9th August 2013: Day 10
So it rained last night, thunder, lightening and wind, a lot of wind. So much so that Gabs tent blew down and she had to come crash my tent at 5am.
Normality returned in the morning as the sun dried up all the excess rain. In fact it was Scorchio!
I wandered down to the track to take notes from the class, as I needed a day off skates… Noticed that I have a silly sun tan that has gaps where my skate pads are… Must rectify this today.
Got my free pancakes from the church on the Chip…
Then I hitched a lift to the showers. In the shower I found a very clean Noushy, she asked if I wanted to go to Mount Rushmore today. Perfect!
As I waited for my ride, the crew were setting up the stage for the Sublime gig tonight… So excited!
We set off to Mount Rushmore, spotting it through the trees was quite something, it’s really very impressive. Once there Noush n Gab went for Coffee while me & King went exploring the presidents trail.
After a good ol explore, we decided that we should use this opportunity to eat properly, so stopped in the local town for a Mexican (happy happy Gab, esp coz of her huge Margarita!).
We went to explore the town when the sky’s opened and we were stranded in a shop watching water flowing down the road… Then hail too! As some bikers braved it, the bikers watching from the bar balconys started to cheer them on… It’s quite a scary thought to be riding on a road that is actually a small river. When it had gone from torrential to just pouring down we legged it across the road to have our pictures taken… Old west style! Ha ha, cheese on a grand scale!
Finally we swaggered into the saloon for a drink, it was really cool, old skool western style with guns on the walls and pictures of Indian chiefs etc.
We headed back to Sturgis as the rain subsided, only to arrive and be treated by people exiting site telling us that everything had been destroyed! all of the stuff around the track had been blown over, plus my tent had washed away! All my clothes were soaked through and all I had on was a halter neck and hot pants! I managed to find a few dry items, enough to keep me kind of warm as I watched tonight’s concerts.
First up was some members of The Doors… Looking very very old, but the bikers loved Riders in the Storm and Light My Fire.
Next up is the musical highlight of the festival for me, Sublime with Rome! I stood right up by the barrier (next to a couple of Big blokes on Harley’s, as you do) and watched most of the gig, then moved around a bit, bumping into Keith on the way. Seriously, how do you bump into the same few people when there are thousands and thousands of bikers here? Ha ha, well always nice to see him, such a lovely smiley chap.
Sublime with Rome, not quite the same without Bradley, but still the first time I’ve seen them and they payed loads of songs I loved, including the classic Santaria and Date Rape, but what closed the gig nicely for me was Bad Fish.. One of my go to Sublime tunes for chilling to. Happy happy happy…
After gathering a few dry things, I headed back to the track to sleep in my new base for the night, the ‘staff’ Winebeigo… Lets hope it’s sunny tomorrow!
