We went back to Mt. Rushmore Friday evening to view the daily lighting ceremony. This
really is a great time to be there. It's held at the outdoor amphitheater in front of the
sculptures. There was a short film about the creation of the sculpture and Gutzon Borghlum, and
then a brief film about all four of the Presidents. Then, there was
patriotic singing. The sculpture was gradually lighted as it got dark
outside. It was quite an experience that brought chills and made me proud to be an American.
The ceremony included recognizing all active and past members of the armed services who were asked to come to the stage to be recognized for their service and patronage, and to take part in the lowering of the flag ceremony.
Saturday, we planned to go to
Deadwood and
Sturgis.
Upon arriving at Deadwood we were caught up in a heavy traffic jam due
to a rodeo they were having, so we decided to head on to Sturgis. For
those who aren't familiar with Sturgis, it's a small rural town in
South Dakota that is host to the largest Harley Davidson rally in the
country. Every year hundreds of thousands flock to Sturgis for the
comrade and excitement of being with fellow Harley bikers. Last year
there were over four hundred thousand in attendance. The rally this year
is August 4-10, so we were there the week before it officially starts,
but it's pretty much started already. There are more saloons and T-shirt
vendors than anything else we saw. There are many vendors selling bike
accessories as well as new and used bikes. I would imagine you can find
anything motorcycle related there. The event has a reputation for a
lot of drinking and partying and risque' activities and by the looks of
some of the apparel and photos we saw, it must be a wild time!
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| Sign leading into Deadwood. It's pretty much a tourist town with lots of hotels, restaurants and casinos. |
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| Couldn't resist taking a shot of this old clunker chopper. |
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| Not sure how fitting it is to have a church in the foreground of the Sturgis sign, but it is, what it is! |
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| Lots of saloons/bars |
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| Now, for all you folks who want to see what's going on live in Sturgis, here's a sign showing the URL of their web cam. |
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| For those of you wanting to read the wording on these garments(?) Click on the picture to enlarge it. |
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| This one too. |
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| T-Shirts everywhere! |
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| Our good friend, John, with a "different" T-Shirt. |
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| I think Al liked it too! |
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| Pat displaying a piece of feminine clothing! |
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| What can I say! |
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| Picture of some of the folks at last year's rally. |
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| Now, I think I've seen everything! |
We stayed away from Sturgis. We were traveling west thru ND & had planned to head south to the Black Hills area then, but learned that it was motorcycle time in Sturgis. So - we just kept heading west on Hwy 2 - up next to the Canadian border. We were told that there would be no place to park our camper in Sturgis & it didn't sound like something we wanted to be around. So we hit the Black Hills area as we headed back east - on the end of our trip - but didn't get to spend long there, since that's when Gene couldn't breathe in the high elevations.
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