8-2-10 from Billings Mt. to Sturgis SD where we stayed an extra day.

Up early to ride to Sturgis SD today, but we gotta get outta Montana first.......this is a big state!  Purty too, but now we are into the prairie part of it.  Not so much to see.....oh well, any day on a Harley is a good day or so says my bro Wally. 

Made it to the edge of Montana and crossed over to Wyoming......still prairie land, just look at that scenery behind Lynda Lu and I..........bla.

We keep on riding.........South Dakota has to be around here somewhere, right? 

RIGHT!!  We made it to the border of South Dakota and as you can see from the scenery behind us, it's getting a little more interesting.  But this ain't nothing......I wanna see our friend Peggy's front yard, that's gonna be beautiful to us!! 

Here we are at Peggy's front yard in Sturgis!!  YEA!!  No ones home but as her custom when she knows your coming, the note was on the front door telling us which room is ours.  She usually has a full house for the rally but remember we are here a week early.  The house is empty and I've never seen it that way.  It will be nice to spend some quality time with her. 

8-3-10

We are up early with anticipation of riding our favorite ride.  Needles Hwy, down to Custer Park Wildlife Loop, up Iron Mountain Rd to twirl down Pigtail Bridge over by Mt.Rushmore.  YEE HAW!!  I'm riding with Rooster today and Lynda Lu is going to take off on her own to maybe get to meet up with friends in Lead.

But Mother Nature is screwing with us a little.  We wait out the clouds and decide to go for it.  Lynda Lu stayed behind a little longer but she took off for her own adventure too.

Needles Hwy, if you've been there you know it's truly like threading a needle to ride this road.  Soo fun!

Do you see any dark clouds?  Me neither.......but they are forming in the distance......

I was looking for a white fox tail......had to come to Sturgis to find it.  This is Bruce and Cupcake.  The vendors I bought my white fox tail from......guess where they are from........Maypearl, TEXAS!  Big B's Leather in big downtown Maypearl, TEXAS!!  How funny is that.  213 N. Main St. to be exact.  Y'all go by and see them sometime.  We promised we would when we get a chance back home.  Very Nice Folks!! 

Now tell the truth.......in a car this is not THAT scary..........on a motorcycle there are two different emotions that happen all at once........FEAR and EXCITEMENT!!  Bring it on!!!  By the way, it means 5 mph, not 6!!

Can you see it............look again.......the engineers that blasted this tunnel oh so many years ago knew what they were doing........it's a perfect frame of Mt. Rushmore!  There are two tunnels like this on Iron Mountain Rd but you have to be going up from Custer's Park to see it from this angle.  Cool, huh?

And there they are in the clearing along the road.  This is just before we got to Pigtail Bridge.  I did not get a pic of the Bridge, it's hard to take a pic of something like that.  You can find it on the Internet tho, just Google Pigtail Bridge in South Dakota.  It's really an amazing sight when all the bikes are there going up and down at the same time.  Like a beautiful dance.

Now this part of the story is going to short and not so sweet.......after we came down off Pigtail Bridge we wanted to scoot over to Deadwood and gamble a little but remember those dark clouds........um hu......yep they were THERE!!  Black, Green, Purple UGLY!!  We turned around, headed back to Rapid City.....didn't make it..... the rain came, the wind gushing and we ran for cover!  Into an RV Park gift shop with a couple of other bikers.  Now I'm thinking......ouch, Lynda Lu is out in the heart of that.  Phone service sucks in the mountains.  I called anyway, left a message.  Before long I get a call, "Rosey, write this down, I'm on a pay phone, call me back!"....  When I called she was in Spearfish, caught in HAIL!!  Safely sitting at a bar with a few other Guys that were caught too.  She had already decided to stay the night if need be.  Main thing, everyone is ok.  We had folks coming in with reports of so much pea size hail in Deadwood that they brought out the snowplows to get it off the roads.  We all ended up safely back in Sturgis to buy our token shirt so we can say, been there, done that, got the shirt.

Time to say Goodbye.......=(

Peggy and Fielding were so good to us.......they always are.  Rooster loved the Rhubarb pie she made for us in 2007 when we were there, he bragged about it to everyone.  When I told Peggy that, she waited till we went to bed, then gathered Rhubarb from a friends garden, baked 4 small pies and 1 large Strawberry Rhubarb pies so Rooster and Lynda Lu could have them for breakfast!  Fielding made steaks on the grill for everyone that night. Yummy.......you sure don't go hungry around here.  Then on our last morning Peggy made french toast for us!  I waddled away.........she does make it seem like coming home each time we stop in.  Wish it was more often my dear sweet friend.  I tell folks about her but no matter how much I sing her praises, I still undersell her.  She's AWESOME!! 

Come to TEXAS Peggy, I love you girl!!...........SQUISH............aka a Hug.

Big Texas Hugs

Rosey, Rooster and Lynda Lu

By the way, if you click on any pic it will enlarge it for you.  Enjoy!

Left Canada 8-1-10 heading for Billings, MT before on to Sturgis.

We left Canada headed for Billings, MT for our stop for the night.  Just wanna get to Sturgis so we can ride in the Black Hills for a day and visit with our good friend Peggy and Fielding. 

We do have one special place in mind to visit along the way......Custer's Last Stand. 

General Custer's body is burried within just a few feet of this marker

White markers for Soldiers.  These indicate the actual place they found the body.  And the name of the Soldier is on the maker.

The horses even have gaves here.

Its quite humbling to walk amongst this vast area of history and think of how it must have looked back then with hundreds of Indians and Soldiers on that battlefield. 

Red markers for Warriors.  Again with the name and placed where the body was found.

The Indians have a much more interesting memorial monumnet than the boring white man. 

We left there mid-morning to ride in beautiful weather for the entire day.......till we had to out run that rain again.  Rained on us for a short time before we got into Billings for the evening, but we don't float and we don't melt so everything was A-OK.  Was nice to eat, shower and rest up for our trip to Sturgis.........Pre-rally Sturgis, this will be interesting. 

I will post those pics as soon as I can.

Big Texas Hugs
Rosey, Rooster and Lynda Lu

Bye Bye Canada, Hello USA!!

Rained so hard last night that the thunder almost shook us out of bed......scarey.  Wet bikes, wet roads but BLUE SKY'S, YEA!!  Time to head back to the USA.....but before we leave Canada we must take a pic of the Canola Fields......amazing color of yellow that go forever and then another field and another.  I smell them before I see them.  Fabulous!

We had to pick some to bring with us......just one for Rosey and one for Lynda Lu........put mine in the saddlebag and Lynda Lu put hers in a slot behind backrest.  Then when we went thru customs at the border they saw hers and made her give it up.......I actually had forgotten about mine till she told me they took hers.  No matter, mine is so wilted it's garbage now too.

This house was in the middle of the field way off the road.  Rooster had to use his Zoom lens just to get this close for a pic.  What a way of life. 








Once we hit the USA again we had nothing but prairie land to look at as we rode along.  Very boring but I started to notice to fields of wheat and maze growing.  It may not be as vibrant in color as Canola but there's a lot of it being grown here. 

We had perfect weather for most of the day.  Once we saw a Thunder Boomer in the far distance to the right of us and it was coming our way.......we out ran that one.  Then we saw another and decided to ride thru it without suiting up in raingear and that was a good call, in and out in no time, barely got wet.  Then just as we were on our last little bit of the trip to Billings, we turned toward a Thunder Boomer that we knew was gonna get us forsure.  We pulled over to suit up, but just partially because we could see blue under it.  I decided to not put my helmet on.........Bad Bad BAD call.........gusting winds 40 to 50 mph with HUGE rain drops pounding on my head and ear so hard I thought for a minute it was hail.  Rooster was scrunched to one side of his bike where he found a sweet spot, no rain hitting his face at all and Lynda Lu had on her full face helmet listening to Brad Paisley sing "Rain is a good thing". 

Pulled into Billings with  the sun shining and we are now safe in our hotel room, fed, showered and ready for beddy bye.  Sturgis tomorrow!!  Yea!  It's the week before the rally so this will be a first for us all.  Will be nice to enjoy the Black Hills without all the crazy riders.  Can't wait to see my best friend in Sturgis, Peggy!!   I'm gonna give her a big Squish!! (aka hug) =)

Big Texas Hugs,
Rosey, Rooster and Lynda Lu