Biker Rally
Most low lives can scratch together enough cash to buy a motorcycle and many do. Once a year in August over 500,000 of them converge on Sturgis, South Dakota for “Bike Week”. The rally is littered with tattoo shops, cheap food stands, bars and T shirt shops. It’s lowbrow and cheap, including most of the women.
But I like how every one, including the women, let it all hang out, especially their guts. There’s plenty of macho, but most everyone was cool and far more interested in making good times than causing trouble. There were plenty of cops around for any one who preferred to cause trouble. The rally has been held since 1938 and is the biggest motorcycle rally in the USA.
Sturgis is just north of the Black Hills and West of the Badlands. It’s an oasis of beauty surrounded by prairies and the great plains for hundreds of miles. The bikers roam free through the badlands and wooded hills like wild roaring beasts. It’s their week to escape the straight jacket known as the “normal life”.
I owned a couple of motorcycles in my day. But I never considered myself a “biker”. They’re not my tribe. But we share a love of roaming free. Roll on!
Next Stop – Peaking over the ridge at Middle Age Mountain