DeadWood, Wild Bill, Wet Spearfish, One-Eyed Jacks and the "Holy Grail", and Mountain Goats - Day 9

Got started after a breakfast at a restaurant named  "Cooks with Fire" just a short walk from the hotel and headed West. We arrived in Deadwood, SD - about 30 miles west of out hotel, and took some time walking the town. Now, this ain't your ordinary run of the mill town, Deadwood became known for its wild and almost lawless reputation, during which time murder was common, and punishment for murders not always fair and impartial. The town attained further notoriety for the murder of gunman Wild Bill Hickok.  This is the place where Wild Bill Hickok met his maker after winning a game poker with a hand of Aces and Eights ( known as "The Dead Man's Hand"). On August 2, 1876, Hickok was playing poker at Saloon No. 10 also known as Nuttal & Mann's Saloon in Deadwood, in the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory. He was shot from behind by a sore loser named Jack McCall. Since he's buried in town, we got to see his final resting place. I'm sure there's a moral to this story somewhere.

 

 

After we left Deadwood, we headed to Spearfish Canyon. Spearfish is known for its tall rock walls through a canyon with natural rivers, streams and waterfalls. The ride took us on Rte. 14a in a 22 mile loop. Just like the spearfish, we too got wet today.

Leaving Spearfish, our destination was over to the motorcycle mecca of the world - the town of Sturgis, SD. It looked much different than the last time I visited here, but then again, there were about 500,000 less people here, Streets were empty, except for locals shopping lazily before the big 2 week rally in August - the 75th Anniversary of the rally this year. Crowds are expected to exceed a Million. Glad we came now. A quick stop at the Famous One-Eyed Jacks Saloon where we were able to get a seat at the bar and grab some lunch - something you would never be able to do from Mid July on through the rally. Looks like visiting early had some benefits. Even got to go past the Famous Buffalo Chip campground just outside Sturgis when we took a wrong turn, Turned out to be the right turn after all.

Now, about that mountain goat. As I almost always seem to do , I forgot a part of the story in
yesterday's post that had to do with our ride through the Badlands. As we're riding about half way through, we come to a scenic spot with some cars and people crossing the road to get a better look at the formations on the other side. With people crossing the street, a tag along jumped out of some brush right in front of my bike. With a  lightning quick reaction, I just avoided decreasing the Badlands mountain goat population by one.

Tally is still 8 states, 3 time zones(crossed yesterday), 147 miles. Total of 3105 miles from Key West.