2025 August 15 - 22 South Dakota
I woke up at 5:00 but just lay in bed and browsed facebook rather than getting up. Most mornings my nose starts running and I start coughing shortly after I wake up and this morning was no exception. Maybe it's because I use a cpap machine to help with sleep apnea. When I start coughing I usually get up so I don't wake up Nannette.
I got up and decided to sit in the hot tub while it was still quiet. I only opened half of the cover and tuned the jets on high. It was heaven to sit there getting my muscles massaged by the hot water and listening to some light rock. I tried to keep the volume down so it didn't wake anyone up. No one threw a shoe at me so I guess it was ok.
I got out after 20 minutes, showered, dressed and went right back to writing this blog.
Breakfast was made by Brenda. It was avocado toast and eggs. I got 2 over easy eggs on mine and it was heavenly. We had a long discussion over breakfast about the nastiness of runny yolk. Only 2 of us like over easy eggs. Everyone else likes dead eggs with rigormortis setting in.
We started talking about soft boiled eggs and why they are so beloved around the world, then I reminded everyone about Gulliver's Travels. The Lilliputians were at war with the Blefuscu over which end of a soft boiled egg should be opened. The pointy end or the rounded end. But the unstated point of the story is that EVERYONE LIKES SOFT BOILED EGGS AND RUNNY YOLKS!!
Anyway, we had a good laugh arguing about eggs for quite a while.
Nan was feeling good today and wanted to ride, so we geared up with everyone else. Today was a simple riding day. We headed south then turned up Spearfish canyon for our 3rd run. It's been everyone's favorite route. We didn't stop anywhere but just meandered up the canyon in the cool air and clear skies.
Once we reached Spearfish, we hopped on the freeway toward Sturgis. I tend to drive slower than everyone else so I wound up well behind. Sturgis has 2 exits and I wasn't sure which one the others had taken. But I knew we wanted pictures by the Sturgis sign and that's by the 2nd exit so I stayed on the freeway. Sure enough, as we passed the stop sign on the exit, there sat the other guys. I honked and Nan waved but no one saw us. I wasn't too worried since everyone has cell phones and the town's not that big.
By the time I took the other exit, John had called to ask where we were. I told him we were by the sign and he said "Stay there, we'll be there in a few minutes". So Nan and I took some pictures with the 360 camera. Then another couple on a bike came by and were just planning to stand by the sign. I showed the how to ride up the sidewalk to sit near the sign and took pictures for them.
John and the rest showed up shortly after and began maneuvering up onto the pedestal for pictures. We talked about trying to get all 4 spyders onto the pedestal but decided against it. We just posed with all the couples around the sign and called it good.
Posing by the Sturgis Sign
Kissing by the Sturgis Sign
Next we rode down to the main road and parked the bikes. It was getting hot by now and doing some shopping in air conditioned stores seemed like a good idea. Everyone had their 2025 shirts, hats, and other souvenirs marked down so almost everyone bought something. Nan was wearing my ancient Harley baseball hat which I bought in 2008. She decided she wanted her own nice hat to wear while we're out with the bike.
Nan found a leather outback style hat that she liked. We asked the lady how much and she thought for a bit and said $40 which is a smoking deal for a real leather hat. At least I hope it's real leather. But we bought it and she's happy. Nan has always looked good in hats.
Nan's new Hat and Sun Glasses
Greg and Brenda bought quite a few t-shirts and other things to bring home to kids and grand kid at the first store where Nan got her hat. We spent about 30 minutes in that first tent then moved on up the street. We kept shopping for another half hour until we reached the store with the official rally photos. We stood as a group in front of the giant photo and tried to make it look like we were part of the crowd.
Part of the Sturgis Crowd
We continued shopping until noon then met back up at the bikes. We had shopped for well over an hour but only covered about 5 stores. Many of the stores were already closed for the season and all of the vendor stalls were torn down and gone. It was getting lunch time and we decided to go to the Iron Horse Saloon.
I led the way to Iron Horse Saloon, but when I pulled into the parking lot, it looked closed. No cars anywhere to be seen and no one visible through the windows. We left and headed back down the street until we saw John. After some discussion we chose The Knuckle Saloon. It was nearly empty so we got a nice table in the middle.
The menu was very sparse but everyone chose something off of it. Nan and I got un-battered steak tips and tater tots but we got fries instead. The Steak Tips were delicious. We were the only ones happy with our choice. Greg ordered some deep fried pickles but missed the fact that they were "hot" pickles and wound up with a bad stomach ache. John and Angela got the chicken sandwich special but found it to small not tasteless. Ron and Karen got a rock hard bun on their chicken sandwich. In all, a really bad meal.
John went outside to get something from his bike and came back warning of black clouds gathering. The weather app showed a bad thunder cell coming over us but it didn't seem very large so we weren't worried (foreshadowing).
Greg's stomach was so bad that they decided to head for the house rather than do any more riding. We said our goodbyes and headed off. Our plan was to ride Vanocker Canyon Road down to Johnson Corner then take highway 385 back. We left Sturgis headed South East toward blue skies but after 5 minutes we began to get light springs. Then it turned into a light rain which continued falling. I kept expecting to ride out of it but we never did.
Rain on Vanocker Canyon
We stopped to put on rain gear, but it wasn't raining hard and the sky ahead looked clear, so we only put on jackets. Except for Nan. She remembered our last trip here and wanted her full gear. She can learn from experience, not so much the rest of us.
We started riding down the road again, but instead of getting lighter, the rain just got heavier. Soon there was water running down the sides of the road and my pants were thoroughly soaked. I kept talking about how wet I was getting and Nan would just reply "I'm fine" cause she had full gear on.
Finally Karen told Ron to STOP and let her put more gear on. So Ron stopped and I followed suit. It only took a few seconds to put my rain pants on and about that time John came back to see where we were. John and Angela decided not to put on more gear because they were already soaked. We also decided to turn around and head back to the house.
The rain continued just as hard once we turned around and continued until we drove out of the canyon when it started to slacken. Finally as we were 5 miles down the road to Deadwood the rain stopped and the sun came out. I looked in my weather app and the big red blob of rain was sitting just West of Rapid City, right where we would have been if we had continued riding. Sometimes (most of the time?) us guys need our wives to say "Stop and turn around" and we should listen to them. I'm sure I've learned my lesson and will never continue pushing a bad decision ever again despite the advice of my wife.
On our way back we drove slowly up Deadwood's main street just to see what was going on. It wasn't packed with people but it looked pretty active. I video taped the drive but I'd forgotten to wipe the lens from all the rain so it's blurry and unusable.
Back at the house everyone started showering and drying off, but all my clothes were dirty, so I drip dried. I wasn't all that wet anyway and within an hour I just had a few damp spots on my jeans and shirt.
I did yet more blog writing, then drove down to the store. My shopping list was, a case of water, diet dr pepper, peanut m&ms, trash bags, gatorade, fat boy ice cream bars, and ice. They didn't have the right gatorade, no fat boys and the ice cream sandwiches looked freezer burned, and I forgot the ice. It wasn't a great shopping trip, so Greg had to make another run later.
Greg cooked burgers for dinner and I cut up a watermelon. Both were awesome.
Greg Cooking Burgers
We played some cards for a while, then John suggested we go for an evening ride. That sounded like fun so I started getting ready, then John remembered that his shoes were still soaking wet and decided not to go. Everyone else dropped out too, but I still wanted to ride and went alone.
I've been experimenting with my 360 camera and my new bluetooth headset. I can record the audio from my headset while I make a video then pair the two. With a 360 video, you can make a normal video while pointing the camera in any direction to create a virtual video. You don't have to pre-point the camera like you do with your phone. So here's the video I made.
Riding Deadwood's Main Street at Dusk
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