Today we would hit Sturgis!

We always like to have breakfast at least once at the church, so we headed out from the ranch by 7:30 AM Central time. When we reached the bottom of the road, there was a beautiful rainbow ahead of us. I had to get out the camera and snap a picture of it. Traffic into town wasn't too bad yet and we arrived with no trouble. CrowDog told the man collecting parking fees that we were having breakfast and then would like to leave the bikes the rest of the day. He had us park in excellent spots near the sidewalk and collected $3 for each of us.

The price of breakfast hadn't changed since the last time we were there, it was still $5.00. And it was still delicious. All you could eat pancakes, scrambled eggs, ham, juice, coffee and milk. We had good timing because by the time we left, the line was up the stairs and out the door to the parking lot! There was a bike parked nearby and we spotted a sticker on the windshield that said "Silly Yuppie! Trailers are for boats!" We simply had to have one for each of us and after a lot of searching finally found them.

We needed to visit a cash machine to replenish the funds we shelled out to the bandits at the bike repair place and I actually remembered where there was a bank! I was pretty proud of my memory. When we were leaving, we saw another rainbow and I snapped a picture of it.

Main Street Sturgis hadn't changed a bit since 1996. Lots of vendors, lots of people, and lots of bikes. I was in search of shirts and found a nice blue button-down workshirt type one with a hood for only $16! Such a deal. I also bought another tie-dyed one to continue tradition. We wandered through lots and lots of vendors then it started to rain. We hopped into a tarp-covered place that served food and got a couple of the BIGGEST cheeseburgers I've EVER seen! We spent an hour or so there hiding out from the rain and talking to people. We thought it had stopped and headed out again, browsing in stores, and then the rain came again. We stood in the doorway of a store for quite a while, maybe another hour, talking to people and watching everyone. I got an excellent picture of the rain. Finally it let up and we were able to walk around again and shop.

By now it was nearly 5:00 PM and my feet hurt. I'd sat on benches a couple times, but I was ready to go. We both were. We'd been there since early morning.

When we got back to the bikes we put the rain gear on and I was glad. It took forever to get back out of town. All the trailer-people had driven their cars into town in the rain and were tying up traffic.

We again stopped at the Texaco restaurant for something to eat. I was freezing cold at this point and had a cup of hot chocolate to help me warm up. We headed back to the ranch from there. The others had planned on going to the gathering at the Buck Ôn Gator, but we opted out and instead stayed behind, getting to bed early. I needed to dry out and warm up.