On the 7th day of Sturgis

My true love went with me

Hot Springs Spas a swimming!

We got up early and headed down the highway towards Rapid City. Funny how being in the present brings thoughts of the past. As I rode on the back of the harley playing with the GPS, I thought of when Ray took his grand daughter Sierra on a harley ride to Writing on Stone while she played with her Nitendo DS. I also thought of the last time I was at a hot springs pool, once again with my parents during summer vacation. I can still see the ring over the pool you could swing from, the square hot tub in the corner and having to wash little pink shrimp out of our suits. First we stopped by the river to fill water bottles from "Kidney Springs". Then we checked out the public mineral pool but opted for the Mineral Spa with 2 hot tubs and a private pool. How relaxing and entertaining too. Ray the Rock could actually float and we met a several couples from canada, one from St. Albert who works for the forestry dept and know's my friends from Sherwood Park. Talk about a small world, and quite the change from Ray knowing someone anywhere he went. It was my turn! lol

After a long soak we headed to the old school that had been turned into a museum to see the local history and artifacts. 5 floors of household items, clothes, musical intruments and more. It was near closing so we breezed through and then when outside to discover an old cream separator with my maiden name.

That made me think about my family, school teacher parents, summer vacations, trips across canada and the US, and the good old days. Here I was in the same places in the good new days with Ray. We rode back to Rapid City and stopped at a little Japanese restaurant for supper, then with lots of time on our hands, we set the GPS to local rather than major routes and headed to Nemo and drove past a guest ranch, only to turn around and discover a rustic old bar. It was almost empty this night but over the past week it must have been filled with bikers going to and from Sturgis. We stopped for a glass of wine and then headed through Vanocker Canyon.

For a change, there was no race to the hotel for shelter to get out of the rain. It was a beautiful night and we ended up sitting outside the lobby on picnic tables til the wee hours of the morning with a father and 2 sons from Calgary. I forgot to mention, one night while we were huddled under the entrance by the lobby during a cloud burst, we met a gentleman from Denver who was 72 years old and had been coming to Sturgis since 1967, 42 consecutive years, and this was the worst weather he had ever encountered. For us, weather or not, it was the best time we had we had ever encountered, and it wasn't over yet.

On the 6th day of Sturgis

my wallets getting light
but oh the sales were really out of sight!

It may have been the last day of Sturgis but thanksfully not the last day of vacation. It was the last day to take advantage of all the half, third and one fouth off sales!! T-shirts that started the week at $20 each were now 4 or 5 for $20. Even though slim pickings, we found a few good ones. Good thing I stowed away an extra back pack so we could bring back the more than 40 t-shirts that weighed at least 15 lbs and stacked high atop the bike along with our helmets and rain gear. It was nice when we got home no one complained - all I got was this lousy t-shirt - they rocked! After scouring what was left of the sales, Mainstreet was starting to look like a ghost town, as were all the local watering holes for the week but we still stopped in to see the aftermath of 400,000+ bikers that bring 10.5 million dollars to to local economy each year!

We then retraced our steps from the past few days so I could get decent pictures of all the places we had been in better light. Everywhere was pretty empty, but still open, unlike the next day when we found out 1 casino we missed was only open for the week of Sturgis. The Full Throttle was just as impressive in the daylight as it was in the moonlight. Although the Broken Spoke boasted the same sign, i do believe this could be the biggest biker bar in north america!

it was an in door out door bar that was usually absolutely packed, but today, we wandered round and shook our heads at the aftermath. After a ride and a drink and a bite to eat, it was back to the hotel to prepare for our big adventure tomorrow - Hot Springs, SD.