The day had arrived - Sturgis, the focal point of the trip and the opportunity for those of us who met at Long Beach nearly 5 weeks ago to meet up again.
Tracee & I were up early at 6:00am and were just finishing breakfast around 7:00am when Dave and Mary joined us. We decided to head out to Sturgis early to get a park close to the action. Maurie and Evan were heading away to breakfast about the time we were leaving, so they met us out there later. Sturgis is about a half hour ride from Rapid City down Interstate 90/HWY 14.
To put the scale of this event as the Mecca of motorcycling in the USA into context, Sturgis has a population of about 7,000. During rally week this year (being the 70th anniversary) they expect as many as 750,000 bikers to visit.
When we arrived I was doubtful the numbers would be that big - as we pulled into the entrance of Main Street and parked our bikes without any problem. However, after we had wandered around the numerous vendors selling everything from T Shirts, leather goods, bike accessories and tattoos, the bikes just kept pouring in until by about noon all of Main Street and the side streets were chocka with every bike imaginable.
We spent part of the morning at the 'Knuckle Saloon' just people watching - man there are some characters out there! We caught up with Maurie and Evan for lunch and then Dave, Mary, Tracee & I decided to ride out to Deadwood (about 12 miles away down Highway 14A) for the remainder of the afternoon.
Deadwood is famous as the town that claimed Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane as residents. In fact both are buried next to each other in the local cemetary. Deadwood was known as a lawless town run by gunslingers and gamblers. The town got it's name when gold was discovered in a gulch full of dead trees in 1876. Wild Bill Hickock had only been in Deadwood a few weeks when Jack McCall walked in to the Number 10 Saloon and shot Wild Bill in the back of the head at point blank range while he was playing poker. He died instantly and as he slumped forward over the table he was holding a poker hand of aces and eights, hence the expression 'dead man's hand' was born. A rebuilt Number 10 Saloon stands today on the site of the original.
After a walk around Deadwood and a drink in one of the local 'saloons' we rode back to Rapid City for dinner. There is some more great riding ahead of us tomorrow....
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