Day 10, Tuesday August 4th - Three States

Tuesday was forecast to be rainy so we planned a shorter ride. Just for a place to go, we picked Alzada, MT.  They have an annual 'Topless Tuesday' and the girls said we just have to go...NOT. It is a good ride that takes you from South Dakota, through the corner of Wyoming and just into Montana.

Along the way is Bear Butte State Park and one of the locals downtown said it is an often missed local jewel worth visiting. She was right.

It is a beautiful park that is formed by a volcano.

Crazy Horse spent a lot of time here, he considered it sacred.

It has great views.

It also has a herd of resident buffalo which were really close to the road. Someone from the low end of the gene pool got off his bike and started to get too close. The ranger came by in a SUV and told him to go back to his bike, when he didn't he chased away the buffalo with his SUV.

It was cool to see a herd run but there was an 'oh shit' moment when they headed for the road, but they turned away and crossed the road just behind us. I don't think it went quite like the ranger was planning but no one was stampeded.



From Bear Butte we blasted north on open highway with big sky views. It was a pretty ride except for the strong cross winds but we got those behind us when we turned west towards Belle Fourche, SD.

From Belle Fourche it was about 35 miles to Alzada, MT, passing through Wyoming and into  Montana.

We did not know what to expect there since it is at least 75 miles from Sturgis and in the middle of no where. It was a crazy scene, 1000's show up, the place is overwhelmed, with bikes down both sides of the road.

The event is sponsored by the Stoneville Saloon, their motto is "Cheap Beer, Lousy Food".

It was 'Topless Tueday' so one of our group had to do it....I did not pick John!













We were hungry but getting to any lousy food was impossible, so after 'taking in the sights', we decided to head back to Belle Fourche for lunch.

We had lunch at the Cowboy Back Bar, a bit of a dive, but good burgers and brats.

The whole time we were on the road, the skies to the south were dark and we continually checked the radar. To the south they were getting it however it seemed to be staying south, but it did make us decide to run for camp after lunch. We got back to camp around 15:30 and dry after about a 160 mile ride.

We had intentions of going to the Leonard Skynyrd concert at the Buffalo Chip, but the weather was just too iffy. If you pay $75 a ticket to get in and it rains like it did the last night, you are SOL.

So we did some chillaxing, took showers and had dinner at camp while Bill and John headed down town for dinner.

We eventually decided to take Dabus down town, which is an experience in itself.

It is like riding the bus to school, only all the kids can drink....on the bus.













We strolled the streets a bit before finding our way to Easyriders where we found Bill and John up on the 3rd rail people watching...imagine that.

We found a real 'Steel Horse'














The people watching from the bars is very entertaining, you see some very interesting sights, crazy people getting arrested and amazing machines from bikes to motorhomes.

All and all it was another pretty darn nice day.














We returned to camp and after a night cap we turned in and plan to be up early to head for Devil's Tower tomorrow.  The weather forecast is a bit iffy, we hope we are as lucky as we were today.