Higher = Cooler

You want 70's & 80's? Come back in a month..

The Black Hills are beginning to turn toasty. Yesterday's high of 94 will spike to 97 today, & Sturgis emptys out during the daylight hours as those on two wheels head for the mountains, where it's much cooler. For most, this means it's time to roll on up the mountain to Deadwood and beyond. Finally: Decent eats at a good price; Deadwood's.. "Tin Lizzy's", 8-oz sirloin, spud & veggies, $7.99. If you're over 50, the price drops to $5.99...Guess they think you won't be around much longer, so they cut the short-timers a special deal? Anyway, it was done perfectly, medium rare, and tasty, a lot of eats for not a lot of money. The slots on the far side of the room, away from the sidewalk & windows were paying off nicely, too.

Rock & Roll @ the Rally: John Kaye/Steppenwolf, in what's being billed as their "final" tour, plays the last Saturday at a new party venue, called the "Boneyard", Whitefish exit, just west of Sturgis. Glencoe campground doing Smashmouth, 38, and ...Tanya Tucker. That's one wild babe. I'll bet she rides.

Can't make it to the world's best party this year? Hit your back button, and click "sample shows" for a one week run from last year's Sturgis, and lock in your local ABM affiliate for our "12 Days of Sturgis", a dozen all-new shows beginning August 1st, and running thru the 12th.

www.AmericanBikerMinute.com

Today's the day we leave the no-tell motel and set up camp. Am not looking forward to unrolling that tent, there's no telling what we'll find inside. Think we'll do some half pound burgers for starts, topped off with red onion, lettuce & 'maters. For some odd reason, there seems to be no place you can find decent grocery store chicken around here. Plenty of beef, pork, but the chicken looks like crap. Don't even ask about shrimp, we're a loooonnnngggg way from the ocean.
Today is also the first in which we can try to make an attendance assessment for Sturgis '07. Our initial feeling is that it'll be about the same as last year, or slightly down, but gas is a quarter a gallon less than August '06, so we'll see...

Quite a few properties inside Sturgis are up for sale, including a bar or two. Some very nice mountainside homes in the $150k range, about half of what you'd pay for similar square footage on the eastern seaboard, and, nowhere near the amount of "for sale" signs you'd see back east.

ABM will continue to report to the website as wifi hotspots become available, so check in often!

Clean out your pants!

07-30-07, 10:30am--200 lb Deer misses first biker by inches...

...You might not believe this, could hardly believe my own eyes.

This was a freakin' BIG deer. Buffalo Chip press-pass armbands in hand, we were returning to the Motel 8. Bear in mind, we're talking inside Sturgis city limits, the 45 mph zone, less than 100 yards up the hill, close to side by side homes. As a former hunter, I'm always looking for critters to dart across the road in front of the bike, but this was totally unexpected. In less time than it takes to draw a deep breath, the deer dove over the guard rails about 20 feet in front of us, continuing to bound across 34's center yellow stripe toward a line of bewildered bikers headed up the hill. The lead dude was sight-seeing, and totally unaware of the deer until it was slap onto his bike. If he'd been doing 45 instead of 40, we'd have been on the cell phoning for an ambulance. Nobody was injured, but the deer cleared his front tire by only a few inches. Everybody in his line saw the critter but him. His lady was freaked. Bikers behind him were freaked, and HE was freaked, as his lady screamed, and his wandering gaze returned to the road, just in time to see a big old deer belly in front of his handlebars. I will give you ten to one odds that this man is still busy trying to clean up his jeans & bvd's! We don't want to play "mom", but please, please be careful of these situations, yes, even inside city limits. They don't call it the wild wild west for no reason...

Bikers are beginning to pour into Sturgis. Last year, we arrived three days later than this year, so there aren't quite as many bikers as we saw on the first day, but, again, we're early. About half the total vendor tents are up, and bikes are outnumbering cars. The obligitory four way stop signs are up, but the speed limit up to Bear Butte, and 34 between the Buffalo Chip and town is still 65. Really weird being able to do three times the limit, but that'll most likely change before Wednesday.

Dale Jr, and Velvet Revolver? Buffalo Chip. Details at BuffaloChip.com -- Of course, ABM will be there to check it out. Do you think Dale will sing? Maybe he's a NASCAR rapper! Deadwood Update: Hotels in town we surveyed were asking $150+ a night because of their "Days of '76" promotion, but on Sunday, traffic was light, & at one joint we visited, every single money table was empty, and the dealers looked a little worried. ABM thinks they might consider moving this one away from the Sturgis rally date. The "Prime Rib Buffet" sucked. Army chow is a hell of a lot more tasty. So much MSG, I won't have to be embalmed when it's time to go. The good news is, after today, ABM will be out of this motel room, and on the campground, and the kid will be doing his own cooking. Check back in for the menu!

Back in Black!

Western South Dakota greeted ABM w/some great weather.. Sunny, 80's & 90's, and no rain, expected to hold for at least the next ten days, and the world's largest two wheeled party is on! Ya know, every year it's like area hotels ratchet up their prices another ten bucks a night. We were lucky to find the only remaining room at the Sturgis Super-8 for $83 bucks for the next two nights. After that, we'll be buried among a sea of canvas & chrome. Hope the "triples" (100 degrees plus to outsiders) stay away during the rally, which gets underway next weekend, officially beginning a week from this Monday. This year, the choice was made to avoid Atlanta, Nashville, & St Louis in favor of reaching SD from FLA via Dallas. Who could have known that every aviailable motel room north of Dallas, in the "Ardmore" area of Oklahoma would have been sucked up by their event of the year... The "Ardmore National Horseshoe-Throwing Championship Series"? Rooms in this area were scarcer than Paris Hilton panties, but, I digress. Grabbed a nice room in Chadron, NE. A renovated Motel 6 for a little over sixty bucks, but tonight, we sleep on satin sheets...The Motel 8 in Sturgis..wow.. after that, we share the ground with prarie dogs & bunnies. Ain't life great? Keep checking in as we continue to report from the two wheeled Mecca of the universe, (at least for the next couple of weeks)... Sturgis, SD.

Texas Flood

Never got to see Stevie Ray Vaughn, taken away from music fans much too early. Texas Flood totally describes what happened to central & south Texas on the weekend we were to pass through. 17 inches of rain over a period of just 24 hours created a mess of flooding, and closed highways all over the Lone Star state. ABM's perfect storm: Too early to split for Sturgis, too late to hit Colorado first. WhatyYaGonnaDo? Fidget one more week, and try to make it into the Black Hills on the last day or two of August. The "Hills" have been baking in 100-105 temps for weeks, and without a roof, we're hoping it'll finally cool down for the rally. Reports indicate that Sturgis streets are already packed with vendor tents, & parking spaces are rare. Every year we arrive a week before the official start, and every year, thousands of people get there ahead of us. Bored with the same trip up through Atlanta-Nashville-St Louis, this time we're hitting the back roads up through Little Rock. Will Sturgis '07 be bigger than last year? No tellin', but for sure, we'll have just as much fun! Check back often for reports from the world's best party!

Sturgis-What is it about this place??

Sturgis, South Dakota. Not being able to ride but once or twice a month all winter would put a rather large hurting on this spoiled Florida boy, but dude, during the first two weeks of August, there's nowhere I'd rather be.

Once again, local bikers are relating their "disagreements" with the lady of the house. She wants to pack everything under the sun, but there are limits, ya know? By now, you'd think our best idea of 2002 would be in everyone's mind. Namely, using FED EX, UPS, DHL, or the USPO to send ahead what you can't safely carry. Sure, it costs some deniro to ship it up there, but that expense is nothing compared to being overloaded and having a mishap. Caught up the rear pulley, or the wind catches it and whips you around, when it happens, it ain't pretty. We know for a fact that major campgrounds, like the Buffalo Chip have a conex container which they use as a little post office. Send it ahead, and grab it when you get there. When it's over, donate it back, or ship it home.

Something inside me broke last week, and instead of waiting until the end of the month, this Friday is it. The last I want to see of Florida is in the rear view. First stop, Mexico for some cheap tequila and fancy blankets, then on to the desert of Arizona, Nevada, & Utah, before joining the big party. What's that? Ain't doin' nothin' the second week of August? Look for American Biker Minute doing interviews on the street in downtown Sturgis. We love to hear from bikers with a story to tell!

Keep checking back in. We're just getting started!

Packing for Sturgis!

Ya know, we can't get out of this town fast enough! Doesn't matter where you live, when it's time to hit the open road, you don't want to see it anywhere except in your rear view mirrors! Who can blame us for wanting to join 500,000 of our closest friends for a week or two of motorcycle debauchery in the Black Hills? In spite of the recent 105 degree temps, "once a year", Sturgis, SD is the coolest place in America. Again, we're hearing complaining from the ladies about not being able to pack in everything they want for the trip. By now, you'd think the ABM greatest idea of 2002 would be catching on. Use Fed Ex, UPS, DHL, or the USPO to ship all of your tents, clothes, & anything else that could get caught up in your rear sproket, or create a sail big enough to get you blown off the prarie innerstate. Add up all the extra hassle, and be sure to count up the dangers of an overloaded set of wheels, and by comparison, the dinero it'll require to send it ahead will look like the bargain of the century. This Friday is the drop-dead leave date for us. Sturgis will be on the back side of a couple weeks banging around old Mexico, the Texas Big Bend, and the deserts of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. Knowing all too well that there'll be a lot of whining when it's time to return home, we might get back to Florida via Colorado. It's a dirty, filty, rotten job, but y'all, SOMEONE'S got to do it! Check back often for updates, and look for American Biker Minute doing biker interviews on Main or Lazalle. We want bikers with a story to tell! Look for last year's week of Sturgis on our website soon as I can get 'em uploaded!