Easy Rider

July 30 – 31, 2006


Each day we travel in the Black Hills and surrounding areas, we see more and more motorcycles arriving early for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which starts August 7. The noise is already invasive as a group of ten or so roars crazily around the mountain roads. I can’t imagine what it will be like next week – motorcycle gridlock we’ve been warned. Almost every billboard has been tailored to appeal to bikers; every storefront invites “Welcome Bikers!”; tents are set up in dozens of surrounding towns ready for the numerous planned events; logo merchandise abounds. Harley Davidson seems to be the motorcycle of choice and they have a huge presence sponsoring so much of the rally.

The bikers are congregating like zombies in a horror movie. Every highway, street and lane funnels a new bunch down to the Black Hills and the headquarters – Sturgis, South Dakota. Hotels, motels, campgrounds are booked solid for the week prior to and the week of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally 2006 and yet a majority of them camp out on the vast grazing lands surrounding the town. I was shocked to hear the expected turnout. Last year 800,000 registered and a whole bunch more didn’t register. There’ll be even more in 2006. YIKES! Gotta get outa here! From the very young in their late teens and early twenties to the portly aging grey-pony-tailed gang, there’s no shortage of money by the looks of their bikes. The older, more affluent arrive in their huge fancy diesel-pusher motorhomes, pulling matching trailers that hold their shiny Harleys. Hardly any of the bikers wear helmets – there’s no helmet law here. Can’t imagine the carnage if there’s a collision or wipe-out.

Passport America has been a wonderful investment - $37 for the first fifteen months. There are so many campgrounds that honour the membership giving a 50% discount. Rush-No-More (clever play on words) in Sturgis allowed us three days at half price in spite of the increasing number of motorcyclists arriving each day. A good location, only a half a mile off I90, set in the edge of a ponderosa pine forest at the foot of a hill, excellent wifi and only $12.50/night. It was only an hour’s drive from Hermosa and we were checked in at 10:30am.

The temperatures have built day-by-day arriving at a crescendo today (Sunday, July 30) of 113 degrees F. This weather is intolerable to us and to the locals who can’t bear it either and grumble constantly. Diane, the proprietor of Rush-No-More said with a laugh “I don’t do heat, I’m too big a gal”. She went on to grumble “and I have to clean the toilets and showers in this heat”. I totally sympathised knowing I couldn’t do it – but then I couldn’t clean public toilets in any weather – Yuck!

The historic town of Deadwood had a particular interest to us as we follow an HBO series “Deadwood” a gritty (a mild word which really means full of swearing, nudity, sex and violence) and accurate depiction of life in the old western mining town in the late 1800’s. Wild Bill Hickock was shot while playing poker in Saloon #10 – holding aces and eights at the time which is now referred to as a “deadman’s hand”. His grave and that of Calamity Jane are in the Mount Moriah cemetery, high above town.

Deadwood is only ten miles out of Sturgis, reached bay a winding road climbing up into the mountains. It’s tucked into a narrow valley and it was really hot. We slithered down the shady side of Main Street, slipping in and out of casinos and shops getting a good blast of A/C at each stop. Bikers were everywhere – the bars and casinos full of shaved heads and tattooed torsos (on the men) – long blonde hair, tight jeans or ridiculously short shorts, halter-tops and also tattoos (on the women).

The casinos on Main Street were very small replicating the originals but they weren’t appealing because everything was shabby and children were allowed to run wild even handling the slot machines – the opposite of Nevada. Finding a decent restaurant was impossible – the choice was between fast food and grimy buffets. We enjoyed imagining the town historically though.

Back at the motorhome, Caesar was as cool as a cucumber; he’d snoozed the day away happily. This area is not prone to brownouts in the heat as it is the east so we weren’t worried about Caesar frying inside but we left a vent and ceiling fan in case. We hate being encased inside with the AC but it’s impossible to open windows until much later on. We turned off the AC about 2AM and opened all the windows but left a fan running in the bedroom.



Sudden still heat woke us about 5AM. We couldn’t understand it, as that’s usually the time the welcome chill descends. About ten minutes later, a strong wind arose which eventually drew in cooler air. We dozed back off and awoke later to a beautiful cool morning – the heat wave was over and we could now expect normal weather – high 80’s and low 90’s for the next five days. We were overjoyed to finally get a reprieve.


Caesar joined us on a journey to Wyoming’s Devils Tower, a 1,000-foot volcanic columnar extrusion that was used in the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. It was monumental when we stood at its base gazing up at the rope-like columns, imagining the huge thrust of the magma that created this extraordinary formation. Around the base is a 1-½ mile trail circling the tower that winds its way through the pine forest. Chirpy, cheeky little chipmunks scampered all over daring us to catch them. We were able to view Devils Tower from all angles and on the backside, the trail ran right alongside the steep perpendicular columns. Huge long slabs of pillars that had broken away lay at the bottom and put into perspective how massive the tower is.

Four officials dressed in climbing gear, pulling on gloves and helmets as they strode past us were hurrying to aid a novice climber who was stuck on a ledge half way up. Approximately 4,000 people a year attempt the challenging climb up the sheer tower and I think they’re used to rescuing the neophytes.

Along I-90 on our return, a dozen or so cars were pulled over to both sides of the highway and we could see smoke rising from the median between the east and west lanes. We thought a car was on fire but it was the dry grass that was blazing and a couple of dozen people were beating the flames with anything they had available. As they beat them, another burst of fire would spring up increasing the size of the burning area by the minute. Some IDIOT flicking a cigarette butt out their car window apparently caused it. Fire trucks zoomed past us five minutes later – I hope they got it under control.

We loved the cool day – isn’t it amazing that the high 80’s can be called cool but it’s an area of low humidity. If it were humid, it would be stifling. We didn’t need to use the AC and we had a delightful evening.