Sunday, August 07, 2016

2016 Motorcycle Adventure (DAY Twenty Eight)

Today is the day before the 2016 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally starts in Sturgis, SD. I have never been there during the rally but always wondered just how crazy weird it got so this morning I'm headed back to Sturgis. A couple of weeks ago when I rode through this town, I decided to buy a t-shirt to mark the event. It turns out that the shirt, a medium, was too small so I wanted to exchange it for a large. The ride from Miles City wasn't much different from my entire day, lots of open space and a really "big sky".


All morning as I rode I kept seeing more and more motorcycles on the road. Every gas station and restaurant had dozens of bikes parked. By the time I had reached Sturgis, the Harley Davidson mecca, the place was literally crawling with bikes. I got my t-shirt and got the hell out of there. It's a bizarre crowd where everyone dresses up like pirates. There is no helmet law in many of the northern states so maybe 1 in 30 people had a "brain bucket". I always feel a little self conscious around a predominately Harley crowd but when they see my Ontario plates and the camper trailer I gain huge street creds.



Needless to say parking was a problem because of my trailer. This was Sunday August 7th, the day before the week long "biker orgy" begins. As I left town and continued eastward I saw literally hundreds of bikes headed west to the Sturgis Rally. I met a couple of gals at a gas stop who were on two very new looking Victory motorcycles from Toronto. I haven't seen many Canadian plates but this event brings people from all over the world.
Because I want to be home by Wednesday night I pushed on to Mitchell, South Dakota. Today I rode 850 kms. (528 miles) and I'm very tired. My shoulder doesn't seem to bother me anymore for some reason. I also passed over another time line (Central) so it's now only one hour behind Muskoka time. The KOA campground in Mitchell is mainly bikers headed west to Sturgis. Hopefully it will be a quiet night.
This was my first sunset on this trip.


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