Wednesday August 6th - Wyoming and Devil's Tower Loop.

Today we got up to again iffy weather. It was like we were in a fog bank, but the forecast was for it to improve over the day. We decided to pack our rain gear and attempt the loop that takes you thru Belle Fourche, into Hulett, Wyoming and Sundance. It is about a 165 mile loop.

We stopped a few places along the way, it seems every small town has a watering hole open for bikers.

My favorite was Hulett, it is a small town but 1000's of bikes show up at Captain Ron's Rodeo Bar for a free pork sandwich on Wednesday. They give out free sammiches until they use up 1000 pounds of pork. We got ours and it was delicious. It is also known for 'no panties Wednesday' but it has since been banned by law, but you still see some interesting women..I will leave it at that. Frankly the only person I saw without panties was a man wearing chaps, that was not pretty.

We saw lots of unique cycles and eventually moved on down the road to Devil's Tower.

Devil's tower is very unique, it just jumps out of the ground to over 800ft, it does not look natural, I am sure some alien put it there, possibly in some close encounter.... The ride to devil's tower is just breathtaking, it is big sky for sure with views that go on forever.

From Devil's Tower we departed for Sundance, where Robert Redford is reported to hang out, but he was not there to greet us today, his loss.

 Sundance is known for the Dime Horse Shoe Bar, their Burnout contest and wet Tee shirt contest. I could not get June to enter the tee shirt contest and it looked like rain, so we did not stay.

All of these small towns have their own unique character during bike week and it is hard not to get caught up in the festivities. From Sundance we jumped the interstate and headed back to Sturgis, we logged about 165 miles in the loop. The weather held off and when the sun was out you were smoking hot, but on the bikes you really wanted to have a jacket on.

We went back to camp for dinner, June once again cooked up a good dinner, spare ribs..yum. Since we were leaving tomorrow AM we wanted to at least sample some of the night life at Sturgis outside of downtown, so we headed off to visit a few.

First stop was the 'Full Throttle Saloon', the name really fits this place, I can honestly say I would not have believed it if I had not seen it. It is huge with bridges that have zip lines between them, bars everywhere, and you can entertain yourself just by people watching. They had a band playing - 'Fire House' that was getting the crowd cranked up, but we only stayed for a short time and moved on to see the Buffalo Chip.

BC has headline concerts every evening, Wed was Florida Georgia Line, but we did not buy tickets. This is one venue we will save for a possible next time but we did get to kind of look around the grounds...just huge. From the Buffalo Chip we drove to the Broken Spoke Saloon which is a fair distance from FTS and BC.

The really cool thing about the Broken Spoke is that when you arrive you can ride your motorcycle through the bar, not kidding. You ride in one door and out the other, right by the crowd and the stage, what a hoot. They had a Johnny Cash impersonator on stage who was pretty good. John and I had NA drinks since between these saloons and Sturgis it is like running the gauntlet of police, every few miles they have someone pulled over and they give the statistics on the news each evening...not something you want to be part of.

We made our way back to Sturgis and rode the strip one more time, just to see what we would see....yes you see some very strange people and some very cool bikes.

John and I ended the day with a beer under the canopy, it was a beautiful evening and the end of a packed and fun day. Tomorrow we pack up to head for Minnesota, we hope to make it to Aunt Carol's and Uncle Earle's by end of the day.

June and I both thank John immensely for spending the last few days with us at Sturgis, this is his fifth year coming and he is the best guide you could ask for to help you experience Sturgis. 

John will depart for home in Texas on Friday, he will be going the same way he got to Sturgis, riding his 2006 Softail Custom, he is a real biker. 

 Safe riding John.

It was a great week, we logged just under 600 miles on the bike and had a great time.