It Could be a Crabby Day

I could be crabby today, but I decided not to. Isn’t that big of me?

I tried to sleep in this morning as I haven’t been sleeping very well since we got here. Too much on my mind, I guess. Before 8 o’clock I woke up to voices out in the front end of the RV. Fortunately, Ole had closed the bedroom door when he answered the door so I wasn’t lying snoring and drooliong on my pillow in front of God and everybody, you know. So when I opened the bedroom door who should I find in my living room having coffee with Ole but Dick and Jane!! They got in about 10 o’clock last night and set up their tent just down the road from us. They couldn’t park on our lot this year because it was already full with Dan’s truck and trailer. Oh, too bad.

So I made nicey-nice with Jane for a bit this morning and heard all about the horrors of their trip. Jane got a Harley this year so they decided to take a week and put some miles on. They rode from home out to Glacier Park, then to Idaho; over to Red Lodge, Montana; over Bear Tooth Pass, down through Wyoming and into the Black Hills. They averaged 450 miles a day, with the last day getting into Sturgis at 550 miles. That’s a LOT of miles on a motorcycle in one day, especially when the temps are in the 90s and there’s a wind blowing. And they didn’t stop to see anything – they just put miles on. What fun is that? But I guess it’s their trip – not mine. So she had nothing to say about anything fun – just how hard it had been to get from Point A to Point B. If that’s the only thing I had to talk about after taking a trip like that, I think I’d rather stay home.

Ole and I spent the afternoon wandering around downtown Sturgis. Or I should say I wandered around downtown. Ole sat on his bike and people watched. I don’t think he felt very good this afternoon and I tried to convince him to go back to the RV and take a nap, but he wouldn’t have it – afraid he’d miss something I guess. Darn Men. It was so terribly hot downtown this afternoon that I didn’t enjoy myself either. I get so wiped out when it’s so hot. And if you could dress appropriately for such hot weather – shorts and sandals and such – it maybe wouldn’t be so bad. But shorts and sandals are definitely not appropriate attire for riding on the back of a bike. All that denim and leather is a reasonably good guard against road rash if you should happen to lay that bike down for some reason. So jeans and boots make life a bit on the extremely warm side when you’re wandering the concrete sidewalks looking for bargains. And I didn’t even find any!!

So when I wandered back to the bike what should I find but Ole sitting there fast asleep. Now you’ve either got to be really tired to fall asleep on the back of a motorcycle, or probably have turned your hearing aides off. Guess which one Ole did? How about both? You can’t imagine the roar of the engines on a constant basis on the main street of Sturgis. So somebody who can fall asleep sitting up with all that noise – there’s got to be “issues” there – believe me. Could I convince him to come back to camp and take a nap? Nu-uh. Not Ole. He might miss something – never mind the fact that his hearing aides are turned off and his eyes are closed!!

So when Dan showed up, Ole regained consciousness and we decided to take a little road trip up to Deadwood, just to ride and cool off. We stopped at the VFW and had a sodie-pop and then came back down the mountain and eventually ended up back at the RV. I was so glad to get away from all that downtown heat and all the throngs of people.

Yes, there are throngs of folks here from all over the world. We’ve seen license plates from Russia, England, lots from Japan, France, Norway, German – you get the idea. But still the Rapid City Journal reports that the attendance is down approximately 40%. That’s quite a drop over last year. And you can tell the attendance is way down due to all the open spots in the campgrounds, vacancy signs on motels, and parking spaces available downtown.

It’s 11 o’clock, I’ve put Ole to bed, and my kitties are looking at me trying to convince me it’s time, too. Simon is such an excellent traveler, and I think Lucy is taking lessons from him. Although last night she wanted to play with him desperately, and at his age he thinks that’s just a bunch of nonsense. He was sitting in the middle of the floor looking pleased with himself for some reason when she sat down in front of him and whapped him across the face. Poor old guy didn’t know what hit him and backed up a bit. She immediately moved forward and wash, rinse, repeat. He’d had enough so he turned tail and tried to walk away when she whapped him across the behind and then sat there just trying to egg him on. He’s such a gentleman he just didn’t react. She tried her hardest to get him to play last night but he wouldn’t have it. I think she gets lonesome when we’re gone all day. But we’ll be home in a few days and she’ll have other things to entertain her.

Me? I’m off to bed. Night everyone.

Something just a bit curious on the street.

The Ole' Homestead

Respite at the end of Spearfish Canyon - the DQ!