I pull up outside my next stay and I can’t believe it.  The house is on top of the mountain and has magnificent views of the valley and Spearfish.  A fair improvement on the tent;

The house is owned by Pam and her husband Greg.  Pam was a school teacher in Alaska for many years before retiring and moving to Spearfish. She had been working as an administration officer at the Spearfish PD when I called in and met her in 2017.  Pam has since retired from the PD but Greg is still working as an oil rig manager in North Dakota.

No-one is home so I give Pam a call and she tells me to let myself in as she is only 10 mins away.   I go in and straight away I can tell Greg is a ‘real’ cowboy with the number of saddles, trophies and guns around the place.

Pam arrives and I get shown the guest room downstairs which is more like a separate house as I have all of he comforts.  I tell Pam that they need to be careful or I will move in!  One of the really cool features is a central wooden staircase that was built out of natural timber from when they cleared the land.  The view from the balcony is not half bad either;

I park Stan in the lower level garage which is great as it is right next to my bedroom door.  I get unpacked and clean up.  Pam cooks a ‘southern style’ dinner for me (both her and Greg are originally from Louisiana) which is a taste sensation.   

Next morning I have a bit of a sleep in and when I do get up Pam has made me a cooked breakfast – by now I am starting to feel totally spoilt.  I sit on the deck having my coffee and enjoy the scenery.

Given I have never been for a ride in a Camaro I ask Pam if she would mind taking me for a ride in hers – Greg had bought her a limited edition one for her 50th birthday.  Pam laughs and is more than happy to take me out;

Now I am thinking that Pam being the same age as me and a retired school teacher it was going to be just a bit of a Sunday drive.  No way!  Pam is a total petrol head and makes the 6.2 ltr V8 breath fire and drives it like she stole it.  I have a great time and I get taken on a loop around tour of all of the neighbouring towns that are part of Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

We get back home and I give Stan a much needed bath.  I decided against the temptation of taking him to the free bikini girl motorcycle wash in the best interests of staying married!  I then kick back on the lounge and watch black and white episodes of Gunsmoke – this is quite funny given I am sitting next to a couple of saddles and enormous bull horns are on the wall above me.

Pam cooks a roast dinner and later the entertainment is to sit on the balcony and watch the wild deer sneak up and eat the corn that has been put out for them;

Next morning I get up early as I try to remind myself that I actually came all this way for the Sturgis motorcycle event.  I look out the window and its raining so back to sleep I go.

I get up at 8 am and decide that I had better stop being a total free loader so I make Pam breakfast.  I can’t sway her in having poached eggs so I end up making scrambled.  The weather is still poor so I kill some time by doing a bit of planning on how to get up into Canada.

The weather clears enough for me to get going and I ride the 10 klms up to Deadwood.  By the time I find a park for Stan the heavens open up and there is a downpour;

I check out all of the shops and buy a few souvenirs.  The rain stops and the sun comes out making it like a steam bath.  I head back to the ranch and skype a few back home which was good to catch up.  Pam has to head off to pick her son and his friend from the Airport at Rapid City where they are not due to land until 11:30 so it will be well after midnight before she gets back.  I watch some of the MotoGP qualifying and call it a night.

The following morning I have a closer look at what I will do if I get up into Canada – I want to ride through Jasper and then over to my mates place in Nova Scotia.  It works out for me to ride from Chadron (Nebraska) to Nova Scotia via Jasper it will be roughly 7,600 klms!  Easy if you say it fast.

Stan fires up and I head back over to Deadwood and call in at the Deadwood PD;

I grab a couple of patches and then head up the road to Sturgis.  As you would expect the town is exploding at the seams with bikers but I manage to find a park in the main street and have a look around;

Like in 2017 the Hells Angels had a presence selling their merchandise but for some reason I did not find the need to buy anything;

I walk both sides of the street which takes a lot of time given the crowd;

I get back on Stan and ride a few streets over where the larger manufactures have their bike displays.  The Indian display was fantastic and you could take any one of their 2019 bikes for a test ride if you wanted to (I chose not to);

I had timed it perfectly to get a ring side seat for their stunt show;

From the stunt show I just had a wander thru various tents and displays;

For some reason I have no trouble in finding where I parked Stan;

I have a nice ride doing the loop of towns back home – everyone is out so I have a quiet evening before calling it quits.

After a great nights sleep I decide to sort out getting the Canada map for my GPS.  I have no dramas in the purchase but it takes a while for it to download/install – speed is ordinary as everything in the area is overloaded due to the tourist numbers.  Having purchased the map there is now no excuses!

Pam takes me in Camaro again to go into Spearfish to pick up some supplies from Walmart – she wants me to see the local Walmartians (ha).  I am not disappointed and we have a laugh.  I took the opportunity to replace my top shelf motorcycle sunglasses (lenses stuffed) with an expensive Walmart pair ($15).

The rest of the day is slack and I spend it watching the MotoGP replay.  Pam gives me a steak cooking lesson – you marinate the steak for a couple of hours, sear each side in a stove top fry pan (very hot), place the fry pan in the preheated oven (325) to finish off (no need to turn it).  Less than 10 mins you have a perfect steak.

Next day Greg decides that we have to go on an ‘adventure’ so Logan and Cassie get the job of sorting the 4 x 4.  The truck is a 6 cylinder Jeep that has a fair bit of work done re suspension/steering;

We all get in and Greg drives us down to Deadwood where we take a dirt road that gets us to some real 4 x 4 tracks – I never knew a car could go vertical!  We end up on top of the mountain overlooking the town;

Greg gives me the reigns and I have a lot of fun in taking us down – I did manage to make everyone yell when I missed the brake pedal and went sideways around a corner!  I drive the rig right through the main street of Deadwood so we can drop Logan and Cassie off to meet up with their mates.  There is no way you could register anything like this back home and drive it on public roads.

I continue driving under Greg’s directions and we head out on the main road towards Sturgis before turning off and taking more 4 x 4 tracks through the Black Hills.  We end up totally lost but have heaps of fun making our way back out.  I hand the truck back over to Greg for the drive home.  We were gone well over 2 hours and had a ball which was pretty obvious given I was covered in mud.

Back home I clean up and hang out with the guys before they head off to the Snoop Dog concert which is part of the Sturgis Rally.   You can buy a full event pass where you can camp and go to all of the nightly concerts or buy a daily pass ($75) which gives you a specific concert and camp site for one night.  They generally have some pretty good concerts – Keith Urban, Toby Keith, Snoop Dog, George Thorogood, etc.

My final day with these guys comes around and I spend the morning with them kicking back on the balcony.  I decide to go for a ride and head into Spearfish for a general look around.

The afternoons entertainment is trying to get a 1979 Honda XL185 going that has been sitting dormant for years.  Like most times when blokes decide to work on an old bike something simple turns out to be a major operation.  End result was the bike was revived even though a battery had to strapped on the rear rack (which at one time we lost).

We have dinner and the gang heads over to Deadwood to go to the Casino.  I get sorted so I am ready for the next leg of the trip.  I am heading backwards and over to Nebraska so I can catch up with a mate that I met in 2017.

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