7:00 AM (Cheryl)
The rally officially starts tomorrow, but driving through Sturgis you’d think it well underway. The town looks like a circus with white tents full of Bike Week regalia, t-shirts, boots, leathers, helmets, clothes, chrome, jewelry, m/c parts, tires, and on and on. Long black trailers with m/c dealer and brand names on them park one after the other in lots next to campgrounds, tents and highways. Businesses in town leave their front doors open with signs in windows screaming Welcome Bikers!!! We feel like celebrities among civilians.
Harleys roll by like ocean waves with lifestyle riders and sweet young things on the back. And more and more frequently motorcycle mamas turn the throttle. Both Custer and Deadwood benefit from the Sturgis rally and these towns are equally outfitted for Bike Week. After rolling through Sturgis last evening in KB truck, we headed down to Deadwood. After a couple of spins through town passing myriad casinos, restaurants, bars, and shops crammed with bikers, we finally found a spot to park in a center-of-town parking garage just a block off the main drag.
Getting to the roof of the 4-story garage proved an adventure in itself. The lanes were so narrow Frank actually needed to back up a few times to avoid hitting trucks parked in “compact” slots. On the roof we marveled at two dualies parked side by side who obviously navigated the same narrow passages.
Frank carried Peanut up away from the foot traffic and shielded him somewhat from the m/c noise in the street. Peanut remained calm until the shootout in the street preceding the Trial of Jack McCall at the Masonic Lodge. Luckily Frank snagged tickets to the show after finding out this was the last night until after Bike Week. The authorities won’t allow the street to be closed for the shootout during all the biker traffic yet to come.
The Trial of Jack McCall proceeds in three parts. First, the shootout in the street where the sheriff catches a couple of stagecoach robbers; second, an hour later the sheriff and company chase Jack McCall up the street and apprehend him after he shoots Wild Bill Hickok in the back of the head as Wild Bill plays cards in Saloon #10 (true story by the way and on location!). Jack McCall, escorted by the sheriff, judge and lawyers, walk up to the building where the Trial of Jack McCall takes place a couple of hours later. While waiting to see the trial we grabbed a hamburger at Mustang Sally’s and sat on the busy patio watching the bikes roll past.
At 8:00 p.m. we wandered down to the Masonic Hall to see the end of the story. The Trial includes audience participation for witnesses to the shooting and the jury consists of kids chosen from the audience. One young boy played the sheriff, toting a gun and escorting the prisoner to the stage. The boy kept a close eye on Jack for the remainder of the trial. As the jury deliberated, the judge, court clerk, and attorneys entertained with ballads accompanied by mandolin, guitar, washboard, spoons and harmonica. The kids in the jury return from deliberation with large bills in their hands and the verdict, you guessed it – NOT GUILTY. The rest of the story related by the judge tells the tale of the arrest and hanging of Jack McCall in another town some weeks later. In the end, justice was served.
By the time we got gas and picked up a few groceries at a quick mart, our bedtime moved from our normal 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Three tired little doggies named Cheryl, Frank and Peanut hit the hay and dreamed of iron horses “thundering through the skies and up a cloudy draw.”
We’re having a blast, as if you couldn’t tell!
Love, Wild Bill, Calamity Jane, and Doc
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