So here we are, at the 85th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
Well, technically we're about 30 miles west, at a small State-run nature area that, for the 5th year, I help keep an eye on and have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of said rally.
There's no logic in this. A lot of the locals hate this time of year, all the noise and traffic and morons who only ride their motorcycles occasionally and thus don't have the experience with this sort of thing, in this kind of hilly, curvy area. I do not ride motorcycles myself, although I will sometimes hitch a ride on the back of one with someone who knows what they're doing.
I am not particularly interested, even, in Harley-Davidson motorcycles, although some of them are done up quite nicely, and not all of them sound like a sick dragon that you can hear from 3 miles away.
It may have to do with the lack of other traffic here. A lot of these folks avoid gravel roads; they either don't want to get their shiny chrome dirty or just don't care to drive on it. The folks we do get tend to be older, more experienced, and are okay with the dirt and gravel flying from under their spinning wheels.
In contrast, the automobile traffic also decreases dramatically. A lot of them are afraid of the big, scary bikers and choose to go elsewhere.
Thus, you get something like this in the afternoon:
This was around 3 this afternoon. And while it isn't this quiet during the day very often, it's nice when it happens. Of course, today was only the first day, and folks were still coming into the area. But you get the point.
But you aren't here to see an empty parking lot are you? How's about some bikes.
What's that? You don't care about bikes? You want to see something else? Oh, all right.
Here's some stuff that's blooming up there right now. Remember, don't pick the flowers!
These guys are annuals, meaning we need the seeds they produce for next year's blooms.
Speaking of growing, you may remember a while back, I planted some hot peppers in a cattle water tank. It took a while and I had to re-plant the habaneros, so I may not get any of those in time for the fall freeze. The other plants, once they took hold and figured out how to grow tall enough to catch some sun, began growing flowers and then some peppers began to develop.
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| Jalapeno |
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| Cayenne |
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| These are "Thai" and are "Thai-ny"! |
The hunt through thrifting has netted me some unusual treasures. A few weeks ago I found a rather large basket, which once I got the musty smell out of it, is currently holding some folded blankets.
More interestingly however, I found this.
For the folks in the back, craning to see, and for the folks who have no clue what this is: it's a
Doumbek. They can be metal or ceramic. The ex hubs had a wooden one. This one is, I think, hammered aluminum. It was $40 and needs its head replaced.
But when you consider a NEW one is $300, and even a used one is over $100... yeah, I'll pay to replace the head at some point.... that whole recycle reuse thing. And other than the head and that it needs a little cleaning, it's a nice drum.
Finally..... counting down. As of this post, 19 days til my little excursion. It's going to be sweet to be somewhere else for a few days. I will certainly take you folks with me! 🍁
