Sturgis, SD
Since the uncoordinated rental Chevy Impala had crunched my backup camera, we went to the Rapid City Rushmore Mall to replace the camera. The mall was easy to find, exit 59 off I-90, and we got a new Canon Powershot A630 for less than it cost on-line. Great. We also bought a few balloons.
An explanation for the balloons?
Our oldest son likes bikes and has three at recent count (a Honda GoldWing, a Suzki sport bike and an English one he’s refurbishing). He had told us about the annual rally at Sturgis, SD where bikers from all over the US (if not the world) meet at the beginning of August.
Sturgis billboard with the balloon/son-substitute
We’d been seeing bikers all over the Black Hills and met some really nice people touring before the Sturgis rally. Our son suggested that as nonbikers we should stay away from the rally. Naturally we knew we had to go to Sturgis. And being the kind, thoughtful parents that we are, we decided that he should participate as well. We bought a balloon, drew a face on it, took it to Sturgis and borrowed a Sturgis Rally cap for the balloon/son-substitute to be photographed with us. It was so much fun that we decided that the balloon/son-substitute will visit other places as well.
Next the uncoordinated Chevy managed to crush the compass on my good camera in its door. I’ve never had anything crushed in a car door before and now had had it happen twice in two days. Did the car have bad karma?
The Adams museum in Deadwood was our next stop.
Deadwood, SD
Its three floors of Deadwood history are free and on the basement floor has a history of Deadwood’s women - both the ladies and the soiled doves. The main floor and the mezzanine have things from Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane and other town characters. It’s interesting, air-conditioned and free.
Lunch was at the Prairie Berry winery in Hill City which gives free winetastings - this was our second trip there. The first time we tried traditional wines made from grapes but this time we tried some of the wines made from pears, raspberries, cranberries. Sadly the rhubarb wine was sold out.
While we were in the rock shop down the road, the poor Chevy had another problem. When we came out of the shop, the Chevy had a large crack in the side of the windshield. From the marks near the crack, it looked like a car going past on the road had thrown a stone into the glass. That was it for the day so we went back to the hotel.
