Mount Rushmore, Deadwood and Bikers

When “we” (for “we” read “Chantelle”) were planning this whole endeavour, we got to this part of the trip –between Colorado and Wisconsin- and found that many places around Rapid City, South Dakota were entirely sold out.  This area was really convenient for us, so we just assumed at the time that these rooms weren’t available because we were booking too far ahead and ended up booking a motel in Wall, SD (home of Wall Drug store, advertised for literally 200 miles in every direction as the home of free ice water and the 5 cent coffee).

Anyway, we were talking to a couple at a bar/restaurant in Denver the night before (it transpires he was a food critic for the Denver Post) and we were talking about our difficulty finding accommodation in South Dakota.  With some mirth they pointed out that the reason for this is the imminence of the Sturgis Biker Rally – a rally of several hundred thousand bikers, biker-related vendors and interested observers.  It is also the 75th anniversary of said rally. This explained a few things.  It also explained why the entrance to Mount Rushmore (which is in the vicinity) looked like this:

We got in eventually and did some obligatory tourist photos (I thought it would be bigger, btw)
. 

Good call on Teddy Roosevelt;  Dude got shot and kept on giving his speech.

 
Pictured: Photos of non-comparable majesty.

So now we knew what we were in for and because I’m a fan of the show, we popped up to Deadwood for a nosy.  Deadwood is next door to Sturgis, so it had one or two bikers in attendance.

 

Not pictured: thieving Cornish miners and Chinese Butchers

What I didn’t know is that Deadwood, true to historical form, is maintained and financed by gambling.  Thing is, gambling is illegal in South Dakota as it is in the majority of the United States, so it has it’s own exceptional concessionary licence.  The booze, gambling and motorcycles lend it a certain appropriate decadence. All I needed now was Lovejoy hanging out a window and yelling “Cocksuckers!” at the crowd.


Kurzfassung auf Deutsch: (Changing back to perfect case as it’s more comfortable) Wir haben unsere  Reise zwischen Denver und Milwaukee zufällig wahrend eine grosse Motorradsternfahrt gebucht. Genau genommen, ist es am größten Motorradsternfahrt  (hoffentlich habe ich das korrekt raten, wie sagt man dass) in Amerika. Auf jeden Fall, haben wir Mount Rushmore und Deadwood gesehen. Wir haben die Motorradfahrer sehr freundlich gefunden. 

(I might’ve made a right mess of that translation.  My German teachers would be shocked, I know. Let me know the scale of the damage by email)