Chow line at Sturgis High

August 04, 2008

Regina Rose

Debbie Ingram shares a crowd shot from the breakfast chow line at Sturgis High School.

Sturgis photos from Sunday

Whitney McHugh

Here are photos Debbie took on Sunday at Sturgis. Had some technical difficulties with the cell phone yesterday.

Sorry about that Debbie.

Debbie wearing Ed Hardy sunglasses.

Spearfish Canyon

Dead Wood, South Dakota

Hill City

Early morning at Sturgis

Regina Rose

Debbie Ingram shares a photo of morning at camp Sturgis.

This South Dakota is one clean state

Debbie Ingram

When I find a piece of trash along the roadside, at a park or anywhere except IN THE TRASH, I will photograph it.

This is the cleanest state, folks. Now, I know, anybody with any sense wants to have things looking nice for a few hundred thousand friends to come visit, but even the crowds are either not creating the trash or it is quickly picked up.

“I don’t even see any litter warning signs,” I said to the husband yesterday as we rode through Spearfish Canyon.

No ‘You will be fined $100 for littering’ signs. Nothing like that, but plenty of Adopt-A-Highway signs. It is clean here and it speaks well of the people. I guess they are of the Scandinavian, German, western European type who settled here. Even on the train ride through the countryside, we saw what could have been the homestead of one South Alabamian. It looked like a small junk yard. It was only one.

Speaking of junk, we’ve seen a few odd displays around. On the train route, a landowner has a small mountain of discarded cash registers. The train folks point it out but can’t explain it. Makes perfect sense to me. It is an artistic expression of tourism dollars. I love it.

Then in Keystone in the front yard of a business was a pile, probably 20 feet up, of push mowers. That’s mostly red and green lawnmowers. Explain it? I can’t. Appreciate it, I can.

Reminds me of a lady I used to know in Dothan, Alabama who put up Christmas lights in July. It was her statement toward the materialism of the season. Then she changed her street sign at The Highlands to read “Wisteria Lane.” It stayed up less than a day. My kind of girl! Whatever happened to Diane?

We also saw a statue of liberty kick boxing yesterday. It was in the bed of a pickup, turning up Highway 79. It was Lady Liberty with a foot up. Freedom. Sometimes you gotta fight for it.

People here are very friendly. In Hill City, I had a chance to visit some of the local shops and the folks are all chatty. One lady said a new merchant down the street had never lived here for Bike Week. She was astonished, the neighbor reported, at the AGE of the bikers.

“Old folks, like us,” she said.

The savvy hometowner said attendance among the younger bikers is down because they have since found a wilder rally in Colorado. I don’t know. Seems like it can get pretty wild to me. Also, folks are saying attendance is down cause of gas prices. It is not crowded, even by my definition as a newcomer. Of course, the rally only officially starts TODAY!!

The media passes give you access to things that are mostly useless. Like a ride with the mayor. Give me a break. I wanta see Kid Rock!!

John in Dothan, you were right, this place is fab!

Day, uh, what day is this? Sturgis: Day 5

Debbie Ingram

It’s Monday shortly before 7 a.m. and, again, I thought vacations were for rest. I am getting up like it’s the first day of school and I got new clothes to wear.

The problem here in this southwest corner of South Dakota is, there is so much to see. So many rides to take. Again, I go with the history. It is day 5 (second full day here) and I am already feeling the anxiety of NOT getting everything in. Since we are three days from home, there was some discussion in planning this trip if we were leaving Friday or Saturday. It’s Saturday now, for sure.

For the second straight night, we were awaken in the early morning hours by the wind. The little camper was pitching a bit and last night we left the window open to enjoy the cool air. The blinds clattering on the windows could have waken the neighbors, 6 miles away.

This morning’s wind was accompanied by a majestic lightening storm. It was over Bear Butte when we came in last night. No rain all day yesterday, just a few sprinkles. Even the sprinkles are huge. Think quarter size. The lightening seems to add to the specialness of this place.

The coffee tastes good this morning. It must be about 62 degrees. We are within viewing distance of this one great, stand alone mountain east of Sturgis. I don’t know if the mountain is called Bear Butte, but today, my mission is to find out. Anyway, this morning, there is a huge cloud covering the top of Bear Butte.

I read somewhere yesterday that a lot of the peaks are only accessible by foot. I also read where you can take “an easy two-mile hike” up one. I suggested it to the husband.

“Let’s go,” he said.

OK, I didn’t really think this through. Maybe I don’t have the right shoes.

I did a “You’re kidding me,” yesterday when I learned that the highest peak between the Rockey Mountains and the Swiss Alps is HERE! In South Dakota? Go figure. It is Harney Peak. We saw it by train yesterday. Sitting atop is a forestry tower that twice was struck by lightening and burned to the ground a hundred years ago. It was rebuilt with stone—something that is abundant here—and is no longer manned as a fire station.

Riding through Spearfish Canyon yesterday I did notice dead trees. The husband says there was a fire in 2006, the year he was here, and the grass is beginning to come back.

We had fire thoughts when we first saw our campground, where the grass had been cut. There is a directive of “no open fires” at the campgrounds and I understand fully. This whole place could go up! Which, we half expected last night, what with our propane leak (we thought) and all. Boom! And to think, we had the cooking oil wedged down there next to the hot water heater when we sprang a leak two (was it three?) days ago. I plead the fifth there. I didn’t know that thing was a hot water heater. We have no smells today.