We take the first Sturgis exit, Junction Ave. and mix with the traffic that is creeping its way to Main Street. Matt is overwhelmed with the sights, sounds, smells, and flesh of the rally, just as we all are our first time.
Everybody wants your gold, and five bucks is the going rate. Women with rubber boobs will pose for a snap shot for a Phoenix ($5). Climb the steps to the top of a tower to photograph the pandemonium and you've lost another $5. It's $5 to park everywhere. Babies not old enough to vote troll the streets in revealing threads with the hopes of you wanting them to pause for a $5 photo. One full day in Sturgis is about all it takes to get your fill.
If you ever go to the Black Hills be sure to ride Iron Mountain Road, 16A. Riding south from Mount Rushmore it will get you to Custer then lean right on U.S. 385 for a nice ride to Deadwood, where Wild Bill Hickok met his demise. Iron Mountain is a lot more exciting than that over-hyped Dragons Tail! It sports a plethora of switchbacks, S-turns, U-turns, corkscrew turns, hairpin turns, and tunnels through the mountain, all the while climbing (or dropping, depending on direction) in elevation. Don't forget, traffic backs up during the rally.
Matt and I get back to the resort just before the rain hits, bringing with it strong winds. Matt is concerned that his tent will blow away so he goes to check, bringing back news that mine has collapsed. The wind snapped one of my fiberglass poles. This particular unit had a vent in the top, so when it fell the water came in to ruin my bedding. After explaining my dilemma to the desk clerk, she rents us a cabin for the night. The morning is filled with plugging quarters into dryers and re-packing all my gear, which burns up precious time. It's late by the time we leave for Devils Tower and the crowd that was in Hulett, Wyoming for "No Panties Wednesday" is heading back to South Dakota. Matt hears a weird noise, so we pit stop at the Kawasaki shop in Belle Fourche, SD. The wrench stops what he's doing to take care of Matts' bike-a chain alignment issue it turns out-and we're on our way in no time. Kudos to Belle Fourche Kawasaki.
We climb Highway 24 to Devils Tower, get the photo, and then retrace our tracks. It's early evening and I do not want to ride at night for 3 reasons. 1.) This is a photo safari: light is good, dark is bad. 2.) An abundance of deer and antelope that has a habit of crossing the road at the spot your scooter owns. 3.) Did I mention too many deer and antelope?
No rooms to be had in Belle Fourche, but there is one room in Brodus, Montana for $60.00 American. SOLD! It's 90 miles and we've got maybe an hour of daylight left if we're lucky. We roll up U.S. 212 and meet what seems to be a lot of traffic, cars, semis, and bikes. Look to our right and there must be 50 antelope grazing in a field. A few miles later, in a field to our left, is another antelope herd.
Matt has his leathers on and I have my Olympia without the insulated liner in. It's getting kinda chilly, but I keep riding, putting off the inevitable, my eyes searching left then right for danger. I finally decide to stop and 25 yards in front of me is a buck fixing to bolt across the road. There are deer everywhere and this is nerve wracking, but we make Brodus without incident. The Brodus Motel has been serving the public since 1919 and it serves us as well.
Except a five-mile section that was being worked on, U.S. 212 is a nice piece of two-lane pavement, developing some attitude as it gains in altitude. We made it as far as Red Lodge, and found a slightly bear-infested campground just two miles outside of town. It seems that trailer campers, feeling safe behind metal walls, left foodstuffs on picnic tables with little or no regard for the folk sleeping behind cloth walls. Precautions were taken by caching our granola bar stash at the office.