We knew that the "Ham and Jam" was happening today. "Ham and Jam" being a big thing for Sturgis Week when all the bikers would head to one location and party all day. Sooooo, we figured Sturgis would be pretty tame by the time we got there so a quick breakfast and new "T" shirts would be in order.
We bid farewell to the neighbor horses, but before pulling away, we noticed the camper tire being flat, but thought we might have just enough air in it to get to a station. Within 2 seconds of being on the road we heard the "thump, thump". Yup we had a flat tire on the Scamp. Hmmmm...
A quick jack with our new pneumatic bottle jack, a spin of the lug wrench and we were back on our way, now in search of a tire repair shop rather than a bite in Sturgis. (Notice how we glossed over the; remove the spare cover, remove the generator and screen tent from the rear carrier so you can get at the spare, get a block of wood to add height to the bottle jack, throw the cover, the flat, the lug wrench in the Jeep, tie down the generator and screen tent - etc. - However, with teamwork it went swimmingly and we were moving in less than 10 minutes).
Well, we found a tire shop using the iPhone and pulled in to find a young fellow and four open bays in the garage. This guy had a grin like Doug had never seen - one that would not quit, even while telling us that he couldn't fit us in until well after 1:00 p.m. but he'd be reeeeaaallll happy to do it then. Doug joined him in grinning and asked about the local competition so that we could get back on the road - and the fellow kept the grin and super attitude going as he told us about the other shops and that they were all "real good guys."
We went to the nearest "real good guy" and immediately were scheduled, sympathized with and served quite well. Seems we had a bent rim - could be from long ago and the new tire's bead finally let go, or could have been that pesky invisible speed-bump in Yellowstone - or perhaps a time when Doug was trying to parallel park the Jeep + Scamp. Who knows? In short order, Bandit had an adventure in the local field and we got to see a tire technician that knew what to do and how to do it (refreshing tale!).
With smiles and appreciation for a job done correctly and quickly we got all fixed up and continued our hungry voyage towards Sturgis.
As we journeyed, we noticed thousands of bikes coming in our direction - "Great", we thought, "All the bikers have left Sturgis."
Seems we had a little trouble with our math. It turns out that at few thousand bikers leaving Sturgis does not make a dent when there are well over 200,000 bikes in the area. Yup - it was crowded...
(From the entrance to town...)
(...to the nearest parking lot...)
(...to a tour through downtown - it was all crowded.
This is a big file be patient!)
(Even the parking lots had been turned into RV sites...... jam packed on the outskirts of town!) This is behind the Full Throttle Saloon, where we 'thought' we would have breakfast.
After cruising the strip with the rest of our Bro's, we moved on to find the campground we had found on the internet. It was amazing to still see so many bikers all the way through the black hills, from little town to little town. Parking lots, gas stations, stores, side of the road.....bikes. I, Sharon, kept thinking that the further down the hill we went the less there would be. Wrong.....They were like ants....they just kept coming and appearing out of nowhere.
Hoping to stock up on some more grub (we ARE still in cowboy country - hence we eat grub) we pulled off the road in Hill City, a few miles outside of Sturgis, into a cute little mall consisting of a gas station, market, hardware store and sundry offices for realtor/lawyer and haircuts.
Doug put the Jeep in park and turned off the engine, as he has done thousands of time, Sharon jumped out to run to the market. Doug took his foot off the brake and Sharon exclaimed, "You're rolling backwards! You're rolling backwards!" Doug checked and yes, we were in Park, but it had no effect, he applied the brakes manually as the engine was off and pulled the emergency brake to stop the jeep and trailer from rolling further backwards into the parking lot (already blocking the travel lane).
Yup - we were in serious trouble...
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