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!