Sturgis

Our last day here and time to see for ourselves what all the hoopla is about. . . . the town of Sturgis is yet one more small town in South Dakota with a population of about 6,000 (other than during Bike Week, of course). There are a few major events during the summer that bring tourists in with the headliner being the biker crowd for Bike Week.

When checking out of Black Hills Harley Davidson earlier this week, I asked one of the (obviously temporary) checkout girls (probably in high school) what Sturgis was like other than during Bike Week, and the quick and emphatic response was "dead". So, there's a lot of activity and a lot of money made in a very short time during Bike Week.



We started our day with a ride back to Black Hills Harley Davidson near Rapid City to pick up a few last minute things like self-powered speakers to bring music to Cheryl's Road King. Those will get installed when we get home, but most of the vendors there would install whatever you bought . . . for a price, of course. And, because we bought so many other things, primarily t-shirts, we had to buy an extra bag to put on the back of my bike to hold all of our booty.


From here, we journeyed back to the outskirts of Sturgis for, first, Thunder Road, and second, the Full Throttle Saloon - a Sturgis landmark. Thunder Road was mostly a show of custom bikes and also featured an appearance by Steven Tyler, frontman of Aerosmith, to highlight the launch of his new line of motorcycles - Red Wing Motorcycles. He was coming after we decided to leave, so we missed the Demon of Screamin' but his motorcycles are nice.



Across the street is the Full Throttle Saloon, one of the most interesting places I've ever been. It covered a small city block in the middle of nowhere and is only open about 5 weeks per year. It had a camp of small wooden buildings to house all the temporary workers they bring in from all over the country. And, neatest of all, the decor was decidely kitsch with a little bit of this and a little bit of that. A hair band from the 80's, Jackyl, was scheduled to play there that evening and the stage was pretty large surrounded by standing room for people and many bikes parked. Like at Buffalo Chip, something that sounds good draws many, many loud and revving engines from the concertgoers.

Finally, time to roll on into Sturgis and there were more motorcycles here than at any point on the trip. I'd guess that Main Street was lined by several thousand bikes, and there were stores galore. At this point, though, we found ourselves fatiguing from the heat of the day, so the "highlight" got relatively short shrift and we ended up leaving after only a couple of hours . . . sans any more purchases, thankfully. If we come back, we'll need to start the week with this so we can experience all that Sturgis has to offer.


All in all, a fabulous week and great to spend so much time with Cheryl to whom I'm very close (as most of you know). The scenic rides and national monuments were wonderful and added another 600 miles or so to the 1,400 (roughly) it took to get out here. We leave for home tomorrow about 8 a.m. MT, so perhaps a brief note from the road tomorrow evening when we stay in Sioux City, SD.