Joan said she wanted to ride Boulder Canyon sometime before the Rally (that's the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally for those not familiar with the area). Today looked to be the perfect day: high in the low 80s, sunny, 0% chance of precipitation, light breeze (single digit wind speed).
Boulder Canyon is between Sturgis and Deadwood; we are very familiar with it, because we lived in the Canyon for 6 years. The decision: ride to Sturgis, then up the Canyon to Deadwood, or take Highway 385 to Deadwood, then ride down the Canyon to Sturgis. Unanimous vote to head to Sturgis first.
I hooked the Akaso V50 Pro (action camera) to the Vespa, and we headed out...
I have it set up so I can press the remote from my left grip without taking my hands off the grip. It isn't a "permanent setup" yet, but should work for this ride. We made the turn onto Highway 16 (aka Tourist Central), heading into Rapid City...
The downside of the action camera: that view above is up a steep hill - doesn't look like it with the "narrow" lens view, which is still pretty wide angle. We rode through Rapid City...
... heading out of town via Sturgis Road. And, some construction. No issue. Sturgis Road runs mostly alongside I-90, allowing us to get a good portion of the way to Sturgis before we have to get on the Interstate.
It has been a few years since we've been on this road - really nice two lane. We took it until we ran out of road, then got on the Interstate for 6 or 7 miles. Coming down the hill on I-90, looking at the Junction Blvd. exit...
We owned a business on the main intersection in Sturgis (Main & Junction) before moving to Spearfish. During the Rally, this place is wall to wall motorcycles; this is what it looks like the rest of the year...
Coming up on the intersection above, our studio was to the left of that photo. And, riding down Main Street in Sturgis...
We would not go to Sturgis and not stop to see our friends Dick and Pat, brothers who operate Sturgis Motorsports. Over the years, we have bought a lot of bikes from Dick and Pat - they are dealers for Yamaha, BMW, Suzuki, Arctic Cat, Husqvarna... and, since we have seen them last: Moto Guzzi. (part of the same parent company Piaggio, of which Vespa is a brand - not a Vespa or Piaggio scooter dealer... no "scooter culture" in this area).
We had a nice visit with Dick and Pat, trying not to take too much of their time. There was the: "How are your kids?" and "What have you been up to?" stuff... when they found out how old Stephanie is, I reminded Dick that she was 8 years old when we bought her her first motorcycle from him. ;-) Pat's son is racing motorcycles... I remember when Pat was still in high school. Time flies when you don't know what you are doing.
Dick had ducked back inside before we got back on our scoots, but I did get this photo of Pat with the camera still mounted on the Vespa...
Boulder Canyon starts right outside the parking lot of Sturgis Motorsports...
This road used to be the most dangerous stretch of highway during the Rally in the 70s and 80s... may have had something to do with bars in Sturgis and bars in Deadwood, and some very twisty road between. Over the years, the road has been re-engineered and re-constructed to tame many of those curves. Still, it is a fun road to ride.
We had planned on stopping in Deadwood for lunch, but the main street downtown was blocked off (likely for the "gunfight" which happens several times each day). Deadwood was the first "legal gambling town" (not on an Indian reservation) between Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Gaming is still the main enterprise here.
Not being able to check out the restaurants on Main Street from the scoots, we stopped at a Taco John's along the road (photos from here are taken with the Nikon DSLR)...
We weren't the only ones: the place was packed. With bellies full, we continued on toward Highway 385 which would get us back to the Rapid City area via that scenic road...
Looking ahead, the sky was threatening. Not long after getting onto Hwy 385...
Yep... 0% chance of precip. Less than 10 minutes of riding through rain... but it made a mess of the bikes that we shined up yesterday. I have often said that I can create rain by simply washing my car... I guess it applies to bikes, too. :-)
On the other side of that rain...
We stopped for fuel before heading back to the coach - both of us getting exceptional mileage once again... even with a fair share of highway riding.
Earlier in this post, I mentioned that I switched cameras after lunch. The rechargable action camera battery is good for about 90 minutes of constant use. There would have been more than enough juice to shoot had one of us (again, me) not inadvertently shot video. That's fine, if you mean to shoot it, not so interesting as your droning along the highway.
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On edit: We saw scads of 3 wheelers today: trikes (mostly Harley, but there were Goldwings and others), CanAms, Polaris Slingshots, a couple bikes with sidecars... I found out there is a "4th Annual 3 Wheeler Rally" in Deadwood, July 10th through the 15th.
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