Rapid City/Sturgis, SD

August 8, 2013

Here we are at the FAMCAMP at Ellsworth AFB, SD, just outside of Rapid City.  It was a short and uneventful trip yesterday.  We saw a bit of the Badlands from the highway, just enough to make us want to see more. Anyway, we set up pretty quickly, so Mike went to the Air and Space Museum on the base, and I just relaxed.

 And it's a good thing I did, because we've been on the go all day today.  What a fun day it's been!

We started out by going to the Bike Week rally in Sturgis, and that was an experience, for sure.  Traffic was crazy (as expected), parking was almost nonexistent (again, as expected), and for the most part, people were patient and friendly (totally unexpected).  I'll be hearing motorcycles in my sleep, I'm sure.  After making our way through town among all the bikes and other traffic, we did finally find a place to park, and walked up and down most of Main Street, checking out the specialty bikes, the souvenirs, and just generally watching some of the goings on.  I know these rallies have earned a bad reputation over the years, but we really didn't see anything but a bunch of people enjoying others' bikes, each other, etc.  It may be totally different at night, but daytime is pretty tame - very touristy.  Believe me, Sturgis puts a lot of effort into holding this rally every year, and they've gotten pretty good at it.  The population is only about 6500 until it swells by the thousands for this one week.

Note:  The "Free Marijuana" sign says below:  Hand Made Hemp Jewelry - just thought I'd point that out......

See what I brought home!

After days traveling the prairie, we were thrilled to enter the Black Hills and see all the beautiful green trees.  We plan to get back there over the next few days at least once.