Our route today ended at the town, Americans call it a city, of Keystone, SD. We had thought about going to Sundance but gave it a miss to add another 40 miles to the days mileage.
We decided last night to go to The Devil's Tower. It was in the direction we were going in and it would, as I wrote above, add another 40 miles to the journey today but that didn't matter.
We set off a little earlier and I was going to buy some 'gas' but the price in Buffalo was $3.13 a gallon (USA gallons are 6 pints, not 8) regardless of the gas station and I'd seen it cheaper that that. We had half a tank which was enough for the day. I pulled off just after Gillette,WY, (look it up, it's real) and filled up at $2.92 a gallon – seems like the same rip-off happens over here as it does in the UK. Anyway, we noticed that there was an increase in the number of bikers and not just ones or two. This was in fours and fives and quite frequent! We wondered what was going on. Well, we had heard that there was some sort of motorbike rally in Sturgis, SD, but hadn't really thought about it much, until now.
We pulled off I90 and headed north up to the Devil's Tower. Again there was an increasing number of bikers. These were not young men with nasty grubby machines that looked like a good wash wouldn't hurt them and that applied to both machine, men and women! They were principally in their late 40s, 50s and 60s. The majority had leather wear on but more common were the grey beards, glasses, jeans and a 'chick' – probably wife or current partner – on the back. These were no hoodlums. What was interesting even more so was the lack of helmet wearing.
The landscape changed from scrub land to pastoral. The hills were much more rolling, there was green grass that didn't look as if it had been watered by anything other than rain; differing varieties of trees, not just different pines. And then thrusting out of this landscape was a huge upthrust of rock. It was so incongruous in the setting. There was a scenic pullout which we pulled into and took some pictures. Off we headed again and now the bikers were beginning to swarm like bees around honey pots; they were more numerous than cars. It's difficult to describe to someone in the UK what it was like but believe you me, this wasn't just one or two, this was forty or fifty we were seeing. The closer to the monument the more there were. All were very respectful of the law, no breaking of speed limits; staying in lanes; not swerving between cars; they were behaving themselves and acting as responsible citizens.
We pulled into the parking lot at the monument, the USA's first national monument, and got out. The air was scented heavily with ponderosa pine and the day was beautifully hot. The Devil's Tower is a massive volcanic plug that has been left after the surrounding rock has weathered away. It's one of those that you hurt your neck looking up at it. It's made of basalt and where it cooled the rock has crystallised into hexagonal columns. They are massive. It was spectacular to walk around the base and see the different aspects of it. There were climbers trying to get up it. We saw at least four groups. The sides of this thing start out shallow and quickly slope upwards and then are vertical. Goodness knows how you get to the top other than climb. Someone did do a parachute drop onto it!
Surprise, surprise there were plenty of bikers here too! There were even parking bays put aside for them. Obviously they were expected. After an hour and half we started back down and stopped off at the stores near the entrance to the monument. There were many, many more bikers now. At a guess there must have been easily 200 and they were catered for. Now we noticed marquees that had been set up selling biker orientated goods. All were friendly and there was a great camaraderie amongst them.
As we headed out of the monument area we spotted some prairie dogs and pulled over. They are pests in the wrong place but in the right place, here, they are so cute. Rather like meercats they stand up on their hind legs. There was a couple boxing and another pair just standing looking around.
Off we headed to our next stop. In this case we thought some food and a coffee were in order. Just at the state border, Spearfish, we pulled in and picked up some vittals which we ate at a rest area a few miles down the interstate.
Our next stop, which you'll notice I've not mentioned 'till now, was Deadwood; yes, that one of Calamity Jane and Wild West fame.
The number of bikers had decreased however...
Just as we hit the outskirts there were two lots of bikini clad, mostly well figured and endowed, young ladies offering to clean cars! I nearly drove into the kerb in surprise as I thought it was the sort of thing one only saw in the movies or tv series.
On entering Deadwood it was like entering Biker City. There were bikers of all types, shapes and designs- mostly Harley-Davidsons. Some were obviously showing off by riding up and down the main drag; the bikers were on the sidewalks and all were very amiable and although there were obviously drinking there wasn't anything nasty. The noise was slightly overwhelming from some of the motorbikes. A point to note in differences in language what we call a multi-storey car park, here in the USA is called a parking ramp. We parked in a parking ramp and went for a walk. It was sight to behold – down one side of the street was a continuous line of parallel parked bikes. The shine of the chrome and stainless steel; the coloured windshields; large panniers; small panniers; seats of leather; seats covered in fleece; bikes with long handlebars; most were short. The clothes were much as described before except there were a few woman wearing bikini tops and a few who shouldn't have been wearing them. There was even a naked biker, riding his bike along the main drag I might add with his partner, female and fully clothed, sitting behind him.
We ended up in the Adams Museum giving a good run down of the history of Deadwood. It's worth looking at website as the picture showing the main street is quite different from the way we saw it. The town itself has been revived and restored. The architecture was fascinating and worth looking at.
After about an hour and half we decided that our ears needed some quiet. The satnav helped us out of the town and set us on the right track.
We had discovered in the information centre about the bikers. The nearby town of Sturgis has been holding a bike rally since 1938 and it has grown. It seems that several hundred thousand bikers descend on the town and surrounding area. Again, it's worth a look at the website as it's the town that runs the event. As we headed for Keystone we saw any number of bikers; groups of them; long tails of them; sometimes there was the odd individual but mostly in groups and mostly men but there was one or two women bikers; they were on both sides of the road; slowly the numbers decreased until...
We reached Keystone where it was like a miniature version of Deadwood regarding bikers. However I wanted to know where Cary Grant and Eve Saint Marie were in 'North By North West' when they were here for this is where the climax of the film takes place. Well, it's at the Mount Rushmore memorial nearby but some of the action took place here! It's been a superb day with the weather, scenery and the bikers!
Tomorrow it's Mount Rushmore and the Wind Caves.
