Wednesday, August 10, 2011

8/10/2011 _ _it Hits the Fan!

Today is the opening of Sturgis Week! We had,,,,take note of that word HAD, plans of attending opening day. Now read the title of the post again. The day didn’t go as planned, can you tell?


Bob started to go to the Shoppette across the street (a shoppette is a military version of 7-11) and heard a noise that we hadn’t heard before with the truck. Noooo,,,not today! Actually there are two noises we hadn’t heard before. I hate when this happens! So we scrapped the plans for Sturgis today and moved our visit to Saturday.


That isn’t the only thing that went wrong today. Our co-workers Gary and Shari are leaving. I won’t go into the details because it isn’t my story to tell. They are not happy campers. They agreed to work the rest of this month’s pay period which ends Sunday.


We suggested to Joy and DeWayne that they apply for the position so that they can stay here longer and get some workamping experience under their belt and more importantly to see all of the Black Hills. Of course this was after Valerie and Jerry who have been here since June adamantly refused to even entertain the idea of being camphosts. They agreed and now we’re waiting for the higher ups to agree to it.


As I mentioned earlier, its opening day for Sturgis week. You don’t have to be in that town to know it. Rent a hotel room or go to a local restaurant and you’ll notice a substantial increase in room rates and menu prices. A room at the local chain motel, think Holiday Inn, Sheraton or Hyatt that would normally rent for $79.00 to $89.00 a night in this area and now rents for $189.00 and UP. I’m talkin’ SUBSTANTIAL increase! Campground rates have also sky rocketed this week. An eighty to a hundred dollar a night campground is not unheard of this week.


There are all kinds of contests associated with Sturgis Week. The bikers all have a chance to go machine gun shooting if they want to. Of course this held at an approved range but if you need to improve your uzi skills this is the place to do it!


BUFFALO CHIP CAMPGROUND


It seems that the Buffalo Chip Campground is THE place to be this week. This campground, located in Sturgis, has live entertainment scheduled every night. The likes of Edgar Winter, Alice Cooper, Styx, Def Lepperd, Toby Keith, Bachman & Turner, George Thorogood, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Steve Allman, Stevie Nicks and one of my favorites, John Fogerty.


LIMPNICKIE LOT FOOTPRINT


I would imagine that Sturgis Bike Week conjures up some pretty wild ideas about what goes on during this week. In all likelihood none of them would be out of the realm of what is reality of this uber party week. However, good things, serious things come out of this week too. Take, for instance, the Limpnickie Lot Footprint. I should first explain what Limpnickie Lot is. This is a group of next generation motorcycle builders and small American parts manufacturers that have banded together since Daytona Bike Week in 2008 and have made quite a name for themselves and also quite a following. This week Limpnickie Lot is sponsoring a drive with the Be A Match Foundation to find a bone marrow donor for a little six year old boy. Bikers from near and far are encouraged to be tested to see if they can help this little boy with a rare brain disease. Every event that Limpnickie Lot attends they leave their footprint within the community.


More bikers are arriving each day in our camprgound. The ones furthest away so far in our campground are from Pennsylvania and North Carolina.


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As the biker’s return each night I hear more and more wild stories of the goings on in Sturgis. I just gotta get there!

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