8.7.06 - Nice day to ride again...

Last chance to the Black Hills ahead of the major crowd, so 9am, blasted south for Custer. Vendors are moving south to this town. They do their own bike week, and one vendor said her stand there cost 500 dollars. She moved from Sturgis, where it cost 5,000 to 7,000 bucks. Mountain lightning, sometimes cracking sideways, we dodged every shower. Wx dictated direction. Deep in the middle of the Black Hills National Forest, route 17 turns into dirt, 20 miles in at Silver City, where the mine played out, and almost everyone left. All that remains, a dozen houses, no gas, no store, no post office-nothing-nada-borscht. Imagine my suprise during a downshift onto a small steel-decked brige and a couple of kids jumped out, holding big hand made signs, offering $1 hot dogs, $1 home made brownies, and $1 lemonade. They looked so desperate, we HAD to stop, and grab a couple tube steaks, (which they had soaking in hot water-no electricity). Dodging a summer thunderstorm, wandered back into Deadwood, were sucked into Deadwood Gulch, a no-excuse balls-to-the wall slot machine emporium with dollar canned beer, and complimentary coffee and popcorn. ABM has sunk to a new low. We could have hit, just down the road, a gambling house w/scantily-clad cocktail wait's bringing FREE HIGHBALLS while you gamble. Am pissed. This is like playing innnerstate highway roulette, where you fill up at 3.29, and the next exit is selling it at 3.09.

Saying is... during your Sturgis stay, you'll experience 100 degrees, then freeze your ass off, the wind will blow 80 mph at least once, and it may hail. During the Foreigner show last night, we got the first three. The crowd was very appreciative of the band, but the weather was bad for about 30 minutes. The 3-80 light each par can stage trusses, suspended far over the stage, were being blown back 3-4 feet, rain blowing in from behind the band so hard, when the drummer pounded a cymbal, it splashed! At a quarter to eleven, the former member of punk rock band Generation X, dropped by to kick some ass. Self described, "Billy F'in Idol", with six-pack ab's, drove the women wild. They sat atop boyfriend's shoulders, flashing the star. He in turn asked for 5 of them to kiss, and they willingly obliged. It got a little crazy. For two hours and fifteen minutes, Idol ran through all his hits, popping stuff by groups like AC/DC too.
They even did a rockin' version of "In the summertime" by Mungo Jerry, and the crowd ate it up. His lead guitar player, Steve Stevens, with the band since '81, is arguably among the elite like Eddie Van Halen, and proved it when they did "Jump". Probably owing to the weather, and the Big & Rich show at the Glencoe, the crowd was a little lighter than Alice Cooper's, but this was one hell of a rockin' show.

Like Billy said, "I rode my bike up here in 2001, so I'm one of you f--kers".