By Lulu

2020 has been one hell of a year! Coronavirus closed down the last 2 days of Bike Week in Daytona, hurting many of the bars and vendors as the last weekend is the “profit”. Many motorcycle events since March have been cancelled all over the country. So, when the beautiful governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, kept her state open for business we just had to go to the 80th. This was my third trip, but first on the back of someone’s bike. My first trip I had my own bike there. The second I worked for what is now the Iron Horse Saloon in Sturgis for 5 weeks. Most of the photos in this article were shot from the back of TJ’s bike some at 60 mph! If you haven’t made the trek to South Dakota, you MUST. Our first stop was my sister’s house in Louisville where we were fed like kings. Thanks. Jen and Kerry!

We camped in a RV with Waylon and Tonya Long from Long’s Log Cabin in Welaka, Florida at Kristen’s Campground (her personal residence actually). Only spending 1 evening doing the party scene in Sturgis we bypassed the night parties at Buffalo Chip, Glencoe and Full Throttle Campgrounds and chose to make this year all about the riding. Each day we set out to explore new highways and make stops at the famous parks South Dakota is known for. We found many food vendors were unprepared for the crowds that dared to come amid covid worries and ran out of food early each day. Estimates have been as high as 400,000 in attendance, although both TJ and I think it was probably closer to 250,000. The vendors all claimed to have had a successful rally, but many vendors didn’t come so there was less competition. Most famous bands didn’t come either. In fact, I think Hairball was the most packed night of music at The Iron Horse.

We only had 5 days to explore and you really need at least 7. Our first day of exploration was to Mount Rushmore and it really held a special feeling for me this year with all the destruction of our monuments in 2020 making the nightly news. Simply beautiful! Day 2 we did The Badlands with all its majestic views. Day 3 we made it to Custer State Park where the buffalo (bison) roam; but we missed the day the young lady approached the baby bison and the mother knocked her out of her pants and unconscious. The video of that is on our Facebook Page Thunder Roads Florida. The same day TJ took us to Needles Highway and Iron Mountain Road. We pulled over near the top at an overlook and was approached by a guy wanting to borrow a portable air compressor. We didn’t have one, but our friend Pete, who must have been an Eagle Scout growing up, not only had one but also had a patch kit. Pete saved that guys day as no one was willing to come up the mountain for him. TJ went right to Harbor Freight for one of those compressors when we got home. I hope we never need it, but it was a well spent $10 bucks. Day 4 one of my favorite rides which we did two times was Spearfish Canyon. Had to stop in Deadwood to visit Doug and Misty at Sick Boy Motorcycles store to purchase some of their new Tees. One of our final days was spent heading to Devil’s Tower which you can’t imagine what created that lone giant rock formation.

Stonehouse Saloon was on that adventure and rode into Wyoming to visit Hulett. At some point I ate a buffalo burger for the first time. Most of the state parks are $20 per bike, well worth it. Mount Rushmore was only $5 per person. We ran out of time and didn’t make it to Crazy Horse, time passed altogether too quickly. Although Jack shared a picture he had for the article. Of course, the 3 days there and 3 days back hauling bikes behind the RV takes a toll on you. We also missed the one day of protest that happened in Sturgis which was small and uneventful until a moron kicked at a bike. Luckily, the bikers allowed the police to escort them to safety and no damage was done to anyone or anything.

At the time of writing this, the Covid count is estimated at less than 300 from the huge rally with one known death, even though a fake news alert was running on Facebook and the news saying it was a super spreader causing 20% of all new cases. Governor Noem went on Fox and said the numbers I am posting are the real numbers and that it is clearly FAKE news. Any death or illness is tragic, but I could have stayed home and gotten it in line at Target, so I am happy I made the trip and didn’t catch a damn thing!

A special thank you to our friends Waylon and Tonya for hauling us across the country. To Wade and Kristen for the use of a little slice of South Dakota. To Bill for his forever friendship. And to Pete, German Dave, Jack, and Sheri for sharing their time with us on the highway.

Next year we will be shooting to spend 7 days in the beauty of this part of America. Please promise yourself to make this journey in your lifetime.