In the summer of 2002, Mary Ann and I made a 10,000 km trip out west on the BMW K1100LT. We stopped at Sturgis along the way. Here are some pictures in the form of thumbnails. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version.
In
front of Wall Drug. Five cent coffee, five cent refills,
Mary Ann. Do the math.
While Mary Ann gets coffee, I chat with the locals.
This
is right in Sturgis at the Corbin stand. My K1100 is second
from the
left in this picture, with the army duffel bag and a load of other
stuff bungied
on. Click on the thumbnail and examine the three bikes in a row and the
progression in the height of luggage.
A
visit to Deadwood near Sturgis, a neat place to walk around.
In the Black Hills, Custer
State park. First sight of a buffalo.
Looks
harmless at this point.
Starting to see more of these
animals.
We were surrounded by buffalo, so seconds after this picture, I tried
get away
by to accelerating through the space between the buffalo up
ahead. As I
was busy watching the gap between them, two other buffalo (very close
but just
out of the picture on the left) charged
across the road right in front of me. Now I know what they mean by "You
can't ride a motorcycle in a buffalo herd."
a
narrow tunnel on the way to Mount Rushmore.
Mary Ann was never actually
president of the USA, even though her face is up there. When we were at
Mt Rushmore this summer
they were having a promotion to raise money, and for $1500 (US) you
could get a
stonemason to chisel your face on the mountain while you wait. We said
"Let's go for it!!!".
You
will need to click on the picture for the bigger version, because
otherwise her
face is kind of small. See if you can find it.
This
is the gas station in Bena Minnesota. We nearly ran out of gas,
so
that's why I stopped. I saw a sign in the window naming 24 deadbeats
who didn't
pay their bills. I paid up and we continued on. We thought the highway
sign
said "Pop. 25". Long after we got back home, we both
remembered our pit stop in this little town. I decided to look up this
deadbeat
infested place on the internet and found out that the population is
actually 148
(with a picture of the sign as proof). And that the gas
station/store was
designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I sure would never have guessed
when I was
there.