Monday, August 3

Today is the day that the Sturges event begins for about the next six days see tens of thousands of people about this area on every sort of bike in every sort of dress, and every shape!

We set off this morning to go to the Devils Tower, and found it was basically on the Road to Sturges so we could drop in to see that and then carry on to see the largest collection of motorbikes in the world.

We got to the Devils Tower the place was packed with motorbikes, we had motorbikes going in all directions going to the tower, we had an ambulance going the opposite direction followed by two motorbikes and about 10 miles later we saw a police car with what looked like a Harley Davison down on what I guess should call the wash, a little bit later we saw another ambulance so I guess with so many bikes in town is inevitable.

It was always considered in the past if you rode a bike you'd buy yourself a set of leathers and usually from Italy. From what we've seen today that is quite old-fashioned and is not even considered, now the clothes you would wear for that moment and it was a hot day and you're female that could be a bikini doesn't matter what the Road will do to you skid along it, perhaps the outlook is if you are not wearing a crash helmet you won't survive anyhow!

With all the bikes are Devils Tower they have cured us from the thought of going into Sturges so we carried on towards South Dakota and the Black Hills. Little later in the day we saw a small motel – campground's we pulled into their paid for a parking space for the night and the proprietor complimented us on our decision not to go into town, she said it is absolutely mad and there, walking the streets you are shoulder to shoulder. We are told that people come in from all around the world and we saw two bikes today with Netherland numberplates, but you sort of expect to see them everywhere.

Tuesday, August 4

 We headed off towards the Crazy Horse Memorial, it is touted as being the world's largest sculpture, I'm sure I read somewhere that the Mount Rushmore Memorial land was claimed by the Sioux Indians and that has been in limbo now for decades, so with their building of the memorial to crazy horse, making it larger and on their land they have to me proved a point and getting lots and lots of visitors for which they charge a fee to enter and they now have a captive audience for all of their souvenirs, no matter what, it is a massive memorial and while worthwhile stopping on the way.

Of course the whole car Park was full of motorbikes of every brand and design and was well worth a while just walking through the bikes to see the wide variety.

The next stop was to the Mount Rushmore Memorial and the four carved heads, it was really just paying an entrance fee, parking the motorhome, walking a few steps to get a clearer view of the sculpture and then on our way again. We decided to drive in further to the park but the Road was winding and very narrow and after a close call with a large Harley Davison we decided to turn round and just at the entrance to the park where a group of people milling around their bikes and I could not help but notice an extremely slim girl dresed in leathers, black of course, with black high heel shoes! I assume she must been a passenger and I also assume should stand out amongst all the other ladies on the back of the bikes.

The next stop was Rapid City and that is quite close to Sturges on what looks like a fast motorway, again the whole city was full of motorbikes and along one of the major roads I think the exhibitors had chosen Rapid City as an overflow exhibition space because we saw a whole lineup of displays along one of the major roads with lots of motorbikes milling about so we were glad we were not on that road.

We found the builders supply shop called Lowe's and they always have a free Internet signal so we downloaded our emails, then went and had a look at Walmart and they had large signs saying no overnight parking, so we decided to move on towards the Black Hills so got on Highway 90 and very soon we started seeing roadside signs talking of Wall Drug offering a glass of ice cold water or a cup of coffee for five cents and lots and lots of other things which ended turning a small little drug shop in 1936 into a town sized business with thousands of people stopping there every year. We ourselves decided to stop and took the last camping spot with no services that they had in the basic campground.

Wednesday, August 5

We set out early this morning to go through the Badlands Park, the first Road we saw was a drive around what they called the crater rim and it was a narrow shingle Road so we drove down there got a few photographs and at the first decent parking site to the U-turn and back the tar sealed Road.

We then drove on the scenic by way route 240 and there was certainly some amazing sites the results of the weather on the ocean floor that had been thrust up what must've been several hundred feet or more from under the sea some several thousand years ago but it certainly made a lot of interesting photographs.

We then drove back to Custer Park to drive through the scenic route with the hope of seeing some of the animals of the park and we did see some buffalo off in the distance, and some donkeys who have worked out where they get treats, we saw several galloping towards the crowds that had collected on the side of the Road and within walking amongst the admirers as if they had been doing it all their lives.

We did see many deer and goats in the natural habitat and it was around this time we discovered we had what has become a yearly problem, first the water pump in the motor went in China, last year the house water pump went on the Trek twice and this year it has ceased to work which means although we have plenty of nice freshwater we can't use any of it!

So we headed for Rapid City a place that had many RV garages and one in particular which was a Cruise America agency they called themselves Black Hills RV Centre, the GPS took us right to their location and we parked out the back, they had on the front a petrol station so I walked forward to see when the service centre opened, and the people there told me that they owned it and then the guy who I feel must been suffering from constipation told me he could not look at my RV for at least 14 days and in any case he did not have a spare pump and then went on serving some people in the shop that wanted to buy sweets.

We parked out the back alongside two of the cruise America rental vehicles and then we had to visitors, one the wife who said under no conditions could we Park there overnight, followed by Mr constipation who went through exactly the same story, so much for the friendly American who will help somebody in distress, they probably have never heard that story in Wyoming. So we had to leave the spot in the dark, in the rain and went back to a campground close by to a campground that was obviously profiting from the Sturges motorbike event.

Thursday, August 6
Today we headed for Sioux City, possibly the closest location that we will be able to get service done to our RV, some 350 miles away, on the long drive we kept on searching for RV repair stations and reach the conclusion that there's not much in South Dakota. On the way we stopped off at 1880 town a town that was established in 1969 as the result of a movie set that wanted an authentic 1880s Street and was rather interesting walking through it seeing all of the items that they have collected from the era to make it all more interesting, then we moved on and we stopped for the night a campground near Chamberlain where we can hook up to the town supply water which bypasses the pump so at least we can wash!

Friday 7th of August

Was nice having unlimited water last night and this morning but all good things must come to an end so we disconnected from the town supply and started heading towards Sioux City.

After we had got on the main motorway I 90 E. we saw a road side sign for Goo's RV sales and as this was on the correct side of Sioux City we set our GPS for that.

We are still getting motorbikes passing us from Sturges, pickups with motorbikes on the back, pickups pulling trailers with motorbikes and large 50 foot motorhomes pulling 20 foot covered trailers again I would guess with motorbikes, so you got all levels of people going to Sturges, some and 50 foot motorhomes and may ride their polished Harley Davison from the campground into town decked out probably in the most expensive motorbike gear that got than the others that have biked from across the country but they all have one thing almost in common almost all of them are not wearing a crash helmet.

We saw some Australians the other day they had motorbikes and a car were obviously touring around again they weren't wearing crash helmets and a Canadian I saw the other day was not wearing crash helmet but he had one in his bag for when he crossed the border.

We eventually got to Goo's to be told they could not help us, we found out later the reason was all of their staff was at Sturges however they had a good supply shop and a choice of at least three pumps so I asked if I could stay in the forecourt and change the pump and the woman in the shop was not terribly bright and said as long as we don't get busy and I said well can I stay until you do and she thought about that and thought it would be probably okay. So I went out the motorhome and decided I had to pull the pump out but to do that I had to dump all the water, so back I went in to Miss Brightness and asked it would be okay to dump my freshwater tank on their forecourt and she thought about this for quite a little bit and I hasten to add that is just like rain, she says I've never been asked that before but I suppose it will be okay. I thanked her sincerely.

The dumping tap did not work so we got our water hose under the connection held the hose over the outlet pipe and got rid of the water that way, the pump came out quite easy, took it in and got one that was closed to it, fitted it back in, connected up the wires, and the pump worked now all we needed was some water but they had no facilities for that, they had about 50 5th wheels there for sale, some extremely expensive, I wonder if they have to do what we did and drive 7 miles to a trucking station to fill up with water but nevertheless I thanked Miss Brightness, drew her attention to the fact that we had not made a mess in the forecourt and we were on our way to the trucking station. There we filled up with water and set on the main road to Edina.

When we got to Luverne we saw a sign to a motorcamp and follow the signs until we got to Magnolia where they had a town park with provision for RVs and even though they were wanting $10 a night we decided to stay.

At the motorcamp there was a very old RV sitting about five spaces from us, the owner was obviously working on the machine so I wandered down to have a chat, the first thing I noticed was a flag for the Marines, then the guy that was working on the RV was black, we had quite a long chat, he told me of being born in Alabama and growing up during the civil unrest period, of enrolling in the Marines when you are 16 and lying about is age, being in the Marines during the Vietnam period but not making at there and its troubled life since a lot he put down to the colour of the skin.

He come to South Dakota to work in the oil fields, then the price of oil fell through the floor so there was no work, of buying his 20-year-old motorhome for $2500 and being told there are only done 58,000 miles, and then the whole motor collapsing on a few weeks later, of having no money and not being able to beg for some on the street because of the city bylaw.......... yes America is the land of opportunity, for some.

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