Our third day of the Sturgis trip
started with a cool, crisp yet sunny morning. We prepared for a ½
days ride with normal checks of our bikes and gear, a full tank of
gas and a full belly of food. The parking lot of the motel was full
of bikes, all headed in the same direction. Most people were moving
about and doing the same preparations as we were making. A lot of
people going to the same “mecca” for different reasons.
We jumped on the Interstate and joined
the makeshift parade of bikes and bikers headed west. Different
people like to ride differently, those who ride right around the
speed limit, those you go just enough over it to not be bothered by
the law and those you ride fast. We spent most of our trip in the
middle group, just fast enough to not be granny lane gurus, but slow
enough that when we did see a cop they wouldn't give us a second look
due to speed.
The trip across South Dakota is an
interesting journey, the landscape starts with prairies of
grasslands, wide spread and goes for as far as the eye can see. We
stopped once to enjoy the view, a herd of white cattle in the near by
field. Other bikers also stopped at the same road side pull-off to
enjoy the view and take a break. At 70+ mph it can take a beating on
the body if you don't take breaks every so often.
The second landscape one comes across
is the almost moon like badlands. A white and greyish base of what
looks like dried clay. Grasses grow on top of some of the mounds
with multiple greens and tans going up in layers. The sun glistens
off the white and is soaked in by the tans and greens at the top.
Our route took us through the badlands national park in this area, it
is a well worth side trip. Many photo opportunities with the
landscape and a few spots to pull off take a break and walk into this
amazing area. You can climb some of the mounds, just watch out for
the heat of the afternoon and ensure you have good footing, it can be
slippery even though it doesn't appear to be.
Towards the end of our ride we entered
the black hills, rolling hills some can be quite high but all covered
with pine trees. If you've seen the show Ponderosa it almost seems
that you are on the set in this lush green landscape.
The roads in this state were just
amazing, very smooth and easy to ride. I can't recall many rough
spots if any during our trip through South Dakota. When they do road
work they closed just the area they were working on and not 5 miles
for a 100foot construction area. I guess it could have been done
that way due to the amount of traffic they expect those two weeks,
but for whatever the reason is sure was nice. We expected a ton of
traffic with the jams to go along with it, we experienced just a
slight backup getting off the interstate at Sturgis. Luckily we were
not heading into town right then as we all were staying in near by
towns. We stayed in a beautiful little mining town of Lead. It
still amazes me that the nice people in this area open their homes to
rent rooms to the bikers. Our host couple gave us a room, full bath,
use of the entire house to include washer/dryer, garage and a garage
door opener included in the decent rental price.
We unpacked and met our friends in
Deadwood to get some dinner and hang out resting our weary butts and
minds from the last 2.5 days of travel. We expected to get much more
riding in around the local area over the next 5 days, stories of
those adventures will come soon.
Sometimes a biker has to have a
destination in mind, however most bikes I know will enjoy the ride,
stop when the feeling hits them and explore some of the areas when
they choose to stop. A car driver usually stops for convenience
where as the biker mind usually choose the stop which may look more
interesting.
