Friday June 18 to Sturgis

The Black Hills, a beautiful ride.

It is now Saturday morning because I yesterday evening it was too late to write.

So first of all, I send my love to the two most important women in my life: To Carolina on our anniversary lots of love and thank you for all those years together and for putting up with my crazy adventures. To my daughter Nicole happy birthday and I know you will have a great time at UCLA. I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH

It was a great day. Again very sunny and I had a nice breakfast at the Frontier cabins.
The ride to the Black Hills was short and I bought a new helmet in Rapid City, HJC-IS- 33 with integrated sun visor. Surprisingly economical and well built, not as quiet as the Schubert though, but there is a big price difference.

As I rode to Mount Rushmore the landscape became more gorgeous at each turn, curving roads through stands of very green pine and spruce, dark blue lakes, invigorating fresh mountain air and a stark blue sky. What a country! I loved every minute of the ride.
Mount Rushmore is a testimony to democracy, showing the faces of four American Presidents honoring their contribution to the building of this country. A tribute from a grateful nation, set in the most beautiful setting imaginable. There is an exhibit on the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum who designed the sculpture. He passed away before its completion and the sculpture was not entirely completed ( Lincoln was to be portrayed to the waist).

Then I rode to another astonishing sight: crazy horse memorial, the vision of one man Korczak Ziolkowski who worked for 34 years on the carving until his death1982. The entire complex is owned by the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation. Ziolkowski's wife Ruth and their ten children remain closely involved with the work, which has no fixed completion date.The face of Crazy Horse was completed and dedicated in 1998.

I rode through the Black Hills National Forest and the Custer State Park. Breathtaking views, hairpins curves, granite formations everywhere. It is not possible to describe the feeling of riding through landscape, it must be done! The loop from Keystone through the Iron Mountain road and Needles Highway is a must! Deer were crossing the road and buffaloes roaming free nearby.

Passing through Hill City I pushed on to Deadwood, , the old gold mining town where I visited Boot Hill and the graves of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane lying side by side. These colorful characters of the Old West captivated the imagination of millions of kids with their exploits as outlaws, marshals and gunslingers. Wild Bill was shot in the back playing poker in the Number 10 Saloon, and ever since Deadwood has become a gambling town with over 30 casinos.

I reached Sturgis, the motorcycle mecca, in the evening after a spectacular sunset in the Black Hills. This town only hold 7,000 inhabitants but during motorcycle rallies, there are hundreds of thousands of bikers camped out on every meadow. There had been a Cushman rally on the weekend, a small motor scooter of the 1930's. I met several of them in Keystone. One lady had ridden 600 miles to the rally, amazing on a machine with 8 hp only.

Dinner was a big prime rib accompanied by a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, very good.

Tomorrow I will ride to Yellowstone.