The night had gotten rather cold, down to about 50, but we kept warm and snuggley with our heavy sleeping bag, although I did put my heavy fleece jacket on for a while. When we got up, refreshed, everyone was sitting on the deck drinking coffee and talking with Chuck. We passed around the binoculars and watched the lovely view before us. Since I don't drink coffee, Chuck offered me a glass of milk and it hit the spot. He then decided to feed us all! He was happily working in the kitchen making biscuits, frying eggs, and cooking bacon. It was delicious. Although we all offered to help clean up, he wouldn't
let us.

We noticed that the three horses they had were hanging around, as were lots of rabbits. Chuck said it was feeding time. When he walked down there, two goats also showed up, one of which was quite old and lame. He fed their peafowl, the horses, and the goats then I was surprised to see him throw out some corn for the rabbits! That answered my question of why they were hanging around.

CrowDog and Skiv left to take CrowDog's bike into an independent motorcycle repair shop in Piedmont and returned shortly. They said it would be ready by noon the next day. So we decided to head out, both on my bike. We went to Rapid City to the Civic Center for the HOG open house to get our official Sturgis pins. I managed to get a good parking space not far from the front door and took a picture of the bikes lined up.

The line inside the building was quite long but moved quickly. We chatted with some people ahead of us and before we knew it, we had our pins. I wanted to see the new Ô00 bikes, so we went into the hall where they were displayed. It was literally wall-to-wall people, so many that you could hardly move. I checked out the new Softail with the new motor, then sat on a new Ultra. I loved it, but the seat was awful.

We couldn't stand the crowds any longer, so decided to head outside for a bite to eat. The woman behind the snack counter didn't flinch when she said "that will be $10.00" for our two brats and two lemonades! We found a picnic table under a big shade tree and ate and talked. We heard an announcement for a demonstration of "trials" motorcycle riding being held next to where we were sitting, so we watched that. It was incredible. This young guy on a Bultaco could hop his motorcycle up as much as 6 feet in the air onto these narrow ramps. At one point, he went roaring at a guy taking a picture and did a "stoppie" (where you lock the front brake and the back wheel comes up, kind of like a reverse wheelie). The guy went flying back, thinking he was going to be hit, but the guy on the motorcycle was completely in control and stopped about a foot in front of him. I bet that made a spectacular photo if he was composed enough to hit the shutter button!

From the Civic Center, we headed out to the Crazy Horse Memorial. Traffic in Rapid City was very heavy and backed up. It took me a bit to get used to having a passenger because it had been several years, but I handled it okay. It felt good once we got out of town and were able to get up to highway speeds. We stayed on Highway 16, electing not to go through Keystone, and this turned out to be a nice route. There was a bit of construction but traffic moved smoothly. When we arrived at the turn-off for the memorial, I was pleased to see that they had installed traffic lights. I remembered that before there was just a stop sign and it was difficult to get back out onto the highway.

As was expected, there were many motorcycles in line waiting to pay admission, so I picked what I thought was the shortest. Of course I was wrong. We ended up waiting a while and my bike was hot and burning my legs. There was a guy on a black dresser behind me trying to crowd ahead of me, but I wouldn't let him. When they got to us, we paid the admission and made it through smoothly. The road heading up to the parking lot, Avenue of the Chiefs, is great. There is a gentle climb up to the lot offering an excellent view of the memorial. I noticed that they were making 4-wheeled vehicles park in another lot further from the memorial and only admitting motorcycles into the upper lot. It was a good thing to see.

We parked the bike fairly close to the entrance and decided that we'd first take the bus tour to the base of the memorial. CrowDog asked a man working the door when the next one left. He said about 15 minutes and that when they announced it, we should get there quickly because it fills up. We grabbed a couple bottles of Diet Coke and saw a sign on the machine that said "open slowly, pop will fizz" or some such wording and walked to the bus area to wait. They weren't kidding, the pop was fizzy!

In a few minutes the bus pulled up, but the driver said he was going to lunch. We decided to just wait since it wasn't very hot and we had a place to sit on a guardrail. He wasn't gone too long and we hopped on the bus for the short ride to the base.

We saw there was lots of construction along the road. Apparently they are adding yet another building because of the increase in visitors. This progress is good to see.

A few minutes later we arrived at the base. It was amazing to see the face finished. Such detail. We got off the bus and I took quite a few pictures and then it was time to head back.

Since I actually had some spending money this visit, I wanted to buy a t-shirt. I found a nice one in the gift shop with a drum and turtle on the front. I also saw some excellent artwork that I would have liked to have if I'd had enough money and a way to haul it back!

They'd finished the "cultural center" since the last time we had been there, so we wanted to check it out. There were many Native American artists there selling things like jewelry, artwork, etc. I bought a nice pair of quill earrings to match the choker CrowDog had bought me a couple years earlier.

We wandered around a bit more, then decided it was time to go. I spotted a bike in the parking lot that was loaded down with more "stuff" than I had ever seen before! I was wondering how they could even keep the thing upright. I think they had stock in a bungee cord company somewhere! CrowDog backed the bike out of the parking space for me and we headed out for Rockerville and the Coach Light, or Coach Lamp restaurant. I can't remember the name of it! We'd eaten there during our last visit to Sturgis in 1996 and once again the food was excellent, especially the desserts. I had a piece of strawberry daiquiri cheesecake and CrowDog's chocolate suicide cake looked delicious...

We headed back to the ranch and I was glad to see that traffic in Rapid City had calmed down a bit. I had been nervous about riding up the gravel road to the house with a passenger on back, but it was easy.

Most of the other folks headed out for dinner but we'd already eaten so we stayed behind. NBCK decided to ride on the back of Sam's trike, so of course this led to calls of "show us your tits!" And he did. It was hilarious.

We sat around relaxing for a while and eventually headed off to bed. Once again, I slept very well.