The crowd...

We rode to Sturgis today.  I have been looking forward to the experience once again.  When we have been here during the Rally, we have always gone there multiple times during the week.  Yeah, I think once will hold me this year.  The roar, the crowd... I guess I have mellowed enough that I don't need that level of over-stimulation more than once.  ;-)

A beautiful day when we left.  Other than a short bit through Rapid City, our route today was all curvy roads.  And mostly uncrowded.  When we rolled into Sturgis, our timing was right on... the "Noon Crowd Photo" was underway... there was no way we were going to turn off Junction onto Main Street - the crowd had the street completely blocked.

We rode down to Lazelle, up in the "cha-cha line" of traffic, then turned left to get onto Main Street a couple blocks beyond where the crowd photo was being taken.  We found a spot to park them in the middle lane of Main Street and started our walk about...

Remarkably, walking the sidewalks was relatively easy.  The crowd would bunch up by a unique bike or a scantily clad lass...

... but it was never too thick with people that you couldn't keep moving.  Joan and I both felt that the crowd was smaller this year; or maybe it is the timing of our visit?  We went into a few of the shops/tents to look around, but even with a couple things on our "shopping list," we didn't find exactly what we were looking for.  Still, the people-watching and bike-gawking was entertaining...

There are unlimited food options here - kinda like "fair food," but louder and greasier.  We opted to go to a permanent restaurant so we'd have a place to sit and eat.  Our booth was at a window, so we could still watch the goings on...

With bellies full, we geared up and headed out... and enjoyed a fine ride on the way back south.

I shot a lot of short video clips of the day so I could make another "movie trailer"...

While we probably won't make another run to Sturgis this week, there has been some discussion of going to the Harley dealer here in Rapid City, where they have over 100 vendors - who knows what we might find!