Featured Sturgis Trip On My (non) Triumph

Day #5: Spearfish Canyon ride in the morning and Deadwood again in the afternoon

Today Mr. Sandi, Larry, and I decided to do the famous Spearfish Canyon ride. It was feckin' GORGEOUS! I could ride that route every week for the rest of my riding days. We rode it out and back then stopped for a fantastic bison burger (leaner and less cholesterol than chicken we were informed) and a soda at Cheyenne Crossing. We so enjoyed our time in Deadwood yesterday that when we got back from riding Spearfish Canyon we took the hotel shuttle back there for the afternoon and evening. Here's our ride map followed by Spearfish Canyon photos (where's that GoPro when ya really want it?) and more Deadwood photos. There will be additional photos of adult beverages and accompanying solid sustenance in the "What you drinking tonight?" thread too.












I do have to say, it was ALWAYS easy to find my big, orange bike!

 

Day #5 continued: Deadwood in the afternoon by shuttle--so damn the torpedos and drink with impunity!

Hey, there was a Dilli sighting at Cheyenne Crossing!



More Deadwood fun.....

The Deadwood Tobacco Co. We missed this on our first pass through in town. It was down in the basement sort of hidden away. Who need perfume when you can sniff cigar tobacco?! What a heavenly scent.





Took these next two pics for my UK buddies on Main Street in Deadwood!





The "pool" at the coolest hotel in Deadwood. We'd stay here next time around...if we could get a deal. And, maybe.....



that's a possibility. We ran into a guy in the elevator of this hotel who had a DOBER vest on. To give you the quick and dirty, the DOBER's are a group of guys--sort of a "secret" society that my hubby belongs to. Mostly about the "secret decoder ring" made by a company called Night Rider Jewelry that's based in Phoenix, AZ.



Anyway, this old guy had ridden to Sturgis from Tennessee for the umpteenth time. Turns out he's sort of a fixture at the rally. Well, he took me by the hand and told the three of us to "come with me". He led us to his room--along with his roommate--to check out his stash of unbelievable and rare Tennessee whiskey. I thought of you, Dilli! The best JD they make and more. His roomie was a clinical psychologist so we teased him that he was in the presence of three psychologists and a psychiatrist (our buddy, Larry, is the MD psychiatrist). Probably not a coincidence that this TN guy was surrounded. He "may" have needed therapy. He said that he's known as "the President of Sturgis". What a hoot! We actually ran into his roommate, the clinical psychologist, a couple of days later, at the Stinger Saloon. Photos of that day to follow. The Stinger Saloon was in the background of the photos I posted of the Triumph Rocket III's on Sturgis Main Street. Check out the "What you drinking tonight?" thread for several more pics from our Day #5 adventures!

 

[/QUOTE] The "pool" at the coolest hotel in Deadwood. We'd stay here next time around...if we could get a deal. And, maybe....that's a possibility. We ran into a guy in the elevator of this hotel who had a DOBER vest on. To give you the quick and dirty, the DOBER's are a group of guys--sort of a "secret" society that my hubby belongs to. Mostly about the "secret decoder ring" made by a company called Night Rider Jewelry that's based in Phoenix, AZ.[/QUOTE]

Oh, DOBER stands for Dirty Old Bastards Enjoying Retirement (or Riding)

 

Oh, DOBER stands for Dirty Old Bastards Enjoying Retirement (or Riding)[/QUOTE]

What they stand for and the work they do I cannot fault Sandi but it would be remise of me not to point this out https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dober [/QUOTE]


That is hilarious, Helmet Visor! Can't wait to share that tidbit with Mr. Sandi.

 

Day #6: Lead to Rapid City, SD via Spearfish Canyon

Today Mr. Sandi, Larry, and I decided to ride to Rapid City, South Dakota taking the "long way 'round" via Spearfish Canyon. We had been regaled with stories of how big the Harley-Davidson dealership there is and also had been told about the "circus tent" with vast numbers of used and new motorcycles for sale. Here's the ride map of Day #6. You can certainly see what I mean by the "long" route. As I've said, I could ride Spearfish Canyon every week for the rest of my riding days!



Although I'm not a fan of the interstate, known as "The Slab" by some here in the U.S, I-90 was rather nice. It was good to be able to see for a distance and get the big picture of the Black Hills. Many other smaller roads in the Black Hills are through forests where you can't see very far. But I-90 is more open and has larger vistas. We checked out online map apps to see what exit to take for Black Hills Harley-Davidson but really all we had to do was follow the stream of bikes which took us right there. They have clearly done this deal before! Organizationally it was amazing--they had folks direct traffic all the way around the property up to and including directing us to the exact parking spot they wanted us in. And good thing....the parking lot was huge! Again, thanks to my "hi-viz" orange bike, we weren't too worried about finding our bikes once we had seen the dealership and vendor area. Black Hills Harley-Davidson was where the bulk of the big vendors were set up. I figured they would be in Sturgis itself but that venue seemed to have smaller versions of "the big boys" who were located here. I'm sure it was a space thing. You could pretty much ride your bike to any one of a number of vendors and have mods done to your bike on the spot. For example, you could buy a new exhaust system at Vance & Hines, ride your bike to their area, and they'd pull off and discard (if you wished) your stock system and install your new system right there. Same with suspension, seats, you name it. It was like a motorcyclists candy store (to me anyway)! I did splurge on one item--a decorative part from KlockWerks that ties in my windshield with my fairing and matches other parts on my bike (grips, floorboards, air clean cover etc.) And I got the "rally discount" plus free installation.

Black Hills Harley-Davidson is huge! The building itself housed only parts and motor clothes. All their new and used bikes were under a very, very large tent. In the week and a half of the rally up to the day we were there, they had sold 430 bikes, both new and used. Their sales goal for two weeks (so four more days) was 700! Every time they sold a bike, someone wrote the number of that sale and posted it on the wall you see in the photo below. I suspect they met that goal based on what we saw. Bikes were selling like hotcakes. Interesting since most folks at the rally rode there on a bike--guess there must have been lots of trades happening. Here are some photos.







In addition to all the motorcycles for sale and the other related goodies available, there were some fun food options. Not necessarily on the "health food" list, but when you're at a motorcycle rally, health food is not at the top of the list!



The food vendors even had examples of items on display so you could see what the potato chips, pulled pork sandwiches, and other offerings looked like prior to ordering them.



Our ride from Rapid City back to the Blackstone Lodge in Lead was relaxed and delightful and we opted for the lovely hotel shuttle to hit the "Boar's Nest" for drinks and dinner after freshening up in our hotel room. Once again, I was thankful that I WASN'T CAMPING!! Gotta love those hot showers and "real" bathrooms. See my next post for the rest of Day #6 as well as the thread "What you drinking tonight?" for this evenings adult beverage selections.

 

Day #6 continued: An evening at The Boar's Nest

When we got back to our hotel from our ride to Rapid City, we attempted to connect with our two other camping ride buddies and meet up at a place they recommended that was close to their campground, The Boar's Nest. Turns our they were far afield and never did get back to the campground until close to 10:00PM. We were safely tucked into our comfy hotel beds by then. But the Boar's Nest was a great recommendation! And once again our trusty hotel shuttle driver happily drove us there then came back to pick us up when after we ate and drank to our heart's content. Several beers later, no need to ride the bikes back to our hotel.







The women's bathroom at The Boar's Nest



And a "unique" Yamaha in The Boar's Nest parking lot



Back home at the Blackstone Lodge. Here's where our trusty steeds slept at night. The staff at the hotel were very kind and allowed us to park our motorcycles under the covered entrance area throughout the week. We lucked out and usually there were spaces available in this area vs. parking in the back of the hotel out in the elements.



To see what the evenings adult beverages at The Boar's Nest were, check out the thread "What you drinking tonight?"

 

You're welcome, Bikerman! I'm enjoying sharing about our Sturgis adventures. The only difficult part is deciding what adventures and photos to share! There were so many. Yep, I agree with @Dozers Dad that this is the best forum on the net. At least the best one I'm aware of!

 

Day #7: Lead to Sturgis and back (on the bikes today)

We had a nice, leisurely breakfast in the Blackstone Lodge then decided we'd ride over to Sturgis via a route we'd not yet been taken. Yep, looks flat on this map but it was anything but! A beautiful twisty and hilly ride on a gorgeous sunny day in the Black Hills with my beloved and our good friend. Life doesn't get much better than that!



The guys that we rode to South Dakota with---the ones who are CAMPING! ---did several of the iconic SturgisBlack Hills rides during the four days that we were here. But Mr. Sandi, Larry, and I agreed that we really wanted to see the people, bikes, and towns of the rally. Plus those guys didn't get out the door 'til about 11:00am or so each day. So while they rode to a bar in Montana today, we noodled over to Sturgis and hung out. I suspect that Mr. Sandi and Larry saw enough of Sturgis when we were there a few days ago but....not me!

We rode into Sturgis on a street called Lazelle which parallels Main Street one block away. This street has all the big Sturgis vendors. Harley-Davidson demo trucks and fleet, the big Indian vendor area, Vance & Hines, Rinehart, etc. One of the first vendors we saw as we came into town was a Dunlop Tires vendor so we stopped in to see if they would kindly check and adjust our tire pressure. The guy that we talked to was happy to oblige and was delightful and interesting. We'd heard horror stories about finding a place to park in the town of Sturgis but we parked on the side street right next to the Dunlop vendor. Easy-peasy.

We arrived in Sturgis mid-morning so relatively speaking it was still pretty quiet when we got there. Here's a photo from a set of stairs with a platform at the top that was set up at one end of Main Street. You could pay $5 to climb up to the platform with your camera for photos and video. I was a bit annoyed to pay but when I asked what the deal was, the gal taking my money said that the group sponsoring the "photo stairway" was raising money for Sturgis kids (e.g., building a skate park, school field trips). So I gave her $10. Here's a pic from "on high". I'd say Main Street stretched approximately five to six blocks with this sort of motorcycle only parking. Later in the day the whole street was pretty much packed with all parking places spoken for and the street itself filled with riders.



Photos along Main Street.......

Thi first one is for Dilli! There were LOTS of Jack Daniels "pop up" establishments around town. Imagine that!




You could get body painted inside One-Eyed Jack's. I opted to stick with the two very tasteful tattoos on my left arm....and my shirt.



Even the Hell's Angels (San Bernadino Chapter) had a "pop up" vendor area. And they have some nice stuff! Black leather vests with the nicest red lining. Quiz for the day: Anyone know the Hell's Angels they use the number "81"??



Is it an automobile? Is it a motorcycle? Perhaps it's an autocycle!



This is NOT your grandchild's tricycle



The Indian vendor area on Lazelle Street



where I took up the fine sport of flat track racing!



Day #7 in Sturgis continued in my next post.......

 

Day #7: Lead to Sturgis and back continued

We ran into some more DOBERS while in Sturgis today. Well, we went to The Stinger Saloon on Main Street which I believe is owned by the guy that started the group. So it wasn't exactly a coincidence that we ran into some DOBERS.

This first photo is one that I already posted because of the Triumph Rocket III. This time I'm posting it so you can see the exterior of The Stinger Saloon as the pics to follow were taken inside the bar.



We actually ran into the clinical psychologist that we met in the Tennessee DOBER whiskey collector's hotel room a few days ago. He was concluding his rally with the intent of moving to Portland in a week or two. Lots of "rambling' souls" at this rally it seems.



And look who else wandered in to The Stinger Saloon. She must really like M & M's! Everyone else in the bar sure seemed to.





And last but not least, the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum.

 

Hmmm, well without The Google, and apart from from some guessing, I will have to "consult my sources", DD. I'm stumped. Nothing like a good puzzle, though and a bit of research to keep one's brain engaged!