Here's to another good week in Rapid City. The weather has been up and down since my last post but nowhere near as hot as last Sunday afternoon when it got to 104. We felt like we were back in Phoenix. Monday the temperature was down to 98 and by evening it was 78 and that has been pretty much the way it's been all week. Somedays it is in the 80's but still cooling off nicely in the evening and we can turn off the a/c. Last Sunday we took a ride through Box Elder which is actually the town we're staying in outside of Rapid City. Box Elder got its name from the large amount of Boxelder trees that run along Box Elder Creek. Box Elder is also home to Ellsworth Air Force Base, a multi-wing, multi-defense base and also home to the B1B bomber. Other than the base, a Pizza Hut, some very 'old' trailer parks and homes, there isn't much to Box Elder. We did see a nice golf course and a nice RV park on base though and a small air and space museum.
Monday we got out and rode our bicycles and I believe I rode 13 miles which I didn't think was bad for having not ridden for a long time, however, I did not make that hill I talked about before which is my goal before we leave in a couple of weeks. We ride early in the mornings before the wind picks up and the afternoon rain/thunderstorms come. Dick has picked up right where he left off and taking those hills without too much problem.
Tuesday, along with a new neighbor/friend we've made here at the RV park, we went to Bear Country USA and what fun that was. We were there a couple of years ago but still fun to drive through and see everything from elk with beautiful velvet antlers to reindeers who were molting to mountain lions to bears and then the baby cubs in a separate area. The bears are the highlight and I'll post some pictures at the end of this blog.
One day this week I took a tour of Landstrom's Black Hills Gold Jewelry factory, the oldest and most well-known black hills jewelry manufacturing company here. It was very interesting and, of course, a bracelet (on sale) had my name on it. That's what Dick gets for not going with me!
We've been trying many of the local restaurants, some good some not so good but one of the most unique ones was called Sanfords Pub and Grill. I don't think there's an empty inch of wall space (and this place if quite large) that doesn't have some sort of old metal sign on it, from old beer signs, tobacco signs, gasoline signs....you name it, it's there. The menu was huge, very unique and the food was excellent. A fun time! Picture below.
The Sturgis bikers have been arriving this week and now we hear attendance is expected to be around 400,000 people. Wow! (So much for a slow economy at least this week here). I had no idea how many people have their bikes transported here, the owners fly or drive here and pick up their bikes and go on to Sturgis. One of our neighbors talked to a gentleman this week who drove a big hauler here full of bikes from the east coast somewhere, he meets the owners in a certain location, they unload the bikes, have a week or two of fun and then he hauls the bikes back home. We have seen many transport companies....Old School Motorcycle Transport, Haulbikes, to just name a couple. We are not motorcyle enthusiasts but I admit there are some beautiful machines that have been going up and down the road this week and some of the most beautiful RV's pulling matching trailers that I'm sure have a bike(s) inside. So far this RV park isn't sold out but we'll see because we've had a few RVs pull in this afternoon pulling trailers with bikes in them. In fact, the owner has now made arrangements for entertainment tomorrow, food all week, and portable showers and bathrooms in hopes of folks staying here. We'll have to wait and see how this all plays out.
I don't know how to post captions under these pictures so the first one is the molten reindeer (not so pretty), next a black bear and then a beautiful huge elk. Last is a picture of Sanfords as you come in the front door.
We have a new grand niece in our family as of this morning (remember the baby shower from a few weeks ago). Adleigh Claire made her appearance at 7:12 a.m. and everyone is doing fine.
Until next time......have a good week!
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