Sturgis, South Dakota, is a very small town of a few thousand people at most.. until the first week in August every year. Almost every year for the past 70 years, Sturgis has been home to the famous "motorcycle rally". Mike and I had not known much about the Sturgis motorcycle rally until the summer of 2005. He still had that Kawasaki Vulcan and was riding a bit on his own. I had long since given up on trying to fit comfortably with him even after I had lost about 70 lbs in a recent year.
It started out to be the family vacation of a lifetime. We piled the 4 year old and 15 year old daughter into our mini van and headed west to the Black Hills. Just traveling with two girls that different in age (and one of them a moody, surly teenager) was a story all in itself, but we happened to be traveling at the tail end of July and ended up in our mini van right in the middle of a throng of hundreds of "motorcycle enthusiasts" (bikers) along Interstate 90. While most "normal" middle class families would have turned around and headed another direction, our interest was piqued and we decided to follow them into the little town of Sturgis to see what it was all about.
If you have never been to Sturgis (or anywhere in the Black Hills) during Bike Week, you can not imagine the amount and noise of motorcycles and the numbers of bikers you see everywhere. We finally got the minivan parked on a side street several blocks from the main drag and walked the girls through the crowds to the main drag where all the action was. It was exhilarating, and different than anything we had ever been in the middle of before. We quickly realized it was not the place for two little girls, so we stayed long enough to buy some souvenirs and made our exit. We enjoyed the rest of our family vacation exploring the Black Hills and discovering what a beautiful place it was.
But we vowed to return to the Sturgis Bike Rally the next year, just the two of us. It became our dream to do, an adventure to realize. :)
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