Day 9, Monday August 3rd - Spearfish Canyon, Downtown and FTS

We woke to another beautiful morning but the forecast was for the weather to deteriorate, with rain on Tuesday, so we thought it would be good to get in Spearfish Canyon early.

We ate a quick breakfast, mounted our steel horses and headed out about 9AM.

It was just one of those glorious mornings to be on a motorcycle in such a beautiful setting.

We stopped at Bridal Veil Falls for a photo, but since we were so early in the morning the sun was in our lenses, so they aren't great photos.












After a spectacular ride through Spearfish, we pulled into the historic town of Deadwood and walked the street.

There were quite a few more bikes than we saw last year but we still found a place to park.

We were all hungry so strolled on into Saloon #10.

Saloon#10 is where Wild Bill Hickok got shot in the back while playing Poker. He had black aces over eights in his hand..now called 'the dead man's hand', but no one messed with the 'Wild Bunch' as John named us.







We had a nice ride back from Spearfish and went to camp for a quick break, then headed into town for some strolling and shopping.

We had a great time looking at all the sights and just goofing off.

















From downtown we decided to do a quick tour of some 'outside of town' saloons before returning to camp. John took us on a 10 mile dirt road short cut (I asked him if he knew Kim Kilmartin) but there was no traffic..imagine that...our bikes are sorely in need of a 'bikini wash' now.

Our first stop was the Broken Spoke Saloon, where when you arrive by motorcycle, you drive into the saloon and past the bar, crank the engine and the people more or less grade your performance.  I have to admit, this is one time when I wished my pipes were as loud as Ed's.

We had a good time strolling around, everyone always seems in a great mood and having a good time.

From the Broken Spoke we moved onto The Buffalo Chip, we toured the outside venue where they were having some Custom Bike contests, we will likely go to a concert there tomorrow.

I am thinking of selling the house and building one of these...NOT.

Jean even took Ed for a spin.














We all decided we would like to go to the Full Throttle Saloon after dinner so we headed back to camp for a quick bite and then all loaded into the Truck (Fred was the DD) and headed off to FTS.

The sculpture outside says it all about the FTS, 'over the top' is an understatement.

Again it is a party atmosphere, we had fun strolling the grounds.

They have a live stage and fill in between acts with various performances, like the motorcycle on a wire act.

Jean found a new friend, I think she might dump Ed for this guy.

The main act at FTS this night was Bret Michaels,  but he did not come on until nearly 11PM..and they filled the time with some pretty lame stuff, the venue is amazing, the acts not so much.










By the time Michaels came on, the weather was looking iffy, we saw his opening act with a few drops falling, so we headed for the truck.  We barely made it, in fact Bill and John got a bit wet, when the skies just opened, the good news was no bikes on road back to camp.

We arrived at camp and it was raining so hard we stood for sometime under the bike canopy before we finally sprinted for the Campers. Then it started hailing, it was so loud in the Van it was deafening.  But we had ice for Martini's.















Tomorrow we have no real plans other than going to the Buffalo Chip for a concert....we will see.