8.1.06 - Wi-Fi, The James Gang, & Raquel Welch

Sturgis, SD, where premium gas is just 91 octane, and regular is 85. Where you can't depend on a cell phone signal to keep you alive. Where the wind blows, and so do the hotel prices-(what we paid $74 for will go for $215 during bike week-- that's why we're at the Buffalo Chip, cutting expenses, and crashing out only a hundred yards from the huge stage where Joe Walsh and the original James Gang will be appearing in public for the first time in 30 years. We last saw Joe at the New York State Fairground complex in the early 70's, and never forgot how great the show was, but back to the Chip, trying to get an email out from the wifi hot area is like expecting this place to have flat roads, and room service. Like trying to send an email with a bone chisel, ala 1-million b.c. You'd fully expect Raquel Welch to show up wearing leopard print hot pants. 24 hours in, and riding around the fields on my chopper turned dirt-bike, has stretched my drive belt play to twice the manufactuer's specs. People around Sturgis and other communities like Spearfish, Lead, and Rapid City have a love-hate relationship with Sturgis Bike Week. Hate the hassle, inconvnience, and all the work, but without it, their kids wouldnt' have shit under the old Christmas tree. Like us or not, without the biker community, this place would still be in the stone age. For example, overheard at the BP service station in Spearfish... (cashier #1)..."Well, are you ready for IT..." (cashier #2)..."Yeah....Ready as I'll ever be." (Spoken in the manner of a convicted murderer awaiting lethal injection). CHA-CHING!