I made it to I-35 I saw 3-4 State Troopers in Kansas but other than that only one police car between Rapid City and Wichita…and that was a county Sheriff helping a couple of kids on 4-wheelers get a cow off the highway and back into the pasture…interesting.

Only a Few Still Exist

I saw 3-4 drive-in theaters, 2 of which were still active.  For the younger folks in the crowd, a drive-in was a place where you would drive your car in, find a place facing this large outdoor screen and then get a speaker off a pole next to the car and hang it on your window.  Kids and families loved drive-in movies…so did people dating as I remember.  One of the active drive-ins was showing Pixels.  There was probably only room for 45-50 cars at the most.  I was already past the theater before I knew it and didn’t want to turn around.  I managed to stop in time for the other.

I crossed over several rivers between Grand Island and OKC…the North Loup River and the Middle Loup River like I did going to Sturgis…still no South Loup River (these were actually north of Grand Island).  Then there was the Platte River, the Little Blue River, the Big Blue River, the Elkhorn, the Republican, the Chikaskia, the Ninnescah, the Smoky Hill, the Saline and the Salt Fork Arkansas River.   Almost all of the rivers were full of water.  The area has received a lot of rain this summer.

Pig In! Pig Out!

Going up I-35 last week I stopped in Salina at that cute little hamburger place but today it looked like Wichita was going to be lunch so I started looking on GPS for a place.  I ultimately chose a place called “Pig In! Pig Out!”…a BBQ joint.  When I arrived…only 3 blocks off the interstate near Wichita State University…I found a plain, low brick building.  I wasn’t too excited about it but I was here so I found a place to park and went inside…I was pleasantly surprised.  It turns out this place has won many awards for its BBQ…even national ones.  I ordered a brisket sandwich and chowed down…pretty good.  I highly recommend it if you’re ever in Wichita.

Pig In! Pig Out! Ribbons

Along the highway since leaving Rapid City…especially on I-90…there were groups of riders headed west.  Judging by the way they were packed, they were headed to Sturgis.  Seems a little late but what do I know.  There were an equal number of riders, RVs and trailers headed east as well.

Tomorrow is the last leg of my trip.  When I get back to College Station I will have driven over 2500 miles…and that doesn’t count the miles I put on the motorcycle while in and around Sturgis.  That was probably around 300-350 miles…I didn’t keep count.  There won’t be another entry to the blog…I’ve driven this leg many times and most of the folks I know reading have also made the trip a few times.

The trip to Sturgis has been an interesting one and one I am glad I did.  If I ever go again I might be inclined to go with one or two others.  A group any bigger than that would make decision making too difficult…Where shall we eat?  Where do you want to go now?  When do we stop?  Want to go to the Buffalo Chip or Devil’s Tower?  Shall we camp or get a hotel room?  Which hotel?

You can see why I wanted to go it alone the first time.  Now that I have an idea about what Sturgis is all about…a just a small one at that…I might entertain going again.  Maybe I should fly in and rent a bike there?  Sharon might think about going if I opted for that.  However, then you’d miss all the little things along the road going to and coming back.  If you're into motorcycle rallies, Sturgis is one of the biggest...this year's 75th anniversary rally was predicted to bring in about 1 million bikers.  Perhaps the ones after this will be a bit smaller...750,000-800,000!  Anyway, you need to do it, at least once.

I don’t know when I will take my next trip worthy of updating this blog but stay tuned…I’ll let you know.  Thanks for checking in once in a while.  I hoped you enjoyed reading my ramblings and seeing some of my pictures.  See you next time.

Sturgis, 2015, Day 6

Today was a day to catch up on things I had put off.  I started the day going to the South Dakota Air and Space Museum, just outside the gate at Ellsworth AFB, about 7 miles east of Rapid City.  It appears to be a work in process.  Just like many museums around the country, this one is supported by private funding.  However, there was a fairly good selection of aircraft, all examples of those flown by units at Ellsworth over the years.  A lack of funds shows in the dilapidated condition of most of the aircraft.  The most notable exceptions were the B-1 and B-29 at the entrance to the museum.

I walked through the various displays, checked out the gift store and static displays and headed off to the second event of the day…Black Hills Harley Davidson.

Black Hills Harley Davidson was on my list to check out the hundred or so vendors at that location.  Located on the western edge of Rapid City, the dealership is huge.  The showroom and merchandise are on the main level while the maintenance facility is on a lower level.    But I wasn’t to discover this until later in the day as the exit off the interstate was backed up with motorcycles and a lonely car or two almost onto the interstate.  I opted to make my visit later and kept heading west to Sturgis.

I went past the first exit to Sturgis and got off at the western-most exit which hopefully would give me a chance to miss some of the traffic.  As I headed west on the interstate, it appeared that there were more motorcycles headed east than west…I couldn’t figure out what was happening back towards Rapid City.  Judging by the traffic at the Harley dealership when I passed, I figured there must have been a special breakfast or something.  In addition, the highway to Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park and the Crazy Horse Memorial goes through Rapid City…I’m sure many of these riders were headed to the Black Hills.

I found Main Street in Sturgis about 10:30 and I was hoping I was early enough to avoid the wall-to-wall motorcycles I’d seen the first time…I was mistaken.  It took me about an hour to make it 5 blocks and another 30 minutes to get to the interstate to leave town.  I was going park and walk around a little but when I saw the crowd this morning I changed my mind.

Today was officially the first day of the Rally, although folks around here say they can’t see anything different today than the last week.  With a million…yes, I said a million…motorcycles expected in town, plus the passengers on a large percentage of those motorcycles, there are a lot of people here.

After escaping the mayhem they call Sturgis, I headed back towards Rapid City with a short stop at the Black Hills National Cemetery.  It is a fairly large cemetery but not the largest national cemetery I’ve seen.  I drove through the cemetery and then headed towards Black Hills Harley Davidson…thought I’d try it one more time and perhaps whatever was happening this morning was over.

As I approached the exit I didn’t see a huge line of motorcycles on the off ramp so I decided to give it a shot.  As soon as I got to the top of the rise I noticed there was still a large number of motorcycles but since I was already in line, I decided to wait it out.  Once I finally made it to the turn to the dealership, I saw guys marshalling traffic into the dealership.  I wasn’t aware how large this place was so I was concerned about the parking but as it turned out I shouldn’t have worried…this place is huge and there’s plenty of parking. 

Traffic was routed around the front of the dealership, two-by-two, down the side past all the vendor’s semi’s…parked so as to form a wall between the makeshift roadway and the vendor area…and then the line circled back around to a huge parking area behind the dealership.  There were marshallers all around the route and helped separate those bikers coming in from those exiting.  The parking lot was designed specifically for events such as Sturgis.  There are mini roads…complete with yellow line down the middle…painted on the pavement with solid white lines between the mini roads that allow for two lines of motorcycles to park between the mini roads…if that makes any sense.  If everyone does it correctly, all motorcycles are parked headed out so that when they get ready to leave, all they have to do is pull out and follow the mini roads.  There’s probably enough parking for well over 1,000 motorcycles.  Out front there is an overflow lot made of gravel.

The whole thing is super-organized, including the vendors.  Whoever did the planning is a logistics planning wonder.  Speaking of vendors, every major vendor…and dozens of lesser known ones…was present at the dealership, as well as Sturgis itself.  Judging by the activity at most of the tents, business was good.  If you need custom wheels, a new seat, a better exhaust system or a concert-loud sound system, you came to the right place.

Oh, and there’s plenty of food to choose from as well…fancy grilled cheese sandwiches with macaroni and cheese, chili dogs, corn dogs, pulled pork sandwiches and the list goes on.  I opted for the chili dog…big mistake.  Should have gone with the corn dog.

Anyway, I spent a couple of hours walking around, doing a little shopping in the dealership and then left.  The next activity of the day was getting my truck ready for the return trip. 

It’s been an interesting three days but I’m ready to get out of the area.  According to the news tonight, there have already been as many fatalities in the first day as the entire rally last year and it’s only going to get worse because there’s rain in the forecast over the next 2-3 days.  Wild riders and wet pavement do not mix well.

Thanks for following along these last few days.  I’ve got more pictures that I’ll be glad to show you if you ask.  I also have some video footage…assuming I operated the new GoPro correctly.  When I tried it out back home, I had it in the wrong mode and took over 3,000 pictures.  It took a long time to load them onto the computer as well as deleting them. 

I may have one more post after I get home so keep checking back.

Sturgis, 2015, Day 5

Day 5 started off fine…and fortunately it continued.  I drove west on I-90 to Spearfish, SD to start my day in the Black Hills National Forest via Highway 14A.  This route is more commonly known as Spearfish Cannon and it is a beautiful ride, almost all the way to Deadwood.  The road twisted and turned through a heavily wooded area alongside Spearfish Creek.  The water in the creek is crystal clear and must be good fishing, judging by the number of folks doing just that.

The day was a beautiful sunny day with the temperature at about 75 degrees.  I even wore a long sleeved shirt, even though most of the riders didn’t seem to notice the cooler weather at 70 miles per hour going down the interstate…must be my thin blood.  Well, I keep telling myself that I’m old.  Another observation I’ve made since being here is that only 1 in 50 riders, maybe even 1 in 100, wear helmets.  Yep, you guessed it, I’m the 1.  Better to be a little out of style than dead.

 

Back to the ride…because the day was a beautiful one, riders were out in droves.  Most of the time, it was wall-to-wall motorcycles with the occasional car mixed in…poor guys.  About 30 minutes into Spearfish Canyon I came around a turn and quickly noticed dozens of motorcycles parked along the road.  Usually this means there’s something interesting to look at so without really knowing what it was, I pulled to the side of the road as well.  After getting off the bike and following others across the road, I noticed a little waterfall on the other side of the creek.  Turns out it was Bridal Falls, which is fairly famous in the area.

Sufficient time spent admiring the falls and taking a couple of pictures, I got back on the bike and continued down through the canyon.  As there aren’t many places to pull off the road, most of the traffic moves on.  There was about the same number of motorcycles coming in the opposite direction as well.  Every once in a while I would catch a glimpse of Spearfish Creek running alongside the road and I really wanted to take a picture.  Then I passed a picnic area where I thought I might be able to get a picture of the creek.  I made a u-turn a few hundred miles on down the road and went back to the picnic area.  I walked down to the creek and took a couple of pictures.  It would have been a nice place for a picnic…IF I had food AND it wasn’t 9:30 in the morning.

After another 30 minutes or so, Highway 14A intersected with the road to Lead and Deadwood to the left and Custer and Custer State Park to the right…I chose left. A few miles down the highway I entered the city of Lead, population about 700…before Sturgis.  Even this little city/town is affected by a million motorcycles coming to the area.  By the way, every camping area, every hotel, and every town had RV’s, tents and motorcycles present…they are really everywhere.  Lead is an old gold mining town and most of the buildings are really old…most have been repurposed.

I made my way through Lead and the traffic and headed to Deadwood, which I expected to be much like Lead.  Deadwood was a bit larger in size…about 1800 population…but had 10 times the number of motorcycles, which I didn’t expect.  Motorcycles were parked everywhere, although the city tried to corral them in a few locations near downtown.  I parked in one of the bigger lots and started walking towards downtown…where everyone else was headed.  Once I got on Main Street, I found it shut down to all but motorcycles and the stores, bars and restaurants doing a healthy business.  It wasn’t as crowded as Sturgis was yesterday but it was a close second.

I walked 4-5 blocks, down and back, did a little shopping and then it was back on the motorcycle headed for Mount Rushmore, the focus of Day 5.  Even though I had pre-loaded the route in my GPS, I had little need for it as all I had to do was follow the crowd.  The area is also marked very well with signs giving drivers help in getting to where they want to go.

I left Deadwood close to noon but wasn’t going to eat until after Mount Rushmore.  Besides, every place that looked good had a hundred motorcycles parked outside.  I continued down Highway 16A, passing meadows, lakes, wineries and restaurants…in addition to crowded motels, cabins and campsites.  Then I saw a sign that made me turn around and go back…TEXAS BBQ.  While I didn’t expect great BBQ, the parking lot was empty.  That might have scared folks away but I decided I’d try it.

Turned out the BBQ was very good.  I wasn’t particularly hungry so I ordered a Frito Pie, with BBQ beef, beans and cheese…not what I’m used to, but it was good.  I sat down at the lone picnic table with a woman and her 3 kids who by chance were from Farmers Branch.  We had a nice talk about the area and Texas BBQ.  The woman cooking the BBQ…and doing everything else by herself…said she lived in Houston for a few years and worked with a woman there who taught her how to cook BBQ…she done good.

With a full belly, I continued to Mount Rushmore.  The road leading to and from the memorial winds around through the forest, even crossing over itself a couple of times.  There were 2-3 one-lane tunnels too.  All in all, it was a good ride going and coming.  Unlike Devil’s Tower, which you could see from several miles away, Mount Rushmore doesn’t show itself until you’re right on it.

Well, what can I say, Mount Rushmore is everything I expected it to be, and more.  It’s amazing that men could have carved the mountain like they did with fairly crude tools.  The area was very crowded with bikers but also foreign nationals all over.  After soaking up some history I decided to head to Custer State Park.

As I mentioned earlier, the road to Custer State Park was even more winding and beautiful than it had been coming up the other side.  There were a couple of one-lane tunnels and a great view of Mount Rushmore from about 5 miles away.  Of course, I had to stop and take a picture.  There was already a group of 10 or so bikes parked there and when I got off mine I noticed one of the ladies was sprinkling what appeared to be ashes off the side of the roadway.  That was the second time I had seen some one with an urn today, but the first actually sprinkling them…interesting.

When I got to Custer State Park, I paid the entrance fee…$10…and headed in.  I took the “wildlife loop” seeing warning about Buffalo on the road.  I drove 20+ miles without seeing any wildlife, much less a Buffalo on the road.  I had just about decided I wasn’t going to see anything except grassland and rolling hills when I came around a corner and saw 3-4 dozen motorcycles and a few cars pulled to the side of the road.  As usual, this meant there was something to see…this time, a small herd of buffalo.  There was probably 2-3 dozen buffalo grazing.  They were so intent on eating the grass that they barely noticed there were dozens of people taking their picture…they barely even raised their heads.  After I put the camera up and started the motorcycle, I noticed one of the larger buffalo away from the herd digging up the ground.  After he raised a storm of dirt into the air, he flopped over on his back and rolled around a little.  It happened so fast that few people got a chance to get pictures.

After getting back on the road I noticed I didn’t have much gas so I headed for the closest town…Custer.  Once again, the town was full of bikers.  I got gas in town and headed back toward Rapid City.  The highway I was on just happened to pass the Crazy Horse Memorial so I pulled in, paid the $5 admission and headed down the road into the parking area. 

 

I was vaguely familiar with the memorial but didn’t realize how little had been done…it’s far from finished.  However, once inside the visitor’s center, I watched a most interesting film on the man who started the memorial back in the fifties and for many years, worked on the project single-handed.  As a younger man, he had worked with the artist who had sculpted Mount Rushmore so he had experience.  One might say he didn’t trust the government very much…State or Federal…so he created a non-profit organization to seek private funding for the project.  By the way, he was recruited to do the sculpture by five of the senior chiefs from the Lacota tribe, of which Crazy Horse was a member. When it's finished, it will dwarf Mount Rushmore...in fact, the entire Rushmore will fit in the head of Crazy Horse.

Of all the things I saw today, I think the Crazy Horse Memorial site was the most interesting one.  I can’t repeat all that was said in the film but to this day the man’s wife…she died in 2014…and several of his 10 children continue to work on the project.  You might find it interesting to look the memorial and its history up on the internet.

Finally, it was time to head back to Rapid City to find some dinner.  Unfortunately, many of the bikers who had come to the area had the same idea.  For the first 15-20 miles of the 36 mile trip back the traffic moved at 5-10 miles per hour.  I was really ready to be off the motorcycle for the day.  I had spent almost 10 hours in and around the Black Hills National Forest.

If you haven’t been to the area, I highly recommend it…for the history as well as the beauty.

Sturgis, 2015, Day 4

Day 4 started normally, with a little breakfast and doing a little cleanup on the motorcycle.  Then it went downhill fast.

I jumped on I-90, about ¼ mile from my hotel, and headed west towards Sundance, WY and Devil’s Tower, about 20 miles north of Sundance.  The entire trip looked to be about 220 miles round trip.  It’s about 30 miles to Sturgis from Rapid City…at highway speeds…but that didn’t happen.   About 10 miles from Sturgis, signs and emergency vehicles lined the roadway telling everyone to slow down and that there were stopped vehicles on the highway.

I thought it was just traffic trying to get off at the Sturgis exit but unfortunately it was worse.  I sat in traffic for about 30-45 minutes, sometimes moving 5-10 miles per hour, and finally got past the problem, which by that time was just a bunch of police cars, a wrecker, some cars and motorcycles.  I couldn’t tell what had happened, other than cause a traffic jam.

Once past the traffic jam, I made good time to the next town on the interstate…Spearfish.  I needed to make a stop at the Walmart.  It was immediately obvious that I wasn’t the only biker in town who had that idea.  It looked like the others were mostly campers as they had whole baskets full of stuff.  One guy outside was tying down an ice chest and a box fan with bungee cords.  Needless to say, he was just about maxed out.  Good thing he didn’t have a passenger.

Shortly after leaving Spearfish I crossed the border into Wyoming and shortly thereafter I saw a sign advertising the Vore Buffalo Jump.  I had read a little about this place where the Indians would work to stampede the Buffalo into this hole and then harvest the meat afterwards.  I saw the place just off the highway so I decided it would be worth the detour to check it out.  When I got there, the two buildings I saw weren't much to look at.  In fact, the whole set up was in bad shape and I thought I was fixing to get ripped off.  Well, to my surprise, a $7 entry fee entitled me to a private tour from a college kid down into the sinkhole where there were hundreds...maybe thousands...of bones and other artifacts.  The site was discovered when they were building I-90 back in the early '70's.  It still hasn't been totally excavated.  The University of Wyoming is the only people allowed to work the site so it's slow going.  Look it up on the internet...very interesting.

On to Devil’s Tower. Once I got off the interstate and headed up towards the area, the scenery started to get more interesting…rolling hills and twisting roads.  About 10 miles or so down the road I started getting glimpses of Devil’s Tower.  Even from 6-7 miles away, the mountain looks huge, and only gets bigger as you get closer.

Once I turned into the park, I hit another traffic jam…cars, trucks, RVs and motorcycles…all paying their entry fee into the park.  Devil’s Tower is definitely one of the biggest draws for the biker bunch.  The area at the base of the Tower was very organized…not like the entry, manned by one little old lady.  There were 15-20 volunteers from a Christian Motorcycle Club directing traffic and helping everyone find a parking place.  It worked very well.

I read some of the history of the Tower, bought a couple of post cards and then it was back on the road.  I wasn’t excited about walking up the steep path to get closer to the Tower.  One of the other interesting sites along the road back to the entrance was a town of Prairie Dogs.  They were extremely tame and let people get pretty close to take pictures.  However, they weren’t too excited to have one little girl up close and personal.

Just outside the entrance gate there’s a KOA campground as well as a Trading Post and Café so I decided it was time to eat and review my next stop.  While I was eating I saw a guy going from table to table asking something but he didn’t come by my table.  I thought I heard him say the word “Texas” so in case my motorcycle was hit by a car or something, I went to the window and looked out.  Seeing nothing wrong, I went back to my lunch.

After lunch and a little shopping next door, I went outside to find that I had left the key on and my battery was totally drained…bummer to say the least.  I pulled out my handy jumper cables and waited until an unsuspecting car came by.  Soon a young couple came out and started getting in a Kia Soul so I asked them if they would be so kind as to give me a jump.  They said sure so we hooked the cables up and nothing…the bike wouldn’t start.

After several failed attempts, I gave up, thanked them for their help and started thinking of another plan.  About that time, the driver of a Dodge Dually came over and asked if I needed a jump from him.  I figured, what the heck, it might work better with a bigger vehicle.  We hooked the cables up and tried the starter a couple of times, but no luck.  After the guy fooled around with the cables, I tried one more time and it fired up.  The connection must have not been good.

We disconnected the cables and the Good Samaritan started packing up his family.  For some reason, I tried the throttle and got nothing.  He said that perhaps the battery needed to charge more.  After he left, I let the engine run for 30 minutes or more with no change.

To make a long story a little shorter, I ended up calling the dealership in Sundance for some help, called road side assistance and began to wait for the wrecker to arrive…the ETA given was an hour or more.  On a whim, I tried the starter one more time and low and behold it started.  I cancelled the wrecker and very quickly got back on the road.

Now my phone was dying and I realized I didn’t have a charging cable.  You guessed it, another trip to Walmart.  I got the cable and headed to Sturgis…finally!

As I got closer to Sturgis, the traffic began to get heavier.  As soon as I got off the interstate, the traffic…cars, RVs and motorcycles was bumper to bumper headed downtown.  Of course, I had no idea where downtown was so it was follow the leader for me.

At one stop light, 4-5 bikes in front of me peeled off to the left down a side street and turned right to parallel the street we were currently sitting on.  After a couple of minutes I decided those guys had a good idea so left I went.  Of course, by the time I got to the cross street, they were nowhere in sight.  I continued down the small residential street, parallel to the main drag, a few blocks until I noticed bikes parked on a side street to my right.  I turned in, found a place to park and hit the bricks on foot.

Downtown Sturgis is an amazing place at this time of the year.  Probably every motorcycle vendor out there is present.  It is a virtual candy store for motorcycle owners…except that most of us can’t afford what they’re selling.  There were people everywhere.  I made my way over to main street where there were even more people.  Motorcycles were parked in the middle of the street and along both sides leaving two narrow pathways that only motorcycles could get through.

I left town about 5:30, not really wanting to be caught up in the craziness that was beginning.  I really didn’t want to be anywhere around after the sun went down.  Even so, on the ride back to Rapid City, I noticed hundreds of motorcycles headed toward Sturgis but moving very slowly as there was at least two wrecks or “situations” on the westbound side of the highway.  Eastbound was clear sailing.

All in all it was a pretty good day.  Tomorrow should be better…assuming I remember to turn off the key when I leave the bike.